19/12/2013
So there's this guy I'll call Roger who is a regular at a coffee shop I go to quite a bit. Roger is a really friendly guy and we've become sort of "coffee shop friends", which is to say we never see or interact with each outside of the shop, mainly because he's a lot older than me and we don't have a ton in common except for the fact we both enjoy sci-fi and fantasy books. Oh, and coffee. :P
ANYWAY one of the first times we talked at any length I was complaining about being harrassed outside of the shop by a guy passing out fliers for a "naked maid service". They were hiring, the annoying guy said, and he promised I could make a ton of money cleaning in the nude! No, no, there's nothing sketchy about it! All you do is get naked and sweep, vaccuum, etc. A lot of girls actually find it thrilling! Liberating! Almost artistic! Plus I could make $1,000 a week, honest! All his girls made at least that much!
Roger and I had a good laugh about it at the time. The flier was so ridiculous it was impossible not to dissect and ridicule everything about it. So it became sort of an inside joke: if I complain about work he'll say I could always fall back on my real passion: being a nude maid. Ha ha ha, etc.
Today I took my morning jog and decided to push myself to go all the way to the shop which is a bit longer than what I usually run. When I got there, Roger was there so I took a seat with him. I asked him what he'd been watching on his laptop and he said he was rewatching the TV show "The West Wing" because it's on Netflix now. I got really excited because I used to LOVE that show as a kid. We began to talk about the show, some of our favorite episodes, etc.
Here's where I fucked up big time: I told him that one of my favorite characters was the English diplomat character from earlier in the series. The one who was always drinking. The one played by Ian McKellen.
Roger laughed at me. He said that Ian McKellen had never been on The West Wing. He said he knew which character I was talking about but it was NOT played by Gandalf. But see, I was POSITIVE it was Ian McKellen. In my head I could see him drinking his scotch in the oval office, talking to Martin Sheen, etc. The fact that it's been years and years since I've seen that show didn't matter. Magneto was in the West Wing, I was absolutely certain.
After arguing about it for a minute Roger said, "What do you want to bet?" I told him I don't bet (history has taught me that nothing good comes from betting) so he started to look it up on his computer, shaking his head and saying "That's because you know you're wrong."
That pissed me off. I said "WAIT!" and he stopped typing. I then told him that I'd bet him $100 I was right. That's how sure I was.
He just shook his head. "No, not money. If you're right, I'll shovel your driveway all this winter and mow your lawn all this summer."
Now, that's another ongoing thing we've talked about before: the fact that my housemates (all male right now) insist that we trade off on shoveling/mowing responsibilities. Which I think is fair, even though that kind of work is usually done by men. I maintain I do a better job than the men do but I digress...
I said "For just my turn, or everyone's turn?" (referring to my roommmates)
He said "Everyone. If it snows, I'll be there once it lets up. And then I'll mow once a week."
Now I was giddy! What a hero I would be to my roommates! Free shoveling/lawn service for the rest of the year! I said "Okay, and what if you're right?"
Roger looked me dead in the eye and said "You have to clean my house from top to bottom."
"How many times?"
"Just once," he said. "Sometime in the next two weeks. I'll provide all the cleaning materials."
I was even more happy at this point. I mean, so what? If I was wrong (and I definitely wasn't wrong) I'd have to clean his house once? Big deal!
"That's it?" I asked.
Roger smiled. "Like in your 'dream job', of course, you'll have to do it nude."
That honestly made me laugh. I am so stupid I thought that the only reason he was making that a condition of the bet was because he was now sure he was wrong. No way he'd ask me to do that if he thought he was right. So I agreed to the terms of the bet, we shook on it, and then he went back to his computer.
He turned it toward me. My heart sank with each passing moment as I scoured link after link in the google search results. I went to IMDB eventually, refusing to accept defeat.
But defeated I was. Ian McKellen was never in the West Wing. The character I was thinking of was played by a guy who doesn't even look like him.
So yeah, now I have to clean his house in the nude tomorrow. He offered to let me out of the bet but I refused: I have never welched on a bet. But I am definitely, definitely not looking forward to this.
TLDR: I bet an acquaintance of mine that Ian McKellen had been on the TV show "The West Wing". I lost and now I have to clean his house in the nude.
Poster:
Ella