Too Late to Say Goodbye

Over the next few days, I concentrated on work. I got the company's production back on schedule so I could relax a bit. For the sake of peace of mind, I avoided anywhere that I thought Lori might be. It was a Saturday night and I was washing my car when she showed up.

A Mustang isn't a big car but it looked huge with her getting out of it.

"Do mine next," she said smiling at me. She was still wearing the sweatshirt she'd taken from me eight days before."

"What're you...?" I started. "How did you...?"

"You told me your entire life story. Did you think I wasn't listening? You even told me the name of your business and the city you live in. It's actually more of a town. You didn't tell me that you had a Mustang.

"You didn't tell me that you did either," I said.

"Why'd ya think I wanted the shirt?" she smirked.

"So why'd you stop by?" I asked. I was still a little hurt from her kiss off.

"I'm not stopping by," she said. "I'm staying."

"I thought you wanted to see the world," I said.

"I thought so too," she smiled, moving ever closer to me. "By the time we'd been apart for six hours, I knew that I'd made a mistake. I started a big debate in my mind. I just got out of a really bad, really long relationship, I was afraid of getting into another one. The other side of my brain told me that you'd made me feel better in a week than Levi had in eighteen years and that was something that should be explored."

By the time she finished that sentence, she was rubbing against me.

"Then I had another debate. On one side, I thought that you'd never actually told me that you liked me or wanted any kind of relationship with me, although you had told me that I was kind of pretty. You also for some reason, seemed to think that I was sexy. The other side of me thought that you had to know how I felt about you and you felt it too because you clearly didn't want me to leave. I think you were a little bit disappointed when I left. But I've already told you that I'm just not good at goodbyes. As pretty as you seem to think I am, I'm downright ugly when I cry. So I decided that I'd just come here and find you and see what you thought about it." She'd wrapped her arms around me by then.

"I figured I have nothing to lose because you seem to be a man of your word and you did offer me a job," she said. "So even if you didn't want me the way I thought you did, at least I could work for you for a while." She was pulling her face down to mine.

"I do have an opening for a receptionist," I said. She kissed me and I tasted cherries again.

"But you can' have it," I said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"If I had to look at you all day, I'd never get any work done," I said.

"Well, I guess I should probably be moving on then," she said.

"If you ever try to leave me again, there'll be trouble," I said between kisses.

"Well, I'm not much of a trouble maker," she said, wrapping her tiny arms around me.

"I need to tell you something though," I said.

"I already know," she said. "You're going to want to stick that thing in me. I've been missing it since we parted ways."

"No, Em, this is serious," I said.

"I'm pretty serious about you," she said. "I didn't realize it until you were gone though."

"I dropped the divorce," I said. Her eyes got huge. She pulled herself up and sat down on the wet hood of my car.

"After all of the shit she pulled on you!" she said.

"The judge refused the fraud judgment. He agreed to a divorce if we could work out a settlement..." I said.

"Mark, write the bitch a check," she said. "Life's too short to..."

"Exactly," I said. I explained the game that Lori was playing and why I'd dropped the divorce.

"So she doesn't live with you anymore?" she asked.

"Nope, you do," I said.

"You're not just doing this because you still want her?" she asked.

"I forgot about her the day I met you," I said.

"That's good enough for me," she said.

Emily and I picked up where we left off on the ship. From that day forward, we were never apart. She even showed up at the plant anytime she missed me, which was pretty often. She slowly won over all of the people in my life.

My secretary was the first person she conquered, followed shortly thereafter by Eric, who'd taken the job and worked for me.

From hearing about her through Eric, my daughter showed up at my house, ready to hate her on sight. They were friends in no time. Katey did warn me though that Lori knew about Emily and was very upset.

I knew that trouble was brewing when Lori's father showed up and demanded a meeting.

"Is it true you have some girl living with you?" he asked. I just nodded.

"Is it true that she's only a teenager?" he asked. I started laughing.

"No Dad," I guffawed. "She's thirty eight years old. She's just kind of tiny."

"Does she understand that you're married and that she's preventing you from working out your differences with your wife?" he asked. "What kind of whore is she?"

"She's not the kind of whore who marries a man but continues to screw her college boyfriend," I snapped. "She's not the kind of whore who can't let go of him even with a twenty-five year marriage on the line. She's not the kind of whore who puts a man who repeatedly cheated on her for years and who admits that he only wanted her for my fucking money ahead of her husband. So between the two kinds of whores, I like her better."

"I gave Lori all the time in the world to figure out what she wanted to do. In the end, she couldn't give him up. So I gave her up and moved on. She wouldn't give me a divorce so I had to make do without one. Luckily I found someone who wants me enough that she took me anyway. We're happy and that's what matters most."

"But, what about Lori?" he asked. "She loves you. She's miserable without you. She..."

"She's fine," I said. "I saw her only a week ago in Todd's neighborhood. She just can't let him go. She made her choice and I made mine."

A few days later, the inevitable meeting took place. I wished I'd been there to see it, but Em told me all about it. It had been a nice day and Emily had been out on the deck with our large awning protecting her from frying in the sun. She was reading a book and wearing her swimsuit top and some shorts. She heard someone knocking on the fence.

"You can come in through the garage, its open," she yelled, thinking it was one of the neighbors. She'd already made friends with a lot of them.

She looked up again and there was a woman glaring at her.

"So you're the ex, huh?" she smiled.

"Get out of my house," screamed Lori.

"The last time I checked, this was Mark's house," said Emily calmly. "But he calls it "OUR" house so I guess it's kind of mine. You gave up the right to call it your house when you started fucking your old boyfriend."

Lori was shocked. She didn't think that Emily would know so much about her.

"My daughter and my son in law seem to think that you're a nice person," said Lori trying a different tactic. Nice women don't move in with married men."

"They do when they love them and the men are only married because their exes won't give them a divorce," said Emily. "Lori, you can't have them both. You made your decision a long time ago. Let Mark go. He'll give you more money. I'll make sure of it."

"I don't want money you stupid bitch," screamed Lori. "I want my husband back."

"You can't have him back," said Emily calmly. "That ship has sailed. You made your decision. Now live with it. The thing I can't figure out though is why? Mark clearly loved you. You two have a beautiful daughter. Why would you pick a man who had nothing but contempt for you over someone who loved you as much as Mark did?"

"To tell you the truth," said Lori. "I don't know myself. I should have given Todd up a long time ago. But I couldn't. Even when Mark found out, I just kept trying to come up with a way to have them both. I guess I love Mark, but I feel sorry for Todd."

"Mark was your husband Lori. You should never have put anyone in front of him. When you got married, he became your first priority," said Emily.

"He was my first priority," hissed Lori. "But I still had a life outside of our marriage. I'm a grown woman. I can have friends. And Mark doesn't get to choose my friends. I was his wife not his slave. I don't have to jump when he says so. Are you from 1983 or something? Was I supposed to just give up my whole life for him? Am I supposed to give him blow jobs on demand?"

"No," said Emily. "Not anymore. He gets all of his blow jobs from me now. But at least we know where we stand. I kind of love him enough that there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. If one of my friends rubs him the wrong way, that friend is history. But I'll betcha he feels the same way about me. He probably felt the same way about you."

"What do you mean felt?" laughed Lori. "Mark has loved me for most of his God damned life. I can have him back whenever I want him. All I have to do is call him. This whole thing between us is just a dispute over one issue. As soon as one of us gives in, it's over and we're back together. I was just trying to warn you. I wouldn't get too comfortable if I was you. I hope you haven't unpacked all of your stuff, because you're going to be moving out soon."

Like I said, when I got home in the evening, Em told me all about it. We had a quiet dinner and went to bed but not to sleep. When we woke up yesterday morning, I decided that we should get away for a while so I drove us up to the cabin. She loves it here. She loves the lake and the shady woods around them. The fresh air and the sounds of the birds had inspired us and we'd been really vigorous in our bed. It was shaping up to be a beautiful weekend until Lori had called.

I hoped that the phone hadn't awakened Emily. As Lori continued to rant over the phone about how much she still loved me and told me over and over that she'd finally ended things with Todd. I repeated myself one more time.

"Forget about it Lori," I said. "We're done."

"But I told him it was over," she said. "I told him it's over for good. I told him goodbye."

"And I told you Lori. It's too late to say goodbye." I turned the phone off and put all thoughts about my ex and divorces behind me. I got back in bed where I belonged and wrapped the blanket tighter around myself and the tiny little redhead who now shared not only my bed, but my heart and my life."

"Mmm," she mumbled, letting me know that she wasn't fully asleep. "Are you going to stick that thing in me again?"

"Every chance I get," I said.

The end.