Friday, January 9, 2009

The Return of Cindy

I don't even know where to begin on this one, but the other day Audrey sat me down and dropped a bombshell on me.

"Guess who's out of jail?"

I swear my jaw must have dropped to the floor. "Nooooooooooo! Has it been 9 months already?"
Audrey smiled. "Actually it was only 5 months." I think she saw my brow kinda make a squishing shape because she said "Yeah I know what you're thinking, but I think she's OK now."

For those of you who don't memorize every word that I've written (shame on you! Go get started now - I'll wait), Cindy is a co-worker from the "old days." She was my BFF before Trina and one of my oldest friends. We've all known each other for years, and between all the different places I've worked at, I've probably spent the most time with her. Whenever I have a really freaky story to tell about work - chances are Cindy had something to do with it.

"You hired her back, didn't you?" I asked in my most serious voice. I knew it was a done deal from the second I heard the name "Cindy," but I still wanted to hear her actually say it.

Audrey avoided my eyes. "We need the help." I know why she took her back. She may not be the most consistent worker, but she definitely brings in the customers. Cindy is one of those girls who can really manipulate a guy and get him to do whatever she wants. Oh the stories I could tell...

"No we don't!" I was getting angry now. "It's bad enough trying to make tips with the 3 of us on. Now you want to split things up even more?" I may have said a lot of other things, but I knew arguing didn't matter. What's done is done. But Audrey knows good and well why I don't want her back.

Cindy had a SERIOUS drug problem. That's one of the reasons why we stopped talking to each other a couple years ago. Things headed downhill when she started getting arrested for DUI, possession, theft, etc. Well, that's one of the reasons why Audrey let her go the first time - she was becoming a liability. Showing up to work stoned is one thing. Showing up IN POSESSION is something else. Nothing gets a Business shut down faster than rumors of drugs on the premesis.
But that's the main reason why I had to stop seeing her. I used to love her to death - more than my sister even! I realized I had to dump her when one day I discovered $2500 missing from my purse.

Here's the story... Just a couple years ago business was booming. Ya ever wanna know which way the economy is going - just ask either a carpenter or a masseuse. We're the first to see how people are spending their money! Anyway, I remember it was this holiday weekend and the Business was jumping. Audrey was on vacation so the rest of us were just cleaning up big time.

Cindy and I had been working doubles so we were both loaded with cash (and by "doubles" I mean double shifts and not 2 girls 1 guy. We had our share of those too, but more of that later). It was Sunday night and I was dead tired. Me and another girl were cleaning up around the place so we could lock up and go. The last time I saw Cindy, she was having a smoke with some guy out front I was her ride home, so I knew she wouldn't wander off.

The other girl headed home and I started looking all over for Cindy so we could split. I went outside and there was no one. Back inside I started calling her name - nothing. So then I checked my cell phone. No calls or texts from her. I called her - no answer. I put my phone back in my purse and that's when I noticed that something was wrong. My wallet looked funny, so I opened it.

You ever see a wallet filled with $2500 in cash? It actually LOOKS like it contains $2500 in cash. I mean it bulges in ways you only see in cartoons. And this was my take from working 5 straight shifts from Friday to Sunday night.

So there it was - a completely empty wallet. And you wanna know the worse part? The very first person I thought of was Cindy. My heart was pounding in my chest as I picked my cell phone back up. I was so angry that my hands were shaking as I dialed the phone. After like my 3rd time of trying to push the right buttons I finally got it to work. It went direct to voicemail.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? YOU BETTER BE GAWD DAMNED HOME BECAUSE I'M GOING STRAIGHT THERE."

I didn't actually yell it, I just sort of said it through gritted teeth. Needless to say, she wasn't home when I got there. In fact, I didn't see or hear from her for a couple of weeks. She never showed up to work again, but Audrey later said that she had finally called just to let her know she had quit. I heard from her eventually and it was pretty much as I had suspected. My money from that weekend was long gone. She was sorry.

Things were just never the same again after that. I mean, I still spoke to her now and then. And I'd get the occasional bit of gossip from a mutual friend or a cop/customer. The latter was usually about her getting arrested again for something. Funny thing though - I have always maintained contact with her grandmother. We call each other every couple of weeks or so just to catch up. Nice lady. We don't agree on much, but we both worried about Cindy in our own little way.

And that's it in a nutshell. It's all ancient history to me now. I can work with her, I just wouldn't trust her with 50 cents, let alone my wallet.

CJ

9 comments:

mommasboy said...

Well, who knows, cindy may have changed for the better. The moral high ground would be to accept her back into your life, as a friend, just leave your purse locked in your car, on the floor, in the back seat, under a blanket, with a bag of laundry on top........

Anonymous said...

yikes - that's an example of the kind of occupational hazard that you just don't run across working in a boring ole office.

If she is clean now, shouldn't she admit to it and try to make amends? Don't they teach you to do that in rehab? You should put her on a payment plan. Or she should give you a percentage of her tips each week until she's paid you back.

Now that I'm thinking about rehab and all...erotic massage doesn't strike me as a "stay sober" kind of job. She'd be better off trying to get a job at McDonald's or something...

wait2cme said...

I would suggest a good beating for that! 2500 bucks! I hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson. That when you’re around drug addicts everything must be bolted down! If she ask you to forgive her tell you will after she pays you back the loot!

Anonymous said...

CJ said: "Audrey avoided my eyes. "We need the help." I know why she took her back. She may not be the most consistent worker, but she definitely brings in the customers. Cindy is one of those girls who can really manipulate a guy and get him to do whatever she wants. Oh the stories I could tell..."

What you might not be aware of, CJ, is with sites like SpaHunters and BestGFE, even Utopia Guide, end user clients follow gals like Cindy around and appear where ever she shows up.

If a provider is known to give extras beyond the standard HE [happy ending] the first guy who sees her will post it up on one of these sites and the bell gets rung. Soon those looking for that level of service start showing up. You can always tell these guys because they'll be people you might not have seen before who suddenly appear asking for a specific provider. When that happens you know these guys have site membership to places where this info is being exchanged.

Anonymous said...

Have any of the "fans" mentioned in this post come in lately or did they all disappear when the economy tanked?

Anonymous said...

Thorn - Keep on spamming the ads, you know we love to have advertising in conversation threads here!

CJ - Unfortunatly I've learned never to trust drug abusers regardless of how in control they may seem to be. Not reffering to pot or XTC or anything, but those who get into anything harder seem to be time bombs, and one day they will rob you blind or put you in some other really bad situation.

Regardless of how much I care about someone, once they start hitting meth, coke or anything else of that nature I fade out of their life quickly after finding some oppurtunity to let them know they need help(not that they ever believe it).

Anonymous said...

Once a thief, always a thief.

cj said...

Dear MJP,
Back in the day, Cindy could go home with $1000 of cash in her pocket after a good shift. It's hard to go to McDonalds after that.

Thorn,
I'm sure we'll see some new guys once she gets here. I don't know what she's been up to recently, but in the past she was full-service for just a select group of Regulars (I see a future post here!).

Anon,
A lot of the guys from those days are gone. The economy really took a toll on the Regulars.

Reflex,
Don't worry - that incident was the last straw and now I know better. We'll see how it goes when she comes back.

CJ

Anonymous said...

ReFlex, I am not associated with SpaHunters, BestGFE, or any other site other than Utopia Guide where I am an UNPAID moderator. I'm NOT spamming. I am passing on information directly related to the subject matter at hand. I said that customers use these sites to pass around info on specific providers. That is absolutely a factual statement.

From CJ's responses to my comments I think CJ has figured out that my only agenda is passing along info I think might be helpful to our collective community.

You seem to me, and it's only personal opinion mind you, to have something of a "White Knight" thing going on where you feel you need to respond to the fair damsel in distress. If so know she has little to be distressed about from the likes of me. :)

CJ is a big girl and can take care of herself, of this I am sure.

As for Cindy, if she is providing anything beyond HE I am sure I'll find out in short order. Then, like any other informed consumer [which is all I advocate], I'll decide if that is something I care to involve myself in or not.

Wishing well to All...