A Bet with a Hypnotist

Even...and even better

"Here." I held out the cash. "Now can we call it even?"

She looked like she wasn't sure whether to take the money after all. "I should never have made the bet in the first place," she said. "I'll never do anything like that again."

"OK," I said. "But a deal's a deal. I'm giving you what I owe you."

"I didn't do it for the money," she said. "I did it because it was a challenge. And, well, because I thought you were sort of cute." She glanced at Holly and said "Don't worry."

I felt my face turn red. "Take the money," I said. "So we can put this whole thing behind us."

She sighed. "All right." She held out her hands and I gave her the cash.

Holly pointed at my feet. "Is that...did you...?"

"Oh," said Megan. "I almost forgot. Another suggestion. I repeated it the second time he got hypnotized. One more little reminder, that's all it was supposed to be."

"It's still sort of weird," said Holly. "It's what had me worried, more than anything. He didn't even realize you were the one who made him do it."

"He must have already liked going barefoot," said Megan. "I just told him it would be OK, and had him focus a little on how good it felt. I can try and remove the suggestion."

"No," I said. This was something to own. "I can wear shoes when I have to. I'll decide for myself."

"If that's what you want," said Holly. "To tell the truth, you look pretty hot in jeans and bare feet."

"I'll leave you two alone," said Megan. "Have a nice night." She walked off quietly.

Then Holly and I went on another walk. We talked about all sorts of things, things that had nothing to do with what had just happened. We talked about games and bicycles and what we wanted to do with our lives. We talked about the trees and the sky and the stars. The night ended with a kiss, and we've been together ever since.

After a while, Holly followed my example and started going barefoot herself---no hypnosis needed. Now people sometimes call us the "barefoot couple." I'd still rather take that than "hypno-couple"!

And, by the way, I did pretty well on my finals.