“What do you mean, no bet? There was a bet. I heard Neil and Chip say so.” James’s frown grew hard and for a moment I wished I hadn’t even brought it up. “What do you mean there was a bet?” “The day I met you at the garage where they work I heard the guys say that they bet I would come around. Chip said he would take that.” James held his hand up as if to stop me. “They may have said bet and you may have heard it, but I never took them up on it. I treated it as a joke, but I wasn’t part of it.” Part of me heard and acknowledged this, but the part that still hurt carried on. “What about showing up at the restaurant the next day. You had shaved and were wearing decent clothes. You were James and you were different….” James gave me a feeble smile. “Not completely different.” “And what about the Schubert and the poetry? Was that part of it?” He stepped back holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, that was laying it on a bit thick.” My heart fell.
