The Negotiator

After a busy night I went down to this 24 h off license on New Oxford St, to pay my water bill. I find it really helpful that one can pay his bills anytime he wants! So once I did pay it, I saw this girl who was in the queue right after me. She came closer and asked me what did I just pay. "My water bill. Why?" "I`m a negotiator, you see, and I`m telling you that you should not pay it." A bit puzzled I gave her a questioning look. "Basically" - she went on - "what you should pay is your rent and your council tax. All the bills should be fixed with the rent. I could negotiate that for you!" - she smiled. "Oh! That`s really kind of you but it did happen over three years ago and unless we find a time machine..." We laughed. We were standing in the doorway of this shop. I showed her my trike and offered her a lift. "Hmm... I live in Docklands, you see..." "I see... Don`t you want a lift anywhere else though?" Right in this moment six Asian guys appeared. They stopped around my vehicle, watching it with curiosity and talking softly to each other. They looked decent enough. After a moment one of them took off a heavy lock, that I hung on the handlebar. Me and the girl were stading right behind them. "Why do you touch it?" I asked loudly. He put it down. "Is this your rickshaw?" - they asked. I confirmed. One of them stepped forward and asked this silly question I heard so many times before: "How much to Putney for six of us?". They laughed loudly. "Seriously, how much?" he repeated. They watched me with wait-and-see attitude. "For six of you to Putney? Well, I`m not saying this to you, yeah? But normally... Consider though that I`m not saying this to you right now! So normally I would say: You should sell your mama to get this money..." They laughed happily, except for the one that asked. Instantly he got very angry: "You don`t know who I am!" He started to speak hastily an abusive talk. His Asian accent grew thicker and fortunately I could not get him very well. His friends didn`t stop smiling as they kept winking at me behind his back. One of them said softly to him: "But he didn`t say that to you..." "But that disrespectful! I`m a customer! How can he say that I should sell my mother to have a go on this shitty bike of his!" Apparently the negotiator couldn`t take it any longer: "Stop being rude!" - she said to him. He looked down at her: "Shut up! Talk to the hand" He moved his open palm towards her. She got pretty pissed off and she told him where to go. She didn`t stop talking and now I could tell that her negotiating skills were at play. The bypassers started to stop and watch with growing curiosity. I decided the time came for me to go. I got to my trike and ivitingly showed it to the girl. Clearly she prefered to negotiate a bit more. I waved at her and much relieved I went away.