Emily and Connie drove home together. They were halfway there before either one of them quit crying. It was Emily who pulled herself together first. She told Connie to calm down, it was over and that man would never see them again. "But what will we do about those notes if he calls our husbands??" Connie wailed.
Emily told Connie to settle down. "He won't really call them. Janice is a friend of his. We'll talk to her and explain what happened. She'll be able to talk to Mr. Vineti and help us work out a more reasonable arrangement."
Connie stopped crying and thought back, "That's right," she sniveled, "Janice did say that she knew him personally, but how are we going to explain what happened to Janice, I don't know about you, but I couldn't stand the humiliation."
Emily snarled back at her, "Well, which will you find more humiliating, telling Janice what happened, or handing that nasty man one of your breasts?"
Connie just sighed, "When you put it that way, telling Janice doesn't seem so bad."
"No it doesn't," said Emily, "Stop your sniveling and pull yourself together, we'll call Janice just as soon as we get home.
The minute the ladies got to Emily's house, they both went in and Emily called Janice. She told her that she and Connie had a problem with the casino, and wondered if Janice could help them with it. Janice asked what kind of problem, and Emily told her she would rather discuss it in person. Could she please come over? Janice wanted the ladies to stew a little, so she told them she was just going out. Why didn't they come by tomorrow afternoon and they could talk. Emily just said that would be fine. She couldn't tell Janice what was going on over the phone. She had to speak to her in person and make sure Janice would keep everything confidential.
After she got off the phone, Emily told Connie what Janice had said. Neither woman knew how they would get through the next day, until they could work this out. But they told each other that they would have to pull themselves together. If any of the other wives saw how upset they were, they would start asking questions that the women did not want to answer. Connie came over to Emily's house at 9:00 and told her to call Janice. Emily told her to relax, Janice had said to call that afternoon. If they wanted Janice to help, they needed to call when it was convenient for her. So the ladies sat there for four hours and tried to talk about anything else.
Finally, at 1:00 they couldn't stand it any longer. Emily called Janice and asked if they could please come over. Janice told them to come any time and not to worry. Mr. Vineti was a very good friend of hers and she was sure she could get him to fix any problem they might have.
Emily and Connie rushed right over. Janice asked what the problem was and Emily told her that she had been right. They both owed Mr. Vineti $500. Janice said that didn't seem like a big deal, go talk to Tony and work out a payment plan. Emily said they had done that and it hadn't gone very well. What had happened, Janice asked. Emily just told her that Mr. Vineti wanted payment conditions that she and Connie couldn't meet. "What kind of conditions?", Janice asked.
Emily started to speak, but Connie cut in, "Conditions we would rather not discuss!"
"Well I'm sorry then," said Janice, "I can't help you if you won't tell me what the problem is, but I know Tony very well and I'm sure you can work the situation out with him. Now if there's nothing else you need, I have work to do."
"JANICE, PLEASE HELP US!" Connie screamed at her.
"Help you with what?", Janice asked, "I don't have a clue what is going on." Emily turned to Connie and told her that they were going to have to tell Janice everything if they wanted her help, so Connie should just settle down and she would tell Janice about it.
Emily told the whole story. "Monday, we went to see Mr. Vineti about the debts. We told him that he had no right to hold us to them. He got mad and told us he WAS holding us to them. I told him that gambling debts weren't legally collectable and that he was out of luck, but he said if we didn't pay he'd contact our husbands for the money and tell them that we had lost it gambling. MY GOD, Janice, with that note we signed he has proof of it. Do you have any idea what the general will do if he finds out I lost money gambling?
Anyway, Mr. Vineti asked us how we intended to pay him back. We said we didn't know. Janice we don't have access to that kind of money. Well, Mr.Vineti told us that he would have to think of something, and that it was very dishonest of us to borrow money we knew we couldn't repay. While he thought, he asked us for our measurements. We told him how rude that was, but he told us that if we weren't polite and answer his questions, we could leave and he would call our husbands. So we told him our measurements.
Then he told Connie how much he liked her chest and that he wanted to see it better. He told her to pull her sweater up to her neck, so her bra was visible."
"She didn't do it, did she?, asked Janice."