I was on a camping trip last year with three friends - another girl and two guys. We’re very close, but not in any romantic or sexual way, even though we were all single. Our plan was to hang out in the woods, drink, cook over the fire and just have a general chill-fest. Boys in one tent and the girls in the other.
And that’s the way things went … the first night. But on the second night, it started pouring. And my tent, the girly tent, had neither a rain flap on top nor a blue tarp underneath. All our stuff - blankets, pillows, sleeping bags - was soaked on this chilly spring night. So the boys invited us into their tent, which was not quite big enough for four.
I ended up jammed next to my single guy friend - we’ll call him Greg - who was wrapped in a sleeping bag cocoon. I had a pillow, but no cover. Plus before we moved to their tent, I had been sleeping in this thin white T-shirt. Well, it had gotten wet and had started sticking to me. And it was really starting to get cold. Trust me: It was miserable.
“Greg? I whispered, so as not to wake the others. “Could I please have some of your sleeping bag?”
“Uh, no, I really don’t want to share,” he said. “My sleeping bag isn’t all that big.”
“But Greg, I’m freezing. And look at my shirt,” I said, sitting up so he could see my chilled, pitiful circumstances. “I’m going to get sick if I don’t warm up somehow.”
“Jesus. Alright,” he said, in a snippy tone, unzipping the bag and giving me a corner. “Just try to stay on your side.”
I was truly grateful. When we got back to town, I bought him a gift certificate to Fishbones. Was $25 enough? I could have gone as high as $40, but I didn’t want to scare him off. How would you have thanked him for his kindness?