It was a typical family meal that Sunday afternoon. Twins Joseph and Joanne sat with their Uncle Christian. The twins were sitting light-heartedly arguing with each other as brothers and sisters often do. You would have thought by virtue of them being 28 they would have grown out of this by now but apparently not. Christian knew it was all in jest but it still managed to get under his skin slightly after all he thought he had raised them better than that. He had taken them in when their parents had passed away when the twins had been quite young. He had even found Joseph a job at his company. He hadn’t just given him it. He had made him apply like everyone else. He had stayed out of the recruitment process and didn’t even tell those doing the interviewing of Joseph so as not to influence their decision.
Joanne had struck out on her own she was working for a small advertising company not that far from her uncle's office. This had allowed her the opportunity to visit him and her brother every so often. The twins still made it a point to visit their uncle once a week. They wanted to make sure that their old-fashioned uncle was ok. Yes, Joseph saw him almost every day at the office well he had until recently as Christian had started to hand over the day-to-day running of the company to his deputy as he prepared for his retirement. He would still be there if anything came up but he was looking forward to sunning himself on a beach somewhere as he had told the twins last month.
“What’s wrong sis?” Joseph asked his sister as she re-positioned herself in her seat and she readjusted her bra strap.
“It’s this damm bra it never wants to stay in the right place. I swear that bras were designed by a man to torture women when they are meant to be helpful.” She answered as she once more re-positioned the offending article.
“Oh come on it can’t be all that bad. I bet if I had to wear one I would have no problem with it.” Joseph replied to his sister.
“Now Joseph don’t upset your sister, if she says it's uncomfortable then it is,” Christian said trying to defuse the conversation. He knew that Joseph was only joking with his sister but he didn’t want it to go any further. He had learned over the years that Joanne had the worst temper of the twins and he didn't want to spoil such a lovely afternoon.
“It’s true though uncle women are always complaining about things for no reason. I mean just the other day one of the girls in the office was complaining about the new dress code that was brought in.” Joseph went on to say.
Joanne sat there for a minute breathing slowly trying hard not to let her temper get the better of her again. She knew if this happened that her brother would have won again and she did not want that to happen. Not again if it did she would never hear the end of it.
“Care to put your money where your mouth is little brother.” She eventually said looking her brother directly in the eye.
Joseph looked at his sister hating the fact that she had called him little brother after all she had only been two minutes before him. “What do you mean sis?” He asked her.
“Well, it's simple really. You said you if you had to wear one you would have no problem I believe those were your words.” Joanne said smiling at her brother.
“Yeah, so what?” Joseph replied.
“Well, I bet you £100 if you can make it through a full week without having the same problems that I am,” Joanne told her brother with the smile on her face getting wider by the second. She knew that this would be easy money as there was no way that he would do it and even if he did, he would not last 7 minutes never mind 7 days.
“What! No way, I mean the dress code in the office would allow it would it uncle?” Joseph said turning to his uncle for support.
Christian knew better than to get involved in the fight instead he simply said “I don’t think there are any regulations on underwear.” As he turned towards the kitchen to put his plate in there.
“So what about it little brother will you wear one or are you chicken,” Joanne said enjoying her brother's face going redder and redder as she was watching him.
“Okay then,” Joseph said in a defeated voice.
Joanne hadn’t been expecting this he had said yes. Even though this was not the answer she had thought he would give she knew that she could still have some fun with this.
“Just so you can’t say that I have cheated as you usually claim. So that you don’t have to pay up. We need to agree on the rules before we start the 7 days,” Joanne said still smiling at her brother.
“Agreed and we have Uncle Christian keep a copy of them so that we both stick to them. Agreed?” Joseph asked his sister.
“Agreed” was Joanne’s reply as she went to get a sheet of paper so that they could start on the rules of the bet.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Christian just sat there as he wondered what his nephew had got himself into this time. He knew that Joanne would make her brother stick to whatever rules they worked out no matter what happened and somehow he had once again become the referee between the twins. He loved them equally but sometimes he wished that Joseph would learn to keep his mouth shut and not get drawn into things like this bet with his sister.
