One man has found a way out of performing all the tasks he had promised to take on when he quit his full-time job.
One Sorry Blog News Service
Buenos Aires – When he quit his full-time job as a translator ten days ago, Paul Rivas promised his girlfriend, Clare Nisbet, that he would assume the duties around the house that the latter had been performing tirelessly during the nine months that Rivas had been working Monday through Friday from 1 to 9 p.m. However, according to Nisbet, Rivas had done very little of what he had agreed to do.
“Are you kidding me?” Nisbet asked, arms splayed behind her back. “How much time do we have? I can’t even tell you all the things Paul said he was going to do for me once he just didn’t have to work anymore. But I can tell you that he hasn’t done any of them.”
Yet this morning, with Nisbet have left the house for Spanish class before he woke up, Rivas issued a statement:
“I am pleased to report that Ms. Nisbet and I have reached an agreement. Last night, in her sleep, she consented to absolve me from all domestic responsibilities I may have assumed heretofore.”
In a question and answer period, Rivas explained that he entered into negotiations with the sleeping Nisbet upon hearing her “babbling in Spanish” as she slept while Rivas worked at the computer in the other room. According to Rivas, Nisbet often talk in her sleep, in both English and Spanish, and the fact that she is slumbering rarely, if ever, dissuades her from carrying on a conversation if provoked.
“I often hear her talking about something or another and, you know, just for fun, go in the bedroom and ask her questions to keep her talking,” Rivas explained with a stone-cold straight face. “And last night, I thought, ‘Why not ask her a serious question instead of just messing with her?’ So I asked her if she would excuse me from all the cooking and cleaning and errands I said I would do when I quit my job, and she said yes. That’s basically it.”
Needless to say, Nisbet was incensed when she heard of the alleged pact.
“He’s probably laughing like Mutley right now. That’s what he does when he thinks he’s done something tricky,” mocked Nisbet. “But seriously, does he really think that just because I said something in my sleep – which I’m not saying I did – that he now has the right to go back on his word? Really? It’s not like I signed anything in my sleep!”
While some legal scholars are of the opinion that Nisbet is absolutely right about this point, and that because nothing was signed, there is no agreement, Rivas and his camp disagree.
As Rivas explained, “My lawyers tell me that a written agreement need not exist in order for this no-chores contract to be legally effective. I mean think about it for two seconds: we’re engaged to be married. Should a signed contract really be necessary? Shouldn’t her word suffice? I asked her to be let out of my promise to make the bed and stuff, and she said yes. Should I really be required to get her signature on a document stating as much? That’s absurd.”
The obvious question is whether Rivas didn’t think it at least a little bit absurd that he was holding Nisbet to something she said while asleep. When asked this, Rivas responded, “No, I don’t think so. No.”
