Rob and Mickey

The closest I came to anything long term was a friends with benefits relationship with the barmaid at the Hitching Post which was a country/western bar a few blocks down the street from the dealership. It started when I stopped in there one night for a beer before going home to watch Thursday night football on the TV. I'd been in there a dozen or so times and Becky knew me and knew where I worked.

On that particular night she asked me what I did at the dealership and I told her then she told me that her car made a terrible screeching sound when she hit her brakes.

"Any idea what it might be?"

"Most likely worn out brakes. Sounds like they are so bad that they are making metal to metal contact."

"Rats! Just what I need; another damned problem that I can't afford to fix."

"Give me your keys and I'll take a look at it."

Her brake pads were so worn that the metal backing was eating into the rotor. I don't know why I did it other than I liked her, but I gave her the keys to my car and told her I'd fix her car on my lunch hour the next day. I got the parts at cost and it only took me forty-five minutes to do the brake job and when I was done she had new pads and rotors. That night when I gave her back her keys she asked: "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing. Consider it a tip."

She gave me a long look and asked, "How long has it been since you have had a home cooked meal?"

"Quite a while."

"I'm off Monday and Tuesday so how about you planning on having dinner at my place and after dinner we can watch Monday Night Football."

"Sounds good to me."

Becky was a very good cook, but we never got to watch football. After I'd finished eating she asked:

"Ready for dessert?"

"I patted my stomach and said, "I don't believe I left enough room in there for dessert."

"Oh I think you can handle this" she said as she walked over to the fridge and got out a can of Cool Whip. She unbuttoned her blouse, unsnapped her bra and pull some Cool Whip on each nipple and then stood there looking at me with a "Come and get it "smile on her face.

DESC++++++++++++++++++++

Becky made it clear that she was not looking for a husband.

"I've been married twice and it never worked out. I guess I'm just not the marrying kind. However I do like sex, but I'm not interested in a bunch of one night stands. Could you stand having a bed buddy who is never going to be any more than a bed buddy?"

Indeed I could and from then on Becky and I got together two or three times a week.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

I called my folks once a week and maybe once every two weeks or so I called Rich and he brought me up to date with what was happening at home. Nancy found a guy and got engaged. They saw Jessica from time to time and never with the same guy twice.

I got an invitation in the mail to attend Mickey's graduation and I tossed it into the trash can.

I took a weeks vacation after my first year and went back to visit. Rich and Bev had a barbecue for just family and I almost didn't go until Rich assured me that it would be just family. I went and it was.

I called Alicia while I was there just to say hi and she told me that she was engaged to be married to a pretty nice guy and I wished her well.

I'd been back to work three months when I got the word that made me smile. I know that it isn't nice to be happy over some one else's misfortune, but I just couldn't help it. North had been drafted in the second round by the Arizona Cardinals and in his very first practice scrimmage he had blown out his knee. I wasn't so much glad that his pro career was over before it started or that he was hurt as I was happy to hear the Michelle's gravy train had been derailed.

It was on the second anniversary of my move that Rich called me and told me that our graduating class was organizing a picnic as sort of an impromptu five year reunion and he wanted to know if I could make it. I told him that I didn't think so, but over the course of a week and two dozen phone calls from him and Bev I finally caved and said I would attend. I knew that Mickey would be there, but it had been two years since I'd last seen her and I was pretty sure that she had moved on since then. I doubted that I'd have to be ducking her to avoid talking.

Rich and Bev offered their spare bedroom, but even though I expected that Mickey had moved on I wouldn't have put it past Bev to meddle and invite Mickey over while I was staying with them so I opted to stay with mom and dad.

When I arrived at the park there were all ready twenty or thirty from our graduating class there. I helped Rich drag three picnic tables together and I was sitting there with Bev, Rich, Tom, Sally, Ralph and Wanda when Nancy showed up with a guy I'd never seen before. Five minutes later Mickey arrived and joined the group. I was at the east end of the table and she took a seat at the west end. I was surprised when after about ten minutes no one had joined her.

About a half hour later I was in a friendly argument with Tom and Ralph over vehicles. I was a Ford mechanic, Ralph worked for the local Chevy dealer and Tom was a dyed in the wool Dodge man. I wasn't paying any attention when someone sat down on my right. Suddenly I felt something cold and metallic on my right wrist and heard a click. I looked to my right and saw Mickey sitting there and then I looked at my right wrist and saw that she had handcuffed herself to me.

"You can't run away from me now Rob. You have to talk to me if you want the key."

I looked around and saw Bev, Rich, Nancy and a couple of others smiling at me. I had been set up. I could have ranted and raved and created a scene that would have disrupted the affair, but I decided that it wouldn't be worth it,

"So go ahead Michelle and talk. I can't get away, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to listen."

"I'll take my chances. It is kind of private so can we go sit in your car or mine?"

"I don't think so. I don't want to go that far handcuffed to you."

I looked around and spotted an empty picnic table about a hundred yards away with no one close to it and said:

"That will work for privacy."

She shrugged and said, "Let's go." We walked over to the table and sat down and I said:

"Okay Michelle, go."

"The one thing I want you to keep in mind as you hear me out is that I love you and I always have. Please Rob, don't ever doubt that. That said I have to say that I have not always been a very nice person. I have always been selfish; always a 'me first' person. A person who wanted her cake and to eat it too. And I am kind of possessive. I always considered that you were mine and I wasn't ever going to share you with anyone, but at the same time I felt free to do what I pleased.

"You didn't know it, but every time I went to visit my grandparents I had some one watching you to make sure that you were true to me while at the same time I dated one of the local boys. Don't ask me why I thought it was all right for me but not you because I don't honestly know. It was just a case of your being mine so no one else could have you.

"Another bad thing about me is that I was very materialistic. My dad worked his ass off to take care of us and while we never went without we never did have much extra. We were having to watch what we spent. It was always having to scrimp for what we wanted. Always pinching pennies, looking for sales so we could save a dime here and a quarter there. I wanted more out of life than that. I didn't want to sweat and worry about watching every dime when I wanted something.

"I thought I had the best of both worlds with you. A person I loved and who was going to make big money playing pro ball. Then you dropped the bomb on me about not going to college and instead intended to be a mechanic. All I could see in front of me was a life that was the same as I had been living and wanted to get away from. I decided that I was going to have to look for someone who had more ambition and who was going to amount to something. At the same time I wanted you because I loved you. I knew that you loved me so I assumed that even though I was going to marry some one for money that you would still be there for me. To repeat myself; I would have my cake and get to eat it too.

"There was a boy I dated when I went to Cartersville and he was from a very wealthy family so I set my sights on him. We went at it hot and heavy and I thought for sure I had him when I got pregnant. It wasn't supposed to happen because I was on the pill and we always used condoms. No matter, he got me pregnant so he had to marry me right? Wrong! He laughed at me and said it wasn't is and that it must be the kid of one of my other lovers. When I asked what other lovers he said he had no idea, but if I was cheating on you with him I was probably cheating on you with others also. Anyway, I ended up having an abortion.

"When I went away to college Stan started trying to date me and when I saw that he had a damned good shot at making the pros so I started dating him. Again it was a case of me expecting to always have you regardless of me hooking up with someone else. Unreasonable I know now, but back then I was full of myself and my attitude was that if I wanted it to happen then that is the way it was going to be.

"Then you confronted me and I made my stupid speech about not wanting to tie myself down with someone who wasn't going to be going anywhere. You shocked me when you dumped me and started going out with other girls. It wasn't supposed to happen that way. You loved me. You were always going to be there for me.

"It took me a bit to realize that Stan was an asshole and losing you over him was just plain stupid and that I'd rather have you and live the life my parents lived than not have you. I tried to get you to talk to me so I could tell you that, but you would never let me. Bev tried to get us together but you always ran. She was supposed to let me know when you were coming home, but you never told anyone ahead of time you were coming and by the time Bev got to me to let me know you were here you had already gone back. I was getting desperate so Bev and I cooked up this five year reunion thing and prayed that you would come back for it. The hand cuffs to keep you from running were Rich's idea."

When she finished talking I said, "So just what are you expecting out of this?"

"I'm hoping that we can pick up where we left off."

"I don't see how Mick. I live seven hundred miles away and I'm not going to be driving back two or three times a week to date and I just can't see a relationship working if I only come back once a month or so."

"You won't have to Rob. I'll move to you."

"You would leave your job, your friends and your family?"

"They are here Rob; you aren't. Yes, I would leave everything behind to be with you."

I didn't know what to say. I had loved Mickey for what seemed like forever, but I had tried hard to put her behind me. Now here she was offering herself to me on a platter. If I took her up on her offer could we make a go of it or would all the bad thoughts I'd had about the things she'd done stay with me and get in the way. I didn't know what to do. I just didn't know.

"What are you thinking" she asked and I told her.

"What if you give up everything here, move and then things don't work out what then?"

"It is a chance that I have to take Rob."

I looked at her and then over at the table where the others were sitting watching us expectantly. It would be a gamble, but then wasn't all of life a gamble?

I looked at her and said, "How soon can you be packed?"