It Never Rains.......

As I stood in the pouring rain, with no coat or umbrella, trying to defend myself to an Italian man who doesn’t speak much English, I couldn’t help but think that maybe people’s idea of friendship is a little different here. I like to pride myself on trying to be a good friend, but it seems that there is a little group of people in LA who would disagree.

Let’s start with the Italian man and the rain. Both are relevant. The Italian is relevant only to emphasise that communication was not easy. His lack of English and my lack of Italian made arguing quite difficult, but he gave it his best shot! The rain is relevant because when I asked if we could go inside, to discuss what a terrible person I am, he said, ‘You are British, you can deal with the rain’. 

If the truth be known, I didn’t even know this man was my friend and maybe that’s where I went wrong. I used to work with him in a restaurant over two years ago. I saw him at work once or twice a week. He’s a Liverpool fan so he would walk past me and shout, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. A lot. That was the basis of our relationship. He kindly put me in touch with his brother-in-law, who employed me in the job I have now. I sent a bottle of wine to say thank you. The end.

Or not. Yesterday he came to my work and wouldn’t talk to me. ‘Strange,’ I thought, and I attempted to counter this by trying to hug him. I asked him what was wrong and he said I was a terrible person, and I had ignored him for two years. I asked him if he had received the wine. He said, ‘A bottle of wine, one bottle of wine in two years.’ And then he left.

I’ve also been unfriended and blocked on Facebook (these are two separate events).

The first unfriending was because I wondered out loud if our waiter was likely to be more interested in me or the Scot. The waiter was not there to hear this but my friend’s 15-year-old daughter was. Unfriended. By the mum. Right after that dinner. Ok, I should probably take some responsibility for that one, but I wasn’t rude and it is LA. Oh and 2017. 

Then, the blocking. Which I suppose is worse than an unfriending. This was because I had plans to meet someone and I asked if I could push the time back an hour. Blocked. There is a lot more to this story of ‘friendship’ but that is a whole chapter of a book. It involves her always refusing to meet unless it was at the end of her street. I always did though and then the one time I tried to have a say? In her words, ‘We are done.’

Oh, and one more. I had a friend once. She wrote a book. I didn’t read it. I tried to, I started it but never finished it. This wasn’t why we fell out but she has told me she will consider being friends with me again if I read her book. She says I am a ‘beautiful soul’ but until I read her book ‘we can’t speak the same language’.

I can’t really blame LA for all of this though. I’ve lost an Italian, a South African and two English. It’s a good job I still have the Scot.