That the "oldest profession" would be practiced here in Morocco was no surprise to me, but our restaurant's image and personality doesn't lend itself to "ladies of the night" in the recruitment mode. The only "Madame" at the bar is Madame Rick! When occasionally men are joined late into their meal by
women who have a drink or dessert and then leave with the party I don't speculate on the "terms of engagement." For example, the other night 3 men at a table upstairs were joined by a woman, who on entering the restaurant seemed to know two women who'd just arrived at a table downstairs. She was then directed to her table where she closed out the evening - their party being the last to leave at 12:40am. The next afternoon at 4:00 pm I overheard Adil, our controller talking with someone who claimed to have left a Zara shopping bag that contained a wrapped package. It turned out to be the woman who'd joined table 40. Adil checked and said nothing had been turned in. Saying it was impossible that the bag was not there she demanded Adil go upstairs to look, giving him her phone number and asking to be called back. He checked, found no bag, we asked the housekeepers, no one had seen anything left behind. When Adil called her back she was more impolite, accusing us of stealing from customers and threatening to come back at 11pm that night to "create a scandal." Giving her some time to hopefully reflect on her attitude, I called her back 30 minutes later. I said I'd been briefed by Adil and advised that we have strict procedures if items are left and we have no way to contact the client. I told her we have drawers filled with scarves, cigar cutters, glasses, some items left more than 2 years ago, so I was sure that her bag had not been left. In any case it would be almost impossible for a sack not to be quickly spotted. When she began screaming at me I asked her why she waited until 4pm to call...she nonchalantly told me she had just awakened, and then I got the picture. She asked me if I had the slightest doubt - I said no, I didn't. And then she repeated her threat to come at 11pm and make a scandal - I advised she might have a hard time getting through security. But of course when these things happen you're left wondering. The security guard on duty the night before had the day off and could not be reached, but we did have our security camera video and Ismail, our day receptionist, came back to the restaurant to help rewind the tape and see what could be seen. And sure enough, at 12:43 we saw the shadowy figures of people exiting, passing by our lights and then out in the street a very clear view of a handbag over one shoulder and a sack in her left hand! We waited around for "scandal hour", but it came and went, which was fine by me as I had another plan. The next morning at 10am I called her. She answered, and when I identified myself she said, "You woke me up," to which I replied, "I don't care." She hung up and I called her back - somehow she was too foggy to leave the phone off the hook. I said we had a tape of her leaving the restaurant with the sack and that were she ever to return to Rick's it would be for one visit only - to apologize to all of us. Otherwise she was not welcome...and we all have long memories. Another entry into Rick's folklore...and the legend continues!!! |
