During all of the turmoil that was beginning between Kelz and me, I was running out of money. I had to have a serious talk with her. Before she moved in, I told her that she was going to need to get a job and help pay some of the household expenses. This was something she agreed to. I told her that aside from my job, our next infusion of cash was going to come from my income tax refund. And it was only going to be about $150. I reminded her of her promise to find a job once she got settled. That time had arrived. She said she would find a job.
I was hoping she would apply someplace like Hollywood Video, which was just down the street. But she decided she didn't want to do that. Then I told her someplace that would hire her without much previous experience. It was someplace I used to work: Inventory Auditors, Inc. In addition, they paid more than minimum wage. I told her she would just have to go in and talk to them and they would likely hire her right on the spot, just like they did for me.
We went down there and she went inside. I was sitting out in the car and I was wondering what was taking so long. After a couple of hours (which is how long the training took for me), she came out and said they had hired and trained her. I guess they actually began the training right then and there. (I was surprised that she didn't try to come outside and tell me what was going on. In addition, I remember we took a little break in the middle of training. She could have come out then.) I told her I would be able to drive her to all her assignments. She just needed to let me know what time she needed to be there and what time I would need to pick her up after the assignment. I would always be able to accommodate her.
The morning of her first assignment, she told me of something unusual that had happened: Her son in Iowa had died somehow. I came home from work and found her in a fetal position on the bed. I couldn't tell whether or not she was awake, but I decided to leave her alone. I called up and left a message for Inventory Auditors, telling them what had happened. However, they never called her back for another assignment.
But this was the least of the problems at home. Sometimes, she would leave the apartment because she had to meet up with the ex-boyfriend when he demanded it. She swore that she wasn't sleeping with him. One night, she said she had to meet him at the Carls, Jr., which was a couple of blocks away. After about an hour, I just couldn't stand it and I wanted to see this twerp was who was taking Kelz away from me. The plan was for me to just drive by and hope that neither one of them noticed me. However, as I approached the restaurant, Kelz was walking back toward the house alone. She saw me. I stopped and got her to get in the car.
I apologized for coming out to see what was going on. She didn't say anything. I have no idea what was on her mind. Whatever happened, I never got to see the ex-boyfriend.
But what does this have to do with our money problems? After a few days, she didn't mention the ex-boyfriend again. She said she was hanging out with some guy named Brod. She said they doing some "hustling" and this was how she was going to get money. I asked her to explain "hustling." She made it sound like they were acting all homeless and begging on the street. I told her I didn't like her making money that way. "Well, what else am I supposed to do? You don't have any money!" The bad thing about this was that if this was how she was earning revenue, I never saw any of that cash. She never offered anything to go toward the rent, bills or food.
Around this time, I was starting to have trouble with my car. So much trouble that we couldn't drive around and do things like we used to. Even though I was still able to take the bus to work, I still felt useless without my car. I started to feel her liking me a lot less.
I tried to get the car fixed. The garage I frequented said it was going to cost $800 to rebuild one of the parts. They said I might be able to find a part at a junk yard and pay closer to $300. I called around to the junk yards to see if any of them had the part. One of them said they did, but all the good junk yards were in Otay Mesa, which was 20 miles away. In order for me to get the part, I had to rent a car.
I didn't have a credit card, so this meant I had to pay a $200 cash deposit to rent a car for one day. I had to pay for the damage waiver, so I was really paying a lot of money to save $500.
It was nice to have the rental. I was able to drive to work, go to Otay Mesa to pick up the part, take it to the mechanic's and run some more errands. Sensing that I was likely going to need more money in case the part didn't work, I ran to the Barona Casino, hoping that I had a little bit of good luck. No such thing. I lost $150 before I called it quits. I had to return the rental car.
Then, the mechanic called and said that the part was the wrong year and they couldn't get the engine to run for more than 10 seconds after starting. I was going to have to pay the $800 and it was going to take more than a week for them to fix it. I had no choice. I had to resort to calling Mom to get the money to pay for the repairs. She got mad at me because that happened to be the extra money she made working for the New Mexico legislature, but she knew I needed a car, so she did send me a check.
But in the middle of all this, Kelz was still affectionate with me, so it made the situation a lot more bearable. But I could still feel her pulling away from me emotionally.
I had to take measures to fix that.
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