Unless there are extenuating circumstances, Ben is allowed to eat out for lunch once a week. Pizza with bowling doesn’t count, and he usually gets two lunches a week where he volunteers, so that takes him down to one day of packing a lunch per week, and one day of eating out. Sometimes, Ben decides that plan is incompatible with his needs and he attempts to run a scam.
Last week, Ben blew all his cash holdings at Knoebels mid-week, which is fine. That’s what Knoebels is for. It is an amusement park, after all. But on Friday, the moment I left for work, he slid a different card into his agenda pocket chart and tried to tell Rachel that I had okayed eating at Wendy’s. Rachel was rightly dubious as I had not discussed this with her, Wendy’s seemed very specific, and examination of his wallet revealed that he had no money with which to carry out my firm wishes that he gorge himself at Wendy’s. Obviously, since Rachel didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, he packed his lunch that day, but he additionally had to admit to me the scam he had attempted to pull.
Phil had been out of town all week and I was exhausted from flying solo. There was nothing I wanted more than to eat out with Ben for dinner on Friday, our “weekend treat” evening. However, upon hearing about Ben’s bent moral compass, I decided he needed to know how it feels to not be able to trust that someone is being honest. I told him that though we had agreed on going to TGIFridays (his pick), I was running a scam, and we weren’t going. Knowing he considers carry out vastly inferior, I picked Qdoba, we brought some burritos home, and we had a somber meal in the kitchen. Admittedly, Qdoba is a pretty soft landing, but if his little plan had worked, I would have busted him down to leftovers. Believe me, kid, it hurts me more than it does you.
This week, Mr. Pantsonfire wanted a steak salad. No, I didn’t pull the old Meatless Monday flimflam and make a steak salad without the steak. That would be a scam. We’ve all suffered enough. We made homemade ranch dressing and loaded our platter with salad greens, corn, grape tomatoes, green beans, tiny parmesan roasted potatoes, quick pickled carrots with daikon, and (yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) steak.
…And another game for the lovely readers who need a challenge.
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