*This is a work of nonfiction based on actual events as told to me by a friend, who experienced them firsthand; used with permission.
Picture this: Three women go out to the club on a freezing cold Saturday night. Inside the club, one of those women meets a man. The woman is the trio's designated driver; she's the only one with a car. She wants to get to know the man from the club better sooner than later. What does she do?
She takes him outside to her car and locks the doors, effectively shutting her friends out in the icy cold winter weather until she's good and ready to let them in and drive them home.
I worked with a woman who spent every weekend at the club with her two best friends. There was only one problem. Only one of the three women had a car.
That shouldn't have been a problem, of course, it only takes one car to drive three women to the club. The problem was that the driver had a penchant for picking up strange men at the club and taking them back to her car for a private conversation or to swap a few smooches, probably more of the latter than the former.
My coworker told me about a particularly bad experience she and her friend had on one cold winter night. She and her two friends wanted to look good at the club. Looking good does not include dressing warm. They locked their coats, scarves, boots, and gloves in the car and went into the club wearing their customary short dresses and stiletto heels.
When one of the trio met a man inside the club, she headed for the parking lot to get acquainted away from the loud music and constant shouting chatter of the bar. Since the friend who'd met the man was also the owner of the car, she slipped her keys from inside her undergarments and unlocked the doors. Then locked the doors behind her and her new companion before starting up the engine and letting the car, and the heater, run.
It was nice and warm inside the car within minutes, which was a good thing because it was freezing outside.
Meanwhile, the club closed up for the night, or should I say the early morning? And the other two girls emerged from the club into the icy temperatures wearing nothing but strappy dresses and even strappier stilettos.
The girls tried to open the car doors but to no avail. The doors were locked. They knocked on the window, but their warm friend, busy with her new companion from inside the club, shooed them away.
Without cars or coats, the two freezing women huddled together for a warmth they could not muster.
"By the time she let us get inside, we thought we had frostbite," my coworker told me. "I couldn't feel my feet for hours, literally."
Even though my coworker and her friend were angry with their other friend, the one with the car, they couldn't say anything to her. They needed a ride to the club the following weekend.
I would have summoned an Uber and gotten out of there as soon as possible. What would you have done? Comments are welcome.
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