[rau]
Mongers come in all flavors. Ask a chica to describe one and you may hear her say he is tall, or short, young or old, fat or thin, handsome or ugly, hairy, bald, a drunk, a gentleman, a ‘grosero’ (pig), nice, crazy, well dressed or many other things. Almost all of the above will be forgiven for the right price. But if there is one descriptor that is universally disliked, it is “Tacaño.” No working girl likes a cheapskate.
Now it’s true confession time. I will admit to being somewhat frugal by nature. And like many other mongers I avoid over-paying as a general rule. At the same time, I take the position that if a chica is worth doing at all, she’s worth a minimum wage, which I used to set at about $40 for a house call. There were a few times when I wasn’t in the mood and the chica was highly motivated (broke) and she would make me a below-market offer and I would go along just because the amount was trivial and it could turn out to be fun.
But there are two times that come to mind where I was unintentionally cheap due to what I’d have to call ignorance. The first time was back at the old New York Bar in San Jose, maybe 2006 or so. There was one chica who hung out there, and is still working downtown bars to this day, who didn’t really appeal to me. She wasn’t unattractive exactly, she just didn’t appeal to me. She was outgoing and very flirtatious with almost any gringo, and in one of our short conversations she paid me a compliment, which I took literally, saying that she’d do me for free.
I didn’t take her up on that right away, but not too long after I did take her home and we did the usual thing. When it was time for her to go, I gave her about half of my normal, thinking I was being generous since she had said she’d do me for free. She frowned and asked if I couldn’t spare a little more. It was early in my mongering ‘career’ and I was a little over-sensitive and insecure about being played, so I stuck to my guns. She took it good-naturedly and we remain friends to this day, though I have never had the inclination to have sex with her again. But she’s a generous soul with a good heart, despite a tendency to get much drunker than she should. I have since bought her many a beer and feel I have atoned for my initial cheapness.
The second case was a girl who had worked as a bartender in a place I went to. She was older but in good shape and we had a flirtatious relationship, though never consummating it. She wasn’t a very good bartender and eventually got laid off. She would still come down to the bar and hang out, and eventually we ended up going to my place together. As I had not propositioned her and offered her money, I thought of her as a ‘regular’ girl who found me appealing and wanted to have some fun. Well, that was true enough, up to a point. I gave her $20 after we were done for ‘taxi’ money, and she took it without comment. It was only later, quite a bit later, that I came to understand that since losing her job she had begun to work the ‘other side of the bar,’ offering her company for cash. If I had known she had turned ‘pro’ I would have given her my usual $40, but I didn’t know and I think she wrote me off as ‘tacaño’ and showed no interest in being with me again. We remained friendly, but I now realize that I had committed the cardinal sin: I had been ‘tacaño.’