I spent the spring of 2010 in San Diego at my friend Kristina's apartment. I would spend my time running along the beach, trying different flavours of Frozen Yogurt & experimenting with my culinary skills. Life was simple and the SoCal sunshine was enough to put me on cloud nine each day. 

One day, while leaving Walmart, the sound coming from my car changed. I had a 1994 Honda Civic and I from the day I bought the car, I was dreading the moment where it would die on me. I pulled over and looked underneath to see that the muffler had split in two under the car. 

Shit. Fuck. Bollocks. 

I wasn't working and was living off savings and the last thing I needed was a huge expense that would intrude on my leisure budget. 

I drove to the nearest garage and went inside to explain the situation. The man behind the counter was older, perhaps in his 40's. He was friendly and asked me to wait while he went to take a look. Apparently, there was a lot of rust on the muffler and all he could offer was a temporary fix for $120 but I would need to go and see a muffler specialist to get a new one put on the car in the near future. 

"Do you want us to fix it?" He asked like I had a choice in the matter. 

I walked back to Kristina's, made myself a coffee and dicked around on the internet for a couple of hours before heading back to pick up the car. 

When I arrived, I had the cash ready in my purse and felt sick at having to spend money on something that wasn't for pure entertainment. "Is it done?" I asked. The man smiled and handed me the invoice. I looked at the bill and the total was 0.00. My confused look made him giggle. He said that I qualified for the "cute English girl discount" and handed me a card with his number on it. "I'd like to buy you a cocktail sometime."

I wasn't quite sure how to react. I was flattered and truly thankful for the kind gesture but I wasn't in a position to be going on dates at that time. I felt guilty for having the work done on the car for free knowing that I wasn't going to call him. 

Nevertheless, whenever I think of all the assholes in this world, I'll always remember him & know that if you carefully cherry pick people, there are a few good ones out there.