Small town U.S.A., Youngstown, Ohio. You learn a lot in a short amount of time. Things to live and die by. Sometimes you make a mistake and paying for it is hell. This story is about one such mistake.
My name is Nick and my wife is Paula. I owned a small bar-restaurant, with mostly local people coming in. Times were tough and money was getting short. I was sweating the bills and getting no sleep.
This is when I made a big mistake. Our local shady character, Moose, came in to see me and I listen to his," I can help you out," speech.
"Nick," I can help you," Moose said with a wave of his hands. "I can give you a small loan, just between friends."
Nick was not a friend, I now wish I would have run away, but I just sat and listened. Pictures of money flashed in my head as he painted a mental scene of a full house in my mind.
"Nick, I could get this place packed with a lot of my associates by just putting out the word. All I want is for you to be a success. I can loan you the money to fix the place up and we both come out being happy."
After talking about what should be done, I asked, "How much he might loan me and the interest rate he would charge."
Moose smiled and said," A hundred thousand dollars and one percent."
I said, "I would think about it." The banks wouldn't touch me for anywhere near a hundred grand and I had to borrow from Moose to get the big spenders in. It didn't take a lot of though for this.
I got the money later that week, but Moose made me use his contractors as part of the deal. No paper work was drawn up, just a hand shake. Work was started soon and the place was a real mess with walls being torn out and the bar taken apart.
One of Moose's partners came into the bar and headed straight for me. I recognized him as Tony, a big guy with a face that had never smiled. Tony, "what can I do for you?" I said with a smile.
"I'm here to collect the interest you owe Moose" he spit out. "One percent per week, one thousand dollars, I only take cash."
"What! Are you kidding or are you just plain nuts?" I screamed out.
"I ain't neither one, bud and I would advise you to change your tone," Tony said, while pile driving his finger into my chest.
"Ok, ok, I have to go to the bank." I knew I was now in deep shit, never again would I be out of Moose's grip, he had me by my balls and we both knew it.
Tony followed me to the bank. I gave him a grand and Tony said, "See you next week, bud." I knew he would. I needed a plan. Sounds easy, but I couldn't even start to figure out anything. Maybe a meet with Moose, yeah, that might help.
Two days later I saw Moose come into the bar. We greeted each other and went into a back room. I told Moose, "that the interest rate would kill me. I asked if we could maybe come up with a better deal."
"Right" Moose whispered, "I can cut you some slack. I'll tell you what I'll do, you just sit and listen. First off, you are going to pay, no matter what, but I am willing to trade. Your wife Paula is a nice little piece of tail. If you can't make the interest for a week, I'll borrow your wife for two days. You can have her back for the rest of the week and you won't have to worry about the money."
"Moose! What the hell are you saying? You're going to do who the hell knows what with Paula for two days and then I get her back!"
"That's it's, Moose grunted, "You understand just fine. Truth be known, I don't know what the hell I will do with her, depends on how good she treats me, know what I mean, bud?"
"I'll get the money somehow Moose" I stammered out. With that he got up and left. I held my head in my hands; I knew I wouldn't be able to pay much longer. The contractors were costing a fortune and the place was torn up. Without customers, I had no money coming in. The contractor just shrugged his shoulders when I begged him to please hurry up and finish. I still had about sixty grand left in the bank, but most of that would have to go to the contractor and the rest to help with the down time. I would have to talk with Paula.
My wife Paula was a striking figure. Blonde, blue eyes, 120 lbs. and 36c tits, which turned up without any support. She looked like a teenager even though she was nearly twenty eight. Men would try to make her, but outside of flirting a little, she would just laugh and walk away.
That night I told Paula about the money and the deal Moose would do. She just sat there and looked at me like I was some kind of a disgusting mess she had to clean up.
"Do you know what you are saying?" Paula spat at me. "You're just as sick as that fucking Moose. I can't understand why you got us into this mess in the first place. What the hell were you thinking?"
I told Paula that, "if I didn't pay or trade her, Moose was going to ruin us. Once we could reopen and get the crowd from Moose, we could put this all behind us. It's too late to do anything else now." Moose was holding all the cards.