Page 77 - How To Get Rich

the television and politely listen to what he was saying. I felt more like his
psychiatrist than anything else.
Then the shit hit the fan! The woman’s husband had found out, phoned
my friend, and threatened to kill him. But what really bothered my friend

was the next call he received—from the woman, saying she would never
see him or talk to him again, and that if she did, her husband would tell my
friend’s wife everything about the affair. My friend was devastated.
Afterward, he repeatedly tried to reach his ex-lover, but she refused to
respond.
As usually happens, my friend’s wife found out. Probably, the
businesswoman’s husband had called her, but who knows?

About six months later, I saw the businesswoman at a gallery and she
confronted me. Donald, she said, I hear you’ve been spreading rumors all
over town about me. It’s terrible what you’ve done, and the rumors about
me and [X] aren’t true. Can you imagine me going out with him? After
listening to her accusations and denials for fifteen minutes, I realized she
is one of the greatest salespeople I have ever known, because if I had not

heard her voice on that answering machine tape, I would have completely
believed her. She told me she couldn’t believe people would even think she
would go out with my friend. Why would I want to? What did he have?
Give me a break!
I figured that was the end of it, but then I realized that my friend had
not called me in some time. I was wondering how he was doing, so I
phoned him to say hello. He wasn’t in and didn’t return my call. I phoned

again, and again he didn’t call back. I was worried, so I called a third time
and a fourth time. No response.
Later, I found out that his wife had blamed me for the entire affair. She
thought I had introduced him to this woman. Apparently, she told him that
if he ever spoke to me again, she would divorce him.

It turns out he had used me as a scapegoat. The funny thing is, I
wouldn’t have minded and would have helped him out and played along if
he’d had the decency, as a good friend, to call me and say, Look, I have a
problem. Can I blame it on you? Even if it meant he wouldn’t have been
able to see me or speak to me again, I would have accepted it and been
glad to have helped keep his marriage together. But he never made that
call to me. He did everything without an explanation.