Dear Karma Cleanser:
I have a longtime, wonderful boyfriend. Yet all my co-workers (or, most of the male ones) think I’m single. It’s not that I don’t love my boyfriend — it’s just that I don’t talk about him to other guys. On purpose. One guy has expressed an interest in me. He follows me around the stock room, calls on a regular basis and takes breaks with me. While I have assured my boyfriend that “John” is just a co-worker, I have yet to tell John the truth. Am I going to hell? Or should I tell?:– Mall Tease
You’re playing a risky game of retail deception here, and like most things that come out of malls, it’s bound to end badly. No one ever went to hell for being a tease, but you owe it to John to come clean about your boyfriend. Perhaps this little flirtation should tell you something about the state of the relationship with your boyfriend.
Dear Karma Cleanser:
My friend William is the cheapest person I know. So cheap that he saves the wire ties from bread bags to be used again later (for what I don’t know). Our other friends and I decided to play a little joke on him to get him back for putting up with his stingy ways. We’ve each started leaving random dollar bills lying around his apartment every now and then. It’s freaking him out, because he can’t figure out where the money is coming from. One friend has suggested that we stop because what we’re doing is cruel. What do you think? — Dolor Bill
Objecting to your friend’s frugality is one thing, but toying with his sanity is chintzing on friendship. If you don’t like stingy Bill and can’t tell him like adults, cut your losses and move on. Then again, William is having the last laugh on all of you. In the end, he’s the one enjoying the mystery money, not you.
Been bad? Get right with the universe at karma@creativeloafing.com.
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2002.
