Nothing could have kept Caleb from wanting to hold her in his arms. He adored her, not for her physical beauty alone, but her alluring smile and sweet singing voice as well. Lisa was an up-and-coming pop star. Her latest song had broken into the charts at #17 and was sure to hit the top ten any time now.

Caleb saw her one night when she performed at a swanky nightclub in the city. His friend, Robert, and brother, Tom, had double-dared him to approach her after the show. They made a gentlemanly bet of $1000 each that he wouldn't have the guts to talk to her. Caleb, being the type of man who refused to lose at anything, put up $2000 and headed right toward Lisa as she left the stage before he could lose her or lose his courage.

Lisa came from a blue-collar family in a small town. She started working as a barista in a gourmet coffee shop when she first moved to the city. Every night after returning to her drab one-room apartment on the poor side of town, Lisa played her guitar and sang. She composed many of the songs herself. Soon after, she took a job as a waitress in a quaint restaurant. On weekends, the establishment would have entertainers on a make-shift stage. One night, Lisa asked her boss if she could sing. After a brief audition, he decided to let her sing on a Friday night. The crowd loved her, and soon she was performing at classier nightclubs across the city.

Caleb was one of the twenty wealthiest people in the country. Like his brother, Tom, he inherited his initial fortune. But unlike his brother, who quickly squandered his money on fancy cars, gambling, and drugs, Caleb managed to increase his share of the inheritance a hundredfold through investments and real estate deals. Although he was affluent, he was not famous, and he preferred to keep it that way. Tom, however, would soon find his way into an asylum for drug addicts and the insane.

Caleb not only won the bet, but he won Lisa as well. To Lisa, Caleb was charming, handsome, and well-to-do. Just how well-to-do she had no idea until he promised her ten billion dollars as part of a pre-nuptial agreement. Caleb later admitted, "I was so infatuated, I would have signed anything."

When Caleb and Lisa returned from an extravagant two-month honeymoon on the French Riviera, she dropped a bomb that could have landed on Hiroshima. She announced to her newlywed that she had filed for a divorce.

In the meantime, Tom had magically "escaped" from the insane asylum. Hearing about his brother's divorce, he went to console Caleb at his plush oceanside mansion on 400-acres. Upon offering Tom a glass of his finest whisky, Caleb tearfully confessed that he must have been crazy to marry a conniving bitch like Lisa.

"She took me for nearly half of my worth!"

Tom promptly replied, "Who's looney now?"

Story Copyright © 2021 by Michael DeFrancesco