“Goodbye” She said, then kissed me as I laid bundled in the covers. I reached my arm out and hooked her leg. Buckling her knee, sending her falling into me.
“Goodbye” I croaked, kissing her neck as she giggled. “Have a great day.” And then she left me.
Usually I would go back to sleep. Today I couldn’t.
Yesterday when Anna came home, she sat me down while holding my hands. From my experience, being sat down down while having your hands held conversations are the most devastating type of conversations. I braced for the worst…
A few nights before there was a knock at the door.
“Oh god. He’s here…”
He was her ex-boyfriend. Who Anna had been afflicted with for over a decade. Charges had been pressed, restraining orders were filed. But he always came back. The legal threat made it a game to him.
“He’s been texting me all day. Let me get rid of him…” She said as she got up.
“No. I want to talk to him.” I said while also getting up.
“Let’s just call the cops.” She pleaded.
“Never call the cops unless there’s a body.” I recited, “You said yourself, it only makes it worse.”
There was another knock. I started for the door.
“Please don’t.” She pleaded.
“I don’t want you to get the door either.” I said as I sat down.
After a couple of minutes, there was a knock at the back door that I was sitting in front of. The dark outside created a mirror effect on the window. I pivoted my head and locked my eyes where I figured he would be looking in…
He went away, she changed her number. She said he would always leave something behind and this time was no different.
I found his Raiders hat the next morning. The symbolism was not lost on me. However, don’t try to intimidate someone from Los Angeles who’s staying in Bronco’s country with a Raiders cap.
No disrespect to the Raiders, but fuck that guy and his hat. If you want to get territorial, let’s get territorial.
“My mom wants me to start paying rent on this place while you are staying here…”
Anna started to explain but I already knew. You don’t get to be a hot chick in your late 30’s without accumulating some baggage.
Decades of ex-boyfriends who took advantage of her trusting nature and thinking they had it made with her parent’s success. With her close knit family watching her being taken advantage of time and time again.
Do I have the means right now to cover my half of the rent? No. Which is embarrassing and emasculating to me. I’ve always been the provider in every relationship I’ve ever been in.
I’m doing okay writing. I know what I should be writing to make enough, but writing things I don’t want to write feels like work, and if I’m working I might as well be making that six figure salary I used to make.
Any woman worth being with is worth fighting for. So It’s time for me to update that resume. It’s just as important to me to show her family I’m not another parasite guy their daughter is with for the moment. I want to be with her, and I’ll prove it.
