St. Valentine and the Ten Miles of Bad Road
I was probably suckered tonight, but I don't really feel bad about it. I worked late, until 8:45, on the data conversion for Boondoggle 2000. Not exactly the most romantic V-Day ever, but with the Mr. in Durham it hardly mattered. [I had sent him a little iTunes playlist with "Stay Close" by Blue Nile, a song that's had me mesmerized ever since I heard it on Pandora. Is it wrong to send a love song by a guy singer to a straight guy? At least there were plenty of girl singers on there too.] As I was making my way to the bus stop a woman wished me Happy Valentine's Day, then proceeded to tell me an elaborate story about waiting for an emergency shelter. Supposedly she'd just been divorced after 25 years of marriage, yet somehow wasn't homeless, and had never been in this situation before. She didn't look good, more like she'd been "rode hard and put away wet" as V. with the junkie ex-husband likes to say. The upshot was that she had a current bus pass to sell (which somehow had been given to her by a lady who didn't speak a word of English--hmmm).
My bus wasn't due for a few minutes so I had some leisure to think about it, and I ended up giving her some money, a very fair price, for the pass. I didn't have much confidence in her story about the divorce and emergency shelter, and I doubted she would spend it wisely, but it was cold out and somehow what she did with the money didn't matter to me just then. I figured that if she spent it on a drink or something more exciting it might keep her comfortable as she passed out in a doorway, or maybe it would mean one less blowjob she'd have to give, or maybe she'd even just go home and spend it on something nonlethal but stupid. It's a chance I was willing to take, and hey, I got a bus pass out of the deal, a bus pass that got me onto two different buses and will be good for the rest of the week. I just hope it wasn't stolen.
My bus wasn't due for a few minutes so I had some leisure to think about it, and I ended up giving her some money, a very fair price, for the pass. I didn't have much confidence in her story about the divorce and emergency shelter, and I doubted she would spend it wisely, but it was cold out and somehow what she did with the money didn't matter to me just then. I figured that if she spent it on a drink or something more exciting it might keep her comfortable as she passed out in a doorway, or maybe it would mean one less blowjob she'd have to give, or maybe she'd even just go home and spend it on something nonlethal but stupid. It's a chance I was willing to take, and hey, I got a bus pass out of the deal, a bus pass that got me onto two different buses and will be good for the rest of the week. I just hope it wasn't stolen.