Tyler looked at Alex with half a smile on his lips:
"You are interested in the blonde?"
Alex gave his friend a dismissive sidelong glance, ignoring Lance's teasing look as he looked over with interest.
"I am interested, but that doesn't mean I am biased. It's just a woman."
Lance laughed:
"You are right, it is just a woman, not much different from all the others you have sampled."
Alex rolled his eyes. Fortunately, Tyler, the changed man in love, brought the subject back on track with a smile:
"Then why do you think Ron will lose? Even though the limited edition Corvette is not much, it is obvious that he had tuned for higher performance. The Audi R8 of the blonde can't compare, not without enough space to reach max speed and maintain it on the track. And while the handling is easy, it hasn't been tuned much, from what I can see."
Alex nodded with a smile, and when he spoke, he did not refute his companion:
"You are right. But beyond the car, a race is about the pilot, don't you think so?"
Tyler paused, and looking at Alex's meaningful smile as he looked at the black Audi with red on the hood and white running over its wings, realization dawned on him.
"Ahhh, I see!"
Only Lance remained confused, looking between his friends, the tallest in the middle with a meaningful smile, while the stockiest on the other side with a slightly amused smile waited for the show to happen as he looked at the black Corvette with lemon green rear-view mirrors.
He rolled his eyes in annoyance, and turned to the large screens. At that moment, the cars were revving their engines, and the cameras were focused on the pilots through the windshields.
Ron, looking relaxed and experienced behind his wheel, glanced at the screen. He was about to turn back when a change happened that suddenly made him whip his head back.
His image on the screen was no more, replaced by a full display of the blonde he was betting with. She was calmly looking in the direction of the camera while unzipping her jacket, continuing what she had started earlier.
Her movements looked purposeful, as she revealed the white tank top she had below, one that displayed the barest hint of a cleavage formed by her tightly secured bust.
Ron's left hand loosened on the wheel, while his right hand tightened on the speed gear's handle. His foot failed to keep the pressure on the accelerator strong, as like many around, his focus was taken by the hands that held the bottom of the tank top and pulled it up.
The flat stomach glistening with sweat was exposed, and the beginning of a white sports bra appeared, only for a blaring sound to ring out just then, announcing the end of the countdown that never stopped, and the start of the race.
The blonde immediately let go of her top and stopped holding her car back. It bounded forward like an unbridled horse, leaving the Corvette still in place.
*Vroommm…*
Ron's eyes went wide, before he scrambled to go after the Audi.
*Screech– Vroomm…*
Unfortunately, sports cars, high-end ones and those that had been tuned, had accelerations that made them easily go from zero to one hundred fast. By the time Ron's Corvette managed to pick up speed, the tail-end of the Audi was disappearing around the bend.
Alex laughed, and it was only then that the spell the crowd had been under broke, and laughter full of amusement broke out. It was for fun like that, that many like going out to enjoy the youth of the night.
Lance blinked, and looked at Alex, finally understanding what he had been getting at. He looked at Tyler, and was met with a headshake and a smile that was mocking him.
Lance's face reddened, and anger turned into humiliation. He exclaimed:
"Ron can be prone to thinking with his lower brain, but I refuse to believe that he will lose. Look, the girl you are betting on is an amateur."
"Oh? Did I bet?"
Alex raised an eyebrow with a half-smile that seemed to say that he possessed heavenly secrets only he knew, and he went to climb onto the hood of his SUV to sit down on the roof.
He looked at the display on the screens, at the cars zooming on the road under the focus of the drones following them.
Indeed, the Audi, even though easier to handle, was always losing time in the corners, with its drifts botched, and its only advantage its acceleration which was now rivaled by the tuned up Corvette. The driver was using brute force to compensate for her lack of skill.
Looking at the scene, Lance felt more sure of himself. He retorted to Alex's question:
"Then let's bet."
Alex kept his eyes on the screen, and his smile deepened, full of interest. But it was not because of the race, nor because of the bet, as the image of the blonde came back to his mind, of her determination hidden behind a detached calm.
As Lance rolled his eyes at the smile he recognized, even though he failed to notice its depth, Alex replied to his challenge in an offhanded tone:
"Then I bet ten thousand."
Lance's smile turned into a grin, but before he could reply and rise up to the challenge he had created himself, a bright voice loudly interrupted him:
"So stingy, cousin! Ten thousand? Have you fallen to become a beggar from squandering all your allowances, or has Aunt Grace put restrictions on you?"
Alex calmly raised his eyebrows, and turned to the source of the voice, the young man in his early twenties, just a little younger than him. He gave him a dispassionate look, and after glancing at the group he arrived with, the same which had been causing trouble before he arrived, he quietly replied to the earlier mockery:
"You should call my mother Chairman Lenner, because I don't think she likes having a nephew like you, Kris."