Weasel goes for the cash, but I snap my hand back just in time. “First delete the pics you just took.”
“Aw, Zane, c’mon…” I open my wallet back up to return the bills. “All right, all right, geez.”
I guess he can do the math. Weasel quickly deletes the images, I hand him the cash, and he’s off into the New York City crowd with a quick two-finger salute and a “pleasure doing business with you.”
What a, well,weasel.
I turn back to Natalie, wiping my hands together like I’m brushing off dirt. “Well, that takes care of that. Shall we finish our lunch?”
To my surprise, she’s now giving me the evil eye that she’d fixed on Weasel a moment ago. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you were pissed off at what he was doing.”
“I don’t need you to rescue me.”
What’s going on here?“OK…” I say. “So, our food is getting cold, and —”
“I’m a big girl,” she interrupts.
“Believe me, I’m aware.”
“I can solve my own problems.”
She can’t be serious, right?“Is this your way of saying ‘thank you’, because —”
“Money doesn’t solve everything, you know.”
“Well, it certainly solved this, didn’t it?
She turns on her heel and storms off.
Thank fucking you!
I pursue her once again. “Hey, what the hell is this? Why can’t you just accept a little bit of help?”
She doesn’t answer me; she just keeps walking with her eyes straight ahead and her lips pursed with fury. Christ, it’s like this lady’s only got two settings. I mean, this is a huge overreaction, right? Wouldn’t most people be happy to have a mess like this wrapped up so neatly?
“Yes or no,” I say, “my money got rid of that asshole and saved you from further embarrassment?”
Now she stops and turns to me. I kind of wish she’d kept walking, because the anger radiating from her is actually kinda scary. No wonder Weasel was cowering. “Not all of us are so rich, we can just afford to do whatever the fuck we want and then count on our wallets to clean up the mess.”
“Yeah,” I point out, “that’s whyIdid it. BecauseIwas in a position to be helpful. In fact, in English, we have a word for when someone lends their money to a person in need. It’s called ‘charity’.”
The word’s barely out of my mouth before I realize my mistake. Sure enough, she slaps me.Again. People are still filming us, and I think about how many‘likes’ that will get on social media.
“So, that isall I am to you?” she vents. “Some sort of charity case?”
“No, that’s not what I said…”
“And was that a ‘charity fuck’ you gave me last night? Because let me tell ya,Zane, that’s charity I can do without!”
“Wait a second. Last night was not ‘charity’ and you know that.”
“No. What I know is — I would like you to leave me alone.”
My head’s spinning. How did things go sideways so quickly?
I watch her go. Sad as it makes me to have her storm off… it does give me a nice view of her ass in that tight skirt.