Sometimes someone owes you a lot of money, and they can’t pay you back.

Chapter 21: A Vial of Blood

I was in the City for the holidays. I was having an awesome time. Two of my ex-girlfriends were in town and they both wanted to hook up. There is nothing so nice as sleeping with two different women during the same day, especially when they are both ok with the fact that you are sleeping with both of them. They were both cheating on their husbands, so what did they care?

I wanted to top off the weekend by sleeping with a guy I’d liked for a while. His wife was out of town and she probably wouldn’t have minded even if she was around. She once proposed that for Valentine’s Day we all get together for an orgy, and make it an annual event, I doubt she would mind me hooking up with her boy.

Her husband and I were doing business together. The not above-board type of business. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going well. I had made the mistake of advancing him about two thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise and neglected to notice that he had a huge cocaine problem. Once he realized he could exchange our merchandise for coke, well that $2,000 went straight up his nose.

I never considered that cocaine could cause a real addiction like that. I suppose its because blow simply doesn’t have that effect on me. I used to do it when I was younger, and while it is my favorite drug, I’ve never felt the need to do it compulsively. I’ve also been prescribed Vyvanse, Ritalin, and straight amphetamine, but stimulants never get me hooked. I know they hook some people though, and this guy was one of them.

I was very disappointed in him, but not angry. I knew he was having a hard time financially, which was the reason I’d given him the advance. My girlfriend was furious though. She wanted me to beat it out of him, break his knee caps. That wasn’t the way I did business. I believe in civility and forgiveness, even among thieves. My plan was to simply forgive the debt as the cost of doing business, stop advancing him, and sever our business connection while maintaining our friendship. Oh, and to have sex with him.

I was taking an Uber from the place one of girls I’d hooked up with was staying, to his place. He knew that I was coming and was being a little dodgy as he knew he owed me a lot of money. I tried to indicate to him that that wasn’t what I was after, but I think he suspected otherwise. I wasn’t even trying to hook up with him as some sort of recompense, him and I just liked to flirt a lot. It was really just a friendly visit.

When I got to his apartment, he greeted me wearing a bandage around his arm. I asked him if he had hurt himself accidently. He wouldn’t say, but invited me in. Once inside, he revealed that he had hurt himself intentionally.

He presented me with an 8-ball vial of his blood.

For those not familiar with drugs, an 8-ball is roughly an eighth of an ounce (3.5 grams) of cocaine. The vial it comes in has roughly the internal volume of a person’s pinky finger. It’s much more blood than would fit in a syringe. He had stabbed himself with a knife and filled the vial. He was presenting it to me as both an apology, and a promise that he was going to do everything he could to make things right.

Suffice to say this killed my boner. I don’t do blood. The circulatory system makes my skin crawl. I don’t know what it is, but I instinctively cringe at the sight of real blood. Fake blood is fine, gory movies are fine, but real blood makes me cringe involuntarily. His heart-felt apology was appreciated, but I wish it hadn’t literally passed through his heart.

I didn’t sleep with him. We just sat around and watched a few movies and talked. I stressed again and again how unnecessary what he’d done was, but I pocketed his apology and still have it. It sits on my shelf all gory and red, reminding me that friendship is always more important than business.