Wednesday 20th May 2015
Wednesday arrived, and we were both up early to be greeted by a beautiful warm sun filled morning. I'd arranged to pick up a couple of my friends on the way to the golf club while Becky had to put the finishing touches to the work she was doing for her client. We were both running a little late, so we had no time to chat, and therefore I was unable to glean anything from her before I left the apartment.
Leaving town, I turned off the main road onto a small housing estate, and with a couple of turns, pulled up outside a neat semi-detached house. Half an hour later, having made my second pick up, we were getting close to the golf club. Paul sat beside me in the front seat with Phil in the back.
"How's Becky?" asked Phil.
Paul looked at me and laughed. "You know he fancies your wife."
I knew he did; most men did. "She's doing just great, Phil, thanks for asking."
Phil pushed the back of Paul's head. "I was interested, I've not seen her for months."
"Ok, ok," protested Paul. "Only joking, anyway, everybody fancies his wife, don't know what she sees in him though."
"Can we leave out who fancies who," I said. "How's Linsey?"
"Brilliant, she's pregnant you know," Phil replied.
"Many congrats, didn't know you had it in you, mate."
"All the more reason not to be pervin' after someone else's wife," added Paul.
Although we were loath to admit it, we did tend to revert to conversation more befitting teenagers.
On the green at the fifth hole, we watched as the fourth member of our group, Ben, a little chubbier than the rest of us, who had been first to arrive at the course, lined up a putt. The weakest player of the group, and anything else of a sporty nature for that matter, was behind as he had been since the first hole.
"Come on Benny boy, you're holding everyone up," moaned Phil, deliberately trying to put him under pressure. "Late night again?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, it was a late night," he answered, defiantly.
Ben had always been the butt of jokes as he took things so seriously, never realising when we, or especially Phil, were only messing with him.
"Girls, booze, gambling, or all three?" asked Phil just as Ben took his putt.
The ball rolled tantalisingly towards the hole, rolled around the rim and stopped about a foot away.
"Shit!" he exclaimed. "That was you making me miss."
"Sorry Ben, didn't realise you were about to hit the ball; my bad."
"It wasn't girls or booze," Ben said, tapping the ball into the hole casually. "I made a cool two fifty at the casino. I didn't get home 'til after four this morning."
Ben picked up his ball and we strolled off to the next hole.
"Great stuff," I said, genuinely impressed. "Looks like Ben's got all the beer vouchers for the bar later."
"You all take the piss when I go to the casino, so you can all buy your own drinks." he protested.
"We don't take the piss when you go to the casino, it's all those perfect winning systems you come up with that we take the piss out of," said Phil.
"It was one of those systems that won me the cash last night. Honestly, if I keep it up, I'll be able to pack in that crappy school and do it full time."
"You really think it's that good?" I asked.
"I'm over a thousand up in six weeks," Ben said proudly.
That certainly got our attention, and we wanted to know more.
"You play blackjack, don't you?" Phil guessed.
"If you listened more, and took the piss less, you'd know it was baccarat I play."
Phil put his tee into the ground and placed his ball carefully onto it. "Funny game baccarat, don't understand it myself," he said, practising his swing.
"Must admit it's not my favourite game," admitted Ben. "But it serves the purpose, a near enough fifty fifty game."
"You don't just double up on a loss, do you?" Phil said, thinking he'd found a major flaw in the system.
"Give me some credit. You wouldn't last two minutes with that method. You'd be bankrupt at your first losing run. No, there's more to it than that."
Phil hit his ball with venom and watched with pride as it flew down the fairway. Meanwhile, the conversation remained focussed on Ben and his amazing baccarat system. We all tried to coax the system out of him but he wasn't forthcoming.
"Do you know, Dave," said Phil loudly to provoke Ben. "I don't think he has a system, I think he just got lucky."
Ben interrupted. "I have got a system, it works."
"If a system really did exist," Phil continued, "all these mathematicians would be making fortunes. In fact, all the casinos would be out of business."
"The system does work," shouted Ben turning to face us. "Don't forget, I am a mathematician, That's why I go to school every day... to teach maths."
Paul tried to provide the voice of reason. "Look at the facts though, Ben. You say the system works, but you don't seem to know what the system is yourself."
"Of course I do," he protested.
"Yes, but you're not explaining it to us, are you?"
"It's complicated. Too complicated for you lot of idiots to comprehend. You need a mind like mine to understand it."
"I don't think I want a mind like yours after what I've seen downloaded on your computer," Phil jumped in.
"A pair of tits on my desktop, what's wrong with that?"
"That girl you took home thought there was something wrong with it."
"I didn't think she'd want to check her emails after we'd gone back to mine, did I?"
"What did you say she called you? A sexist chauvinistic sex pervert who needed castrating and your balls feeding to the dogs," Phil added.
"The stuck up bitch. Don't know what I saw in her anyway," said Ben, with feeling, before continuing. "Come to the casino with me one night and I'll show you. You can watch me and cry your eyes out with envy as I clean up."
"We'll hold you to that," said Paul, we could pool all our winnings and go away for a wild bachelor weekend in Amsterdam without the ladies."
"Great idea," Phil agreed.
Knowing it probably wouldn't happen, I agreed enthusiastically. But, imagining us all ending up in an Amsterdam brothel, with me wearing a locked chastity belt, brought a fearful thought to my head. If my friends ever found out, I would never live it down. Ben would lose his role as butt of all jokes, and instead, it would be me who would take his place.
After golf, we went for a meal in a local pub and then on to a bar for a drink. I had to take care not to indulge too much as I was driving, as was Ben.
"So, what are you doing about getting yourself hitched, Benny?" asked Phil who must have realised he'd not had a go at him for a while.
"He hasn't got time for women with all the money he's making at the casino," suggested Paul.
"I know his secret plan," Phil added. "You get some pretty tasty looking talent in the casinos: croupiers and waitresses. That's what he really goes there for."
"Yeah, that'll be it, tidy system that wins you loads of dosh, impress the ladies," Paul agreed. "No better place to show off what you've got."
"You're a bunch of pervs, the lot of you," admonished Ben.
"What? We're the pervs? Benny the porn king, who lures young ladies home and invites them to check their emails, then innocently forgets they'll be suddenly confronted with hardcore porn in front of their eyes." We all laughed.
Ben scowled. "It wasn't hardcore." He'd risen to the bait once again. "And I don't go to casinos for the women either. You'll see what the place is like if you have the balls to go."
"We said we'd go, and we will," said Paul in a calming voice.
It was after midnight when I finally got home on foot having had too much to drink. I had left my car at the bar while the other three went home in taxis. I entered the bedroom quietly, expecting Becky to be asleep.
"Hi David, had a good night?" she asked, looking up from her book.
"Brilliant. What's different in here?" I asked, feeling something had changed.
"Maybe the room wasn't spinning before you left this morning," suggested Becky.