Coffee at JJ's - Ch. 4: Lottery Fraud, Part 2

   "—Anyway," Ryan says, interrupting. "If we win any big amount, like a few million dollars, we'll split it 60-40. Sixty percent for me, and the rest of you can divide the other forty percent among yourselves."
   Greg thinks this over for a moment before saying, "That don't sound fair."
   "Okay," Ryan says. "How about if I pay the taxes for everybody? Is that better?"
   "Much better."
   Backup Benny, another of JJ's regulars who has been following this conversation closely, says, "Hey, wait a minute. Hold on. If Ryan gets sixty percent, and the rest of us split forty percent, who gets the other ten percent?"
"YOU OWE ME A BUCK," Greg tells me one morning. He has a pen in one hand and his notebook at the ready.
   "But I paid you last week," I argue. "And we didn't win anything. So just apply last week's dollar to this week's lottery."
   Greg shakes his head. "It don't work like that, Chuck."
   "You mean I have to give you another dollar every week?" I feel a great injustice is being done.
   Greg nods. "Yup."
   "Even if we don't win?"
   Greg shrugs. "Yup."
   "Do I get a share of the winnings if I don't pay?"
   "Nope."
   "Well, that sure sucks," I tell him as I hand him a dollar. He takes it and puts a check mark by my name.
   Observing all this, Jake says, "Hey, Chuck, do you know a four-letter word that costs you money every time you see it?"
   "No."
   "Greg."
   Toshi, whose wife occasionally sends us a batch of her homemade muffins, has just watched me give Greg a dollar. He says, "Hey, Chuck, when you gonna pay Greg your dollar?"
   "When your wife makes us some more muffins."
THE FOLLOWING MONDAY Lorenzo comes by and Wallace hands him a ten dollar bill. "Give Greg a call," Wallace tells him. "Ask him how much I owe for the lottery."
   Occasionally one of the guys will fall behind in his payments. So Lorenzo pulls out his cell phone, makes the call and then turns to Wallace. "Greg says he can't talk right now."
   Wallace waves this off. "Just ask him how much I owe for the lottery." Lorenzo speaks into the phone again, and then turns to Wallace, "He says he really can't talk. He'll see you tomorrow."
   The next day Greg comes in and explains to Wallace as the rest of us listen: "I'm in the doctor's office, bent over. He's got his finger poking around where the sun don't shine, and Lorenzo's asking me how much you owe? Y'know, it's kinda hard to talk with another guy's finger up your butt."
   "Not if you like that sort of thing," Benny says.
   Greg answers, "Yeah, well, I don't."
   "That ain't what you tell me when we're alone."
   Greg ignores him.
Read Part 3 of Chapter 4 Tomorrow