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The four of them turned to look at Mateo, who glared at each in turn. “What do you want from me? Women are fun, and I love them.”
“You just haven’t been stung yet. Probably because you manage to keep your wealth fairly well hidden, though that car is a dead giveaway,” Gerard said. “One of these days, you’re going to get hit and hit hard. And I’m not talking about the car.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m ready to be celibate for the rest of my life.”
“All right.” Gerard grabbed a piece of paper. “How about a bet? A five-year moratorium on women and dating.”
“Fuck no,” Mateo said. “That’s too long. One year.”
“Two?” Ben said.
“I can live with two years,” Gerard said.
“Works for me,” Xander mumbled.
“Yeah, sounds great,” Brody chimed in.
“That’s a fucking long time to go without a woman.” Mateo slumped down in his chair.
“You’ve always got your hand. It’s more loyal, anyhow,” Gerard said, writing as he spoke.
“Ha ha.” Mateo threw a box of cards at Gerard, who caught it mid-air and kept writing.
“What’s the bet?”
“$100,000 each,” Ben said.
“No one said anything about putting money on the table,” Mateo cried.
“Gotta make it worth staying the course. So”—Gerard looked around the table—“whoever breaks the pledge pays in a hundred grand. Last man standing solo gets the pot.”
“Wait a minute,” Mateo said. “You’re the most competitive of all of us. You’d go down in flames before you lost a bet.”
Gerard grinned. “It’ll keep us all in line.”
“What happens if we all fall?” Brody said.
“At the same time? Not going to happen.”
“It could.”
“I don’t know. I suppose, if the last two fall at the same time, we could donate the money to charity.”
“Works for me,” Ben said. Everyone else nodded.
“Okay, here’s the pledge.” Gerard picked up the paper and read aloud what he’d written, wondering if they were all insane or not. To him, it sounded like the perfect solution. He could focus on work and forget all the peripheral shit.
“We’re fucking crazy to sign this, you know,” Mateo cautioned.
“Now you can focus more on that company you own,” Gerard shot back.
“My company is doing just fine,” Mateo grumbled.
He handed the paper and pen to Brody. “Read it, sign it, and date it.”
Once the pledge made it around the table, he folded it and tucked it into his pants pocket. “I’ll put this in my safe at work next week.”
Ben stood. “On that note, I’m beat.” He looked at Brody. “Same room as usual?”
