Chapter 7: When Brackets Go Wrong

Jack and the NCAA tourney

    Jack hated NCAA tourney time. Jack hated office pools even worse. Why one could ask, but the answer was a rather simple one. He never won the damn thing. The teams he picked seemed to take it as a personal offense that he would pick them and they would conspire to lose just to show him up. Watching Wisconsin go down in flames to UNLV was a crushing blow to his bracket for that region, which was just the excuse he needed to go to the House of Purrfects Striptorium.
    "Why did I pick Wisconsin," Jack asked himself aloud for the ninth time. "I'm such an idiot." He looked at the bartender and waved for another rum and coke. Something told him to go with UNLV, but who listens to your instincts these days? The bartender return with the drink and set it down and gave him a pitying look.
    "I picked UNLV myself," the bartender said. "Wisconsin couldn't score if they were in a worst club than this one." With that he turned and went down the bar.
    Jack scowled at the man. Now he was being outshone by overweight bartenders with bad comb overs. He turned with his back to the bar and watched two strippers pole dance to some rap song that was all the rage. Unfortunately for him this wasn't a rap video and this was one of the less upscale clubs around the city. The two strippers looked like they could sit down and talk to his grandma about the good old days. God, he would have to stop being such a cheap b*****d and upgrade his style.
    With a sigh he drank down the last of the rum and coke and headed towards the exit. With any luck he'd be able to make it back to his place to watch some cartoons before he had to go to bed for work in the morning. He held out hopes of winning the lotto, but with his luck he figured the day he won it would be when he was 90 and about to meet his maker.
    He stepped outside into the cold night and pulled up his jacket. The walk to his apartment was only a few blocks so he'd use it to clear his head. Just as he was turning to go a car pulled up at the light and stopped at red. He turned to walk away when a window rolled down and a familiar face popped out of it. God really did hate him.
    "Amanda!" He tried to plaster a smile on his face. "What a....pleasant surprise. I was just...." He searched his mind for a reasonably good excuse to use.
    "Oh, don't even bother," Amanda said with a disgusted shake of her head.
    "I told you he was a loser," a familiar voice said from the drivers seat.
    "Hey Alicia," Jack said with a weak wave of his hand. "I was just....performing charity work. A man can't be a giver?"
    Both women gave him a disgusted look. The window rolled back up as the light turned green and Amanda shot him a look he found worthy of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. He found himself wishing for a bucket of water as they drove off.
    "Women," he muttered. He made a mental note to look over the personals and some dating sites as he had a feeling he had just become newly single. This was yet another reason to hate the tourney. With that he trudged off towards his apartment.

Author's Note

Constructive criticism is always welcome.