I have to laugh

 It would have perhaps been more appropriate if it had happened a day later.  

My friend had a motorcycle accident on March 31 and was very badly injured.  He was in Intensive Care for a week and in the hospital for another week or ten days, but has been home now for quite a while.  He is "better" every time I see him – it’s sort of amazing.  He is doing so well, in fact, that his son, who moved up here to take care of him, felt like he could go away for a few days, and went up to Seattle to see his girlfriend.

It was not a surprise to me that the bike he crashed made it home before he did.  The woman who thought she was his girlfriend got it out of the impound yard it was waiting in and arranged with some of his biker buddies to get the bike home.  She and I were looking after my friend’s dog, and she went on and on about how she hoped she would get the cash back, having put out another $900 for the rent due while my friend was in the hospital. I told her he would repay her as soon as he could, but she was paranoid about it and didn’t listen.

She don’t know him very well at all.

My friend is kind of anal about money owed to people – he lives as close to debt-free as possible, and has/had money in his 401k, and paid her back the $425 as soon as he could.  His bike is important to him – the bike made it home before he did.  He’s a real biker, and has had a Harley of one kind or another almost all of his life.

On Friday, I had taken a day off, so to speak, and she has Fridays off, so she gave him a ride downtown to get all the 401k money.  On the way, she (and she wasn’t "nice" about it) told him he owed her the rent money plus the impound yard fee.  One thing my friend is never hazy about is the money he owes to anyone, and he knew he had already repaid her that cash.  She argued with him about it, to the point where my semi-crippled friend was ready to get out of the car miles from home and start walking.  He didn’t, but he also did not say a word further, and they went on downtown and back home again wordlessly.

When they got there, she asked "well, how much do you think you owe me?"  "No", he said, "how much do YOU think I owe you?" He dislikes issues of money between "friends" and looks at money issues between friends as a fast way of losing them.  He knows he repaid her as fast as he could for the bike fees, and was waiting to hear what she said.  "Well, I guess you did, so it’s only $xxx that you owe me". He peeled off the cash from the wad in his pocket and gave it to her, finished with her and her bullshit.  There was an uncomfortable moment and she  said, " well, see you, I guess."

"Bye", he said coldly.  As far as he’s concerned, she’s shown her "true colors" and is done with her.  Finished.

I have to laugh, because I told her weeks ago, when he was still in the hospital, that she would get her money as soon as possible.  That’s the way he is, but she doesn’t know him well at all, and I have to laugh.  Kind of snarkily, yeah, but I told her she’d get the money back.

That’s the end of that, I guess.

 

*****