&games

Picked up this chick at an apartment complex many moons ago. I knew her and I knew that she always expected the people at her destination to pay for her cab ride... even if she had her own money.

She was packing bags of booze out of this apartment. She had me open the trunk so she could put the booze in, which I dutifully did. I learned many years ago that it is always best to put bags or anything that might be needed to be held as collateral in the trunk... and booze is good collateral.

Anyway, we get to where we were going and she didn't have any money. She needed to go into the house and ask for money. Fine with me. I'm running the meter. After all, I have collateral secured in the trunk. She and this other guy came out of the house and apologized for not having any money to pay for the cab ride.

"That's all right. Don't worry about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Pay me when you can."

"Thank you thank you thank you. Wait! Where are you going!? I have stuff in the trunk."

"What?"

"My bags are still in your trunk!"

"Oh those. I'll hold on to them until you get some money."

"You can't do that!"

"Watch me."

"That's a couple hundred dollars worth of booze!"

"Just call me when you get the $10 for the cab fare. Better make it $20 because I can't keep it in the cab. I'll need to drop it off at the shop, and I'll need to charge you for the trip to deliver it."

"I'm going to call the police. You can't do that."

"And tell them what? You stole a couple hundred dollars worth of booze from some guy and I won't give it to you?" (That was a guess on my part. I suspect she was taking some booze that didn't belong to her.)

Needless to say they came up with $10 for the cab ride.

Needless to say I had the meter running and the fare was up to $15 by the time they scraped the money together.

Needless to say I got the extra $5 with no argument whatsoever.