I’m going back.

I’ve been known to be a little forgetful on occasion so it was no surprise that I had left my sunglasses at the gas station where we filled up.
I didn’t think much about it at the time because the sky had clouded over and the sun wasn’t really a problem, but several miles down the road the sun came out again and I realised what had happened. Unfortunately we were on a 4-lane highway at the time, with exits few and far between, so I pulled up ahead of Charlie who was riding his BMW K757-A with German-engineered dirt under the fenders and flagged him off into the next rest stop.
“Charlie, I forgot my sunglasses back at that gas station.”
“So what would you like me to do about it?” Charlie was always a very sympathetic sort.
“I’m going to go back for them.”
“Hey man, it’s 15 miles back and there’s nowhere to turn around. Forget ‘em.”
“Charlie, those are expensive glasses. I’m not leaving them there.” The most expensive pair of sunglasses Charlie ever owned were the plastic $3 reading glasses from the Dollar Store that he darkened using a felt-tip marker, so he was having difficulty relating.
“Well shit man, if you’d take care of your stuff this wouldn’t happen.”
“Charlie, I just forgot them on the counter, that’s all. I’m going back.”
And so it went, back and forth, with me taking the lion’s share of abuse for being “so f’ing stupid”. But finally he relented and agreed to ride back with me “just to keep you company”.
It was another 5 miles before we hit an exit where we could turn around and 20 miles back to the gas station. All the way I could see Charlie up ahead, just shaking his head, and I figured I’d never hear the end of it: a waste of time and gas for a lousy pair of sunglasses left on the counter by an idiot.
Finally we pulled into the gas station and parked out front. And as I was getting off my bike to go inside Charlie said to me, “While you’re in there could you also get my credit card?”
Bastard.