Took the Slingshot to my local Wendy's. Hehehehehe....... who'd a thunk a kid would try this?!

I pulled my new 2017 SLR Orange Madness into the Wendy’s parking lot and carefully backed it into a nice, shady parking spot easily visible from inside the restaurant – I wanted to keep an eye on it so that the local teens slinking around this area didn’t violate my new toy.

Inside the restaurant, I first went to use the restroom, then came out to find a line of about seven people waiting to order. “Well”, I thought to myself, “The single with cheese and a large cup of chili will make the wait worth it”. Little did I know at the time just how “worth it” this Wendy’s trip would be – sometimes comedic gold just falls into your lap like manna from heaven.

I got my food, poured my drink, put my ketchup into two of those little plastic cups, and then went to find a seat near one of the windows that overlook the parking lot.

“…got it about a week ago.” I heard the kid say as I approached the window area. “It’s got a Hayabusa engine in it – it’ll hit 200 mph no problem” He was a skinny teen maybe 19 or 20 years old. He was talking to a stunningly pretty girl of about the same age (but WAY out of his league) as they both stared out the window.

“What’s it called?” She asked.

“Slingshot”, he replied. “it’s made by Polaris and there are only like, 250 of them in the world.

I stopped cold. I didn’t actually say “WTF?!”, but I certainly thought it! What the hell was this kid talking about? Did he have a Sling modified with a Hayabusa engine sitting out there!? Why was he lying to her about there only being 250 Slings in the world? I looked out the window and expected to see this kid’s Slingshot sitting out there next to mine.

Nope.

There was my Orange Madness sitting coolly in the shade, an empty parking spot on either side. No other Slings visible. That’s when it occurred to me what was going on: This slick little operator was trying to pick up on this girl by saying that MY Slingshot was his. The gall! The balls!! “How does he expect to pull this off” I wondered silently, “he doesn’t have the key. What’s he going to do when she wants to go for a ride or take a closer look”? I decided to hold my tongue for a while and found a seat close by where I could overhear what they were talking about (and still keep my Sling in view).

“You don’t even want to know,” the kid told her when the girl asked how much the Slingshot cost. “It hurt me to write that check” he said, “but if you want nice stuff, you have to be willing to do what you gotta do”. Judging from the look on the girl’s face, she was in awe of this cool, rich guy and his awesome machine. His plan seemed to be working flawlessly so far. I was curious to know how he would keep the scam going. Finally, after asking dozens of crazy questions about the Slingshot, and getting equally crazy answers, the girl got around to the one question she really wanted to ask all along: “Can we go for a ride”?

“That would be awesome” he told the girl, “you’re going to love it!”

I was in shock at the statement! Was this little snot going to try to steal the Sling? I watched closely as he got up and started to clean up his food wrappers. Then he hit her with his pivot: “Oh SHIT!” He said. “I don’t have a second helmet! I can’t take you for a ride if you don’t have a helmet to wear. MAN! This sucks!”

“Smooth”, I thought. The kid was smooth.

The girl was devastated and her face showed it. “Ohhhhhhhh!”, She whined. She grabbed his hand, batted her eyelashes and said in her best sexy-whisper voice “Just around the parking lot. It’ll be ok”.

He paused and seemed like he was really considering it, but then I suppose he remembered that what she wanted was simply not possible, and he snapped back to reality. “No, I really can’t” he regretfully told her. “I just got a $300.00 ticket for taking my brother in it with no helmet. I’d be in huge trouble if I got caught again. But don’t worry, I have a second helmet at home. Let me get your number and I’ll call you later. We’ll go for a ride then.”

“Really smooth” I thought, as she eagerly keyed her number into his phone. I didn’t know what excuse he was going to use later when he didn’t show up in the Slingshot, but he seemed practiced enough at this game that I had no doubt he would come up with something. That’s when it occurred to me that he was going to have to come up with a way to get out of the current situation. He was pretty much trapped in the Wendy’s because of his scam. If I walked out and drove off in the Slingshot, his game was up. If he didn’t walk out and drive off in it, his game was up. Hmmmmm…. I figured he would just try to wait her out, and let her leave first. Judging by the way she was looking at him and the Slingshot, I knew there was very little chance of that happening. This was going to be good.

Now, I don’t know what possessed me to do what I did next. It sort of just popped into my brain and I acted on it. I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing to do, but I did it.

I cleaned up my table, emptied the tray contents into the trash, put my tray on top of the trash can, and I walked up to the table where the kid and the girl were sitting, still looking out at the Slingshot.

“Uuuhmmmm….. I said. The kid and the girl both turned to face me. They both looked confused by my appearance, but the kid had a flash of panic in his eyes. That panicked look told me right away that he knew what was up. He knew what was about to happen.

[Wait, wait.... This post is getting really long. Does anyone even want to read how this ended?]

Quote from Maverick5990

You better finish the story!

Hahahaha! OK..... one second, let me get the rest out of MS Word.

(The Rest Of The Story)

Now, before I go any farther, let me tell you something. I’ve always liked the movie “The Pickup Artist”. And Robert Downy Jr has always been one of my favorite actors. This kid sort of reminded me of Downy’s character, Jack Jericho, in that movie. I think that’s why I did what I did: I liked this kid. He seemed determined but harmless. He was lying to her, but I could tell by the way he was talking and behaving that he actually liked her. And he had the guts to swing for the fence (I wasn't kidding when I said that this girl was WAAAAY out of his league). Yup. I liked him.

Standing at the table looking at them both, I thrust out my hand to the kid, which he immediately grabbed and shook like he had known me forever. “Thanks for letting me meet you here to pick it up, sir. That saved me a lot of time", I said.

The kids mouth fell open and his eyes told me that he had no idea how to react to this. He wisely remained silent. I pulled the keys from my pocket, the big Slingshot key right on top where they could see it. The confused look on the kid’s face turned back to panic.

“I’ve got your key, so I’ll go ahead and head out now. The mods you wanted should take about three days and then we’ll get it back to you if that’s ok,” I told him.

Still with a bit of a panicked look on his face, the kid handled this situation like a pro. “Thanks”, he said (and I knew that he really meant that). The girl’s face turned from confusion back to awe. Not only did this kid have a cool car, but he was getting it picked up and taken in to have some mods done to it. He was gold.

I walked out, got into the Slingshot (I could see them both watching through the window), and slowly drove off.

Kid, if you’re reading this, you have three days to come up with a good reason why you don’t have the Slingshot anymore. Be nice to that girl.

Oh, and you’re welcome.

Quote from dangerdarrell

Hopefully she figured him out before things went too far.

I'm hoping that she'll have a positive effect on him. I figure that either she's intelligent and knows what she's doing, or she's a gold-digger and this might teach her a valuable lesson. My impression after listening to them talk is that they'll probably end up being a nice couple and one day laugh about how they met.

Quote from Bill Martin

This coming from the "sexual magician"

Yeah.... I suppose I should change that. It was supposed to say "Sling Magician", but autocorrect got it. I just left it that way because I thought it was pretty funny.