Tonight I was thinking about a dinner I had with a factory owner who I bought a boatload of product from long ago.
One time at a trade show, I actually felt a bit sorry for this guy, as I really destroyed him so hard on price and quality, so I offered to buy him dinner that evening near the trade show we were exhibiting at.
Anyway, I was a strapping 21 at the time. He was maybe 40 and married. During this dinner, I notice some really weird stuff he's doing. We had heard rumors about him being gay, but we always told ourselves, he can't be because he's married!
At one point, he lit a match, opened his mouth real wide, and stuck the lit match inside his mouth, lighting it up like a Halloween pumpkin. That image was burned in my mind. It freaked me out!
I thought that was just another weird thing he did, but it dawned on me tonight that he may have been signalling to me that he was ready to handle a big payload in his mouth!
I was shaking when I left that dinner. My industry colleagues laughed when I told them about the dinner. They all knew his reputation.
We still did business after that, but on the phone. I used to even dispatch our drivers to pick up the goods there. I used to make sure the dispatch sheet said they were picking up at a new place called, "Bendover Distributing." I would also mention that they were invited to take a shower there at the owner's request.
Drivers who had been there before would be visibly disturbed when they'd see this. Some would not want to go. I guess in some sick sort of way, I paid it forward.
Oh, his name was Lou! You can probably find him on Grindr these days. |
