A 37-year-old man I know was recently divorced and living alone. Early last year, a woman (I'll call her Mary) he had a crush on also got divorced and had to find new digs for her and her 18-year-old daughter. My friend had a three-bedroom place and offered to let the two women move in. Because Mary and her daughter were both working, it was with the understanding they would split the utility and food bills. There was no romance involved, although I'm sure he hoped that would happen later on.
Things didn't go very well almost from the beginning. The daughter didn't like to get up for work in the morning and called in a couple of days a week. In addition to not being a morning person, there was something about making a bed and picking up and washing her dirty clothes that didn't agree with her. Mary wasn't much better. She was moody and only spoke to her host when necessary.
Within a few weeks, the women were making the guy feel unwelcome in his own house. And as the regular monthly bills came in, the promised split of expenses never happened. When confronted, Mary said she was strapped financially so soon after her divorce, and needed some time to recover before she could pay her share.
But it got worse. The next thing Mary mentioned about money was delivered in a desperate sob. "I'm falling behind in my car payments. I don't know what I'm going to do. Can you help me?" The tears worked. For the next three months my big hearted friend made Mary's car payment for her. But they had a verbal agreement that this money was considered a loan and had to be repaid in full.
About then, another friend of the guy told him Mary had been in a neighboring town looking for an apartment. When she stopped in a local watering hole, she told several people that she couldn't stand her current accommodations or the jerk that owned them.
A couple of weeks later Mary and her daughter were out of the house. She left with the promise that the next month she'd start paying back what she owed. After that there was no further contact and no money was sent.
The guy filed an action in small claims court to recover the nearly $1,000 in car payments he'd made. He went to court last week armed with his cancelled checks, clearly showing they were used to pay on her auto loan account number.
He never got to present them as evidence, though. Mary didn't deny that he made the payments on her behalf. Instead, she produced a letter from one of her girlfriends. In the letter the other woman stated that my buddy had told her on multiple occasions that he was in love with Mary and wanted to help her in any way he could. He didn't expect or want to be repaid. With no evidence presented to the contrary, the judge ruled in Mary's favor. Not only did the guy lose the case, the smirk on Mary's face as she left the room was like a knife to his heart.
The question now, is whether my friend learned anything from this most unpleasant experience? He seemed sincere when he told me he's extended his last helping hand. I guess time will tell.
