Darren 2.0

Earlier this week, I brought you the story of Darren Sherman, an uptight New Yorker who existed in some sort of fantasy world where the lines of business and personal relationships were more blurry than Ted Kennedy's vision after the annual Congressional Christmas party.

I mentioned in that post that there was one person in Baltimore who I believed would be capable of pulling that type of stunt. Except I didn't really think he would let it go that far. Except, well, he did.

The case I reference involves a blurred line between a personal and professional relationship, owed money, a person requesting payment of the owed funds, and another person going positively apeshit and calling out a lawyer.

Earlier today, Darren 2.0 came by to retrieve his property and actually pay me a portion of what he owes me for the care and feeding of his animal (I'm getting the rest in 30 days). This was a direct result of me sending an email calling him out on the fact that he dumped the cat with me for two months longer than expected and that I considered him abandoned. Since there were no prearranged visits with the cat during any of the four months that I had him (late night banging on the window and driving by my house to see if I'm home SOOOOOOO doesn't count!), I was confident in my assessment.

So I sent an email. I admit now that sending it to three other people (girlfriends of mine who all advised me to call him out because drastic measures seemed to be the only thing to get through to him in the past -- do you see a pattern so far?) probably wasn't such a good idea. But I had picked up on that idea during the date from hell with the lawyer and I thought it was the right thing to do.

Wrong answer, Tim. First, he emailed me to demand why three other people were copied. I told him why. Then, he called one of the people emailed FREAKING OUT over it. She talked him down (thanks, babe!). Then, he called his lawyer who demanded that I c&d my efforts to impugn his relationship with his professional contacts.

Now, I'm not sure how three of my girlfriends could be considered his "professional" contacts. Ok, maybe one of them could, but the other two definitely said that they'd never work with him LOOOONG before now because of all the lies that he told a fourth girlfriend when she had the misfortune to embark on a relationship with him. Not to mention that he steals food off of other peoples' plates and pretends not to notice that it pisses people off. But the point really is that the reputation for being an ass was already firmly in place long before I ever wrote the email in question. Practically everyone who knew I had the cat was convinced that I'd never see a dime from its owner. They were also telling me that it was a pipe-dream on my part to imagine that I'd ever get rid of the animal because he was going to find a way to saddle me with it on a permanent basis. Moreover, those same people each had three or four stories apiece about his chronic lying, stalking (I'm not the only one who's received late-night visits), or other anti-social downright creepy behaviors. So Home-Depot boy didn't really have a leg to stand on because my email didn't do anything to pull down his rep. It was already in the gutter! Reality check at table one, please!

Because our "friendship," Darren 2.0 has decided not to pursue legal action against me. Therefore, I can still look forward to late night visits, banging on the window, and food disappearing from my plate when I'm not looking. Gee, how did a girl get so lucky??