Alex snapped the folder shut.
“This could still be some stunt.”
The woman in red took the folder back.
“Then why are you nervous?”
He looked at her sharply.
“I’m not nervous.”
“Your hand says otherwise.”
Alex looked down.
The champagne in his glass was trembling.
Several guests noticed.
He placed the glass on a table too quickly, and some of the champagne spilled over the rim.
The woman in silver took another step away from him.
That small movement seemed to irritate him more than the announcement.
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere.”
“Then stop acting like I’ve done something wrong.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“You offered a woman fifty thousand dollars to dance so everyone could laugh at her.”
Alex scoffed.
“It was a joke.”
The woman in red finally gave him the answer he had been inviting all night.
“A joke is funny when the person you’re using as the punch line is laughing too.”
Nobody spoke.
Alex looked toward the guests as if expecting someone to defend him.
Earlier they had encouraged him with every laugh.
Now they avoided his eyes.
The phones were still raised.
Only now they were recording consequences.
Alex’s voice became sharper.
“You’re all acting ridiculous.
Nothing happened.
I made a bet.
She accepted.”
The woman in red nodded once.
“I did.”
That stopped him.
He had been preparing to argue about humiliation, ownership, and appearances.
He had forgotten the challenge itself.
She reminded him.
“You offered me fifty thousand dollars if I took the challenge.”
Alex stared at her.
The woman in silver slowly turned toward him.
“You actually offered her that?”
He looked annoyed.
“I was joking.”
“You followed her into the hallway,” the woman in red said.
His eyes flickered.
She continued calmly.
“You touched my shoulder.
You repeated the offer.
You gave the amount.
I accepted.”
Alex glanced at the nearest phones.
Now he understood that parts of his performance in the ballroom had witnesses, and enough people had seen him follow her out that denying the sequence would only make him look worse.
“You can’t seriously expect me to hand you fifty thousand dollars.”
The woman in red tilted her head.
