It is my fault and I accept it.  I don’t try to blame anyone else.  I allowed it to happen and up to the point where it went bad I was an active participant.  If I blame it on anything it would have to be love.

I fell head over heels in love with Maeve the first time I laid eyes on her. It was at a cocktail party that my company was throwing for our customers and suppliers.  I was talking with the sales rep for the company that sold us some of the chemicals we use in our manufacturing process when she walked into the room.  She was on the arm of a man I took an instant dislike to.  Had never met, had never spoken to him, had never even heard of him, but my dislike was intense because she was with him and not me.

She was a fairly tall woman, maybe five foot seven or eight.  Dirty blond hair that hung down below her shoulders.  Very nice looking body, but I have to admit that I didn’t spend much time trying to figure out her weight or measurements.  It was her face that grabbed my attention.  I don’t know how to describe it.  Her face had planes and angles.  She looked an awful lot like porn star Krystal Summers.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.  Suddenly there was a hand in front of my face, fingers snapping and a voice saying:

“Earth to Rob, Earth to Rob, come in please.”

Charlie, the sales rep I had been talking to chuckled and said:

 “Obviously nothing that I have to say is going to register on you as long as she is in the room so I’ll let you go.  Call me in the morning.”

Then he laughed and said, “Good luck” and walked toward the bar leaving me standing there staring at Maeve.

I was still staring at her when she turned her head and our eyes met.  I felt a jolt all the way to the soles of my feet.  She didn’t smile at me or nod an acknowledgement; she held my eyes for a couple of seconds and then looked away.  I spent the rest of the cocktail party watching her and making note of who she talked with so I could approach them later and in talking with them hopefully find out more about her.

I was standing at the bar waiting for the barmaid to build me a vodka tonic with lime when she walked up to stand next to me.  She ordered a Cosmo and then turned to me and said:

“Do I have a big, nasty looking spot on my skirt or something like that?”

“Not that I noticed.  Why?”

“Because every time I look your way you are looking at me.”

Not being one to pass up an opening I said, “And at your age this comes as a surprise?  You know you are drop dead gorgeous and that men, me among them, are going to be fascinated with you.  I’ve spent most of the evening since you walked in trying to think of a way to meet you.”

“Coming up to me and saying hello would work.”

“I know, but it would be socially awkward since you are here with another guy.”

“Why would it be awkward?  You wouldn’t say “Hello, I’d like to take you to bed” would you?”

“Of course not, but your date would know that my real purpose in coming up to you would be to try and separate you from him and that is what would make the situation awkward.”

“Well fortunately for you he is just a date and he is replaceable and I just happen to have a soft spot for guys who find me fascinating.”

She stuck out her hand and said, “Maeve Billings and I’ll give you advance warning that I hate being called Mae.”  

I took her hand and carried it to my lips and lightly kissed it and said, “Rob.  Rob Daltry.”

“Nice meeting you Rob.  Although my date is replaceable he is still my date this evening and I need to get back to him.  She started to walk away and then turned back to me.

“I’m in the book Rob Daltry.”

She turned and walked back to her date.

The next evening I called her and asked her to have dinner with me on Friday and she said she would love too.

Maeve owned me from the start.  Our first date was all it took to tell me that I had found the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  The first date led to a second and the second to a third.  I longed to take her in my arms and make mad, passionate love to her, but I kept my hands to myself and behaved.  I would do nothing that might scare her off or make her push me away.

At the end of our third date I walked Maeve to the door of her condo, told her that I’d had a lovely time and leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek and she put a hand on my chest to stop me.

“Do I have bad breath Rob?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then kiss me” and she put her arms around my neck and drew me to her. It was a long, passionate kiss and when we broke it she turned, unlocked and opened her door.  Then she turned to me, took hold of my tie and pulled me along behind her.  Once inside she turned and gave me another very passionate kiss and then said:

“I’m not the least bit old fashioned Rob.  I’m a very modern girl who goes after what she wants and right now what I want is you.  The bedroom is back this way” and she turned and started walking away from me.  She went eight or ten steps and then turned to look back at me standing there stunned at the suddenness of it all.  “Coming?” she asked and then headed for her bedroom.

I finally got my act together and went after her.  She was waiting for me when I came into the room and she smiled and said “Good boy” and then she started to undress.  There was no music and she didn’t go through any of the movements that strippers use, but watching Maeve undress was one of the most erotic things that I had ever seen.  First she shimmied out of her dress and let it fall and puddle around her feet.  She smiled and looked into my eyes as she casually kicked the dress off to a corner and her hands went to her bra.  The bra came off and she tossed it aside and still looking into my eyes she took off her panties and without looking tossed them over her shoulder.  She stood in front of me in garter belt, nylons and high heels and said:

“Well?”

I looked at her confused and she said, “I seem to be the only one here undressed.”

Things might have been going a little fast for me, but I wasn’t stupid so I hurriedly undressed.  As I stood there looking at her with eyes and heart full of desire I confessed;

“I’m scared.  I’m scared that I might not do you justice.  It has been a while for me and I could be kind of quick.”

“Do your best sweetie; we have all night.”

I was quick, but it didn’t seem to bother Maeve and she took my cock in her mouth and got me back up and then she took charge.  She knew what she wanted and she led me along.  Before the night was over I had eaten her pussy, savored her in the doggie position, received another superb blow job, had taken her anally and then we had showered together and then enjoyed sex in the missionary position.  I fell asleep with my arms around her.

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

That started an on again/off again relationship that ran for almost two years.  It was on again-off again because even though Maeve kept telling me that I was the man she wanted to settle down with she wasn’t ready to settle down.  I wasn’t all that happy about it, but Maeve was a very forceful person and there was a lot of ‘my way or the highway’ in her and I was in no hurry to ‘hit the road’ as far as she was concerned so I took what I could get.

The first time she did it to me we had been dating for about six months.  Actually dating wasn’t the word for it.  We basically lived together.  After our first night of passionate sex we became an instant couple and she either slept at my apartment or I slept at her condo.  Anyway, one evening I called her at work and asked her the usual question:

“What would you like to do for dinner and is tonight your place or mine?”

“Neither honey.  I have a date tonight.”

“A date?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of a date?”

“Dinner and then maybe dancing.”

I was silent for a moment or two while I contemplated that and then I said, “Oh.  Have a good time” and I hung up on her.  The phone rang almost instantly and caller ID said that it was Maeve so I ignored it.  I grabbed my keys and headed for The Extra Point which was a sports bar where my cousin George tended bar.  I sat down at the bar and ordered a Black Jack with water back and then sat there being pissed.  I thought that Maeve and I had something going, but I was obviously wrong about that.  I had a couple of drinks at the bar and then some guys I knew came in and we shot pool until closing time.

The next day at work I debated calling Maeve at the advertising agency where she worked, but finally decided against it.  She chose to break the bond between us and I had no real claim on her.  Why call and make it look like I was begging.

A week went by and I got a call from Maeve.  “Can I come over tonight?”

“No, I have a date tonight.”

“A date?”

“Yeah.  Dinner and maybe dancing.”

“Maybe dancing?”

“Yeah, just maybe.  She might want to do something else.”

“Who is it?  Do I know her?”

“I don’t know.  You might know her.”

“What’s her name?”

“Haven’t got a clue Maeve.  I haven’t met her yet, but I’m sure that I’ll find her at one of the places I’ll hit tonight.  Got to go Maeve.  Bye.”

I’d no sooner disconnected than the phone rang.  Caller ID showed that it was Maeve and I wondered how she did that.  It was the second time she had been able to get back to me instantly when I disconnected.  It always seemed to take me twenty or thirty seconds to get back to someone who I was disconnected from.  Oh well, one of life’s little mysteries. 

I grabbed my keys and headed for the Extra Point.  I drank some, talked to George and shot some pool for a while.  I headed home about eleven.  When I walked into my apartment I turned on the light I found Maeve sitting on my couch.

“You’re home kind of early.  Date didn’t go well?”

I shrugged, “Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t.  What’s up with you?  Tired of your new boyfriend all ready?”

“I don’t have a new boyfriend.  He was just a guy I met that I thought I wanted to get to know better.”

“So why are you here?”

“Once I got to know him better I found that he wasn’t worth the bother.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.  Why are you here?”

“Because you are my guy.  You going to make me leave?”

Looking back I guess that I should have made her leave, but I was hopelessly in love with her and so I said, “Of course not” and she stood up and said, “Take me to bed baby.  We have five days to make up for.”

When Maeve finished with me I was so wiped out that I had to call in sick to work the next day.  Her “date” was never mentioned again.

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

Five months later it happened again only that time we had a date to go to a concert.  I received a call from Maeve at work telling me that something had come up at work and she was going to have to cancel.  She said she might be working late so she would just go on home to her condo that night.  I didn’t feel like going to the concert alone so I decided to get a bite to eat and then catch a movie.

I had eaten and I was driving down Madison on my way to the movie when I saw Maeve and a man I didn’t recognize walking hand in hand into the Fleetwood Hotel.  At fist I thought she was having dinner with a client since she did tell me that something had come up at work, but then I remembered that the Fleetwood did not have a restaurant or a lounge – just rooms. And why would she be holding hands with a client?

I can’t even remember the name of the movie I sat through and I don’t remember all that much about the movie itself other that it had Reese Witherspoon in it.  What I remember most about my time in that movie theatre was a constant replay of Maeve and the man walking into the Fleetwood together.

It was six days before I heard from Maeve again.  She called me at work to ask if that night was going to be at her place or mine.

“How about neither.  We can take a room at the Fleetwood.  Got to go.  Got another call on the other line.”

That evening when I got off work I didn’t go home.  I went to the Extra Point and drank some, talked to George, but passed on shooting pool.  When I got to my apartment I saw Maeve’s Cherokee in the lot and I braced myself for the confrontation that was going to take place when I walked into my apartment.  I loved Maeve, but I wasn’t a doormat and I was not going to continue to let her wipe her feet on me.  The first time I had let it go, but I wasn’t going to do it again.

When I entered the apartment and hit the light switch I looked toward the couch expecting to see Maeve sitting there, but the couch was empty.  Maeve was in the bedroom, naked and lying on top of the sheets waiting for me.  Before I could say a word she said:

“Hurry baby, I need you; I need you right now.”

When I hesitated she came off the bed, knelt in front of me, got my cock out and started sucking on it.  “Confrontation can wait until after” I thought as I started to take off my shirt.  The confrontation didn’t come “after” because “after” I was so exhausted that I fell instantly asleep.

I woke up to the smell of frying bacon.  I hoped into the shower and then got dressed for work.  As I entered the kitchen Maeve was just setting the food on the table.  The coffee was already poured and as I sat down Maeve said:

Dig in.  Eat hearty and have a good lunch.  You will need all your strength tonight.”

“Why are you trying to fuck me to death Maeve?  Didn’t you get enough at the Fleetwood last week?”

“I never get enough lover, but to answer your unasked question he meant nothing to me.  You know I’m yours baby, but I’m young, healthy and full of curiosity and the time to satisfy that curiosity is before marriage, not after.”

“I know I’m a little late in asking, but do you use condoms when you are satisfying your curiosity?”

“That’s a mean question to ask.”

“No it isn’t Maeve.  And the reason it isn’t is because I have no curiosity.  I’m not the least bit curious about what a venereal disease feels like so if you are not using protection while you are out there being curious I would prefer that you don’t come to my bed after satisfying your curiosity until you have at least had yourself checked to make sure that you are disease free.”

I finished my coffee and then got up and left.  I didn’t get the “your place or mine” call at work that day so I hit the Point on the way home from work for a few drinks and a few words with George.  George was getting a tad tired of hearing me ‘whine’ about Maeve so he said;

“Walk away Rob.  Trust me on this Cuz, it isn’t worth it.”

Easy for him to say since he wasn’t head over heels in love with her.  Maeve’s car wasn’t in the parking lot when I got there.  I made myself some dinner, watched a thing about dinosaurs on the History channel and then went to bed early.  I didn’t hear her come in.  The first I knew she was there was when her hot mouth woke up both me and my cock.  It turned into another exhausting night and just before I fell asleep Maeve whispered:

“I’m sorry baby; I promise that it won’t happen again.”

But two months later it did happen again and when I reminded her that she had promised me that it wouldn’t happen again she told me that she had kept her promise and had made him use condoms.  Then she told me to take her to bed and show her again why I was and would always be her main man.

“I don’t want to be your main man Maeve; I want to be your only man.”

“You will be baby, but not just yet.  I’m not ready to settle down.”

“But I am Maeve, I am.”

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

The next day I went apartment hunting, found one that I liked and three days later I took a day off work and moved.  I did not tell Maeve.  That evening my cell went off and the display showed that the call was from Maeve.  I didn’t answer it and let it go to voicemail.  I waited a minute and then I listened to the voicemail.

“Rob baby, I’m at your apartment and there is nothing here.  What’s going on?”

I shrugged and deleted the message.  The next day I called my secretary into my office and told her not to put through any calls from Maeve.  If Maeve called I was always to be out of the office or in an important meeting.

“I know it isn’t fair to put you in the middle of my personal problems, but I’ll make it worth you while.  Lunch on me for you and three of your friends at the Hilton every Friday for a month.  Deal?”

Donna smiled at me, stuck out her hand and said “Deal” and we shook on it.

I thought about Maeve every night as I drove home from work and wondered where she was.  I thought about her as I fixed my dinner and watched TV and wondered where she was.  At night I lay in bed looking up at the ceiling and thought of her and wondered where she was.  When I woke up in the morning the first thing I saw was the empty side of the bed and I thought about her and wondered where she was.  I loved the stupid cunt and I knew that getting over her was not going to be easy – if it could even be done – but I had no idea that it was going to be anywhere near as hard as it was.

Every day Donna would hand me a stack of message slips from Maeve and I would pitch them into the trash.  My cell collected ten or twelve missed messages and voice mails every day and I deleted them.  George called me and told me Maeve had been in asking about me and she as asking everyone who knew me if they knew where I was.  No one did because I’d told no one.  I didn’t frequent the bars and restaurants that I used to go to and I even went so far as to bribe the security guys in the lobby of the building to alert me any time Maeve came around.  That paid off and several times I had to leave the building in the evenings through the loading dock.  Several times I got phone calls telling me that Maeve was sitting in the parking lot waiting for me to get to work in the morning.

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

I managed to avoid all contact with Maeve – for all of two months.  And then one evening I came home from work to my new apartment and found Maeve waiting for me.  Before she could say a word I asked:

“How did you find me?”

“The old fashioned way.  I hired a private detective.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“Oh but I am.”

“You spent good money on a P.I?  What in God’s name for?”

“Because you ran and it was important to me to know where my main man was.”

“I have no interest in being your main man. I told you that.  Only man status is all I’m willing to go with.”

“Can we go inside and talk about this?  I mean it really isn’t any business of your neighbors.”

What the hell; she already knew where I lived so I opened the door and let her in.

“Why are you not able to understand that you are my man?”

“It is because I am not your man Maeve.  I don’t know why you keep telling yourself that I am, but I obviously am not.  If I was your man you wouldn’t be fucking around with other men.  What I am is someone you can use as a home base; someone you can fall back on when other things don’t work out.  Well I’m not going to be your fall back position any more.  I once asked you to marry me and I accepted it when you said you weren’t ready to settle down.  I now realize that you will never be ready to settle down.  You are always going to find some other guy you want to fuck for a while.  Okay.  I accept that is the way it is going to be, but I won’t live like that.  Now it is time for me to move on.”

“You can’t mean that Rob, not after all we have meant to each other.”

“I mean it Maeve.  It is time – hell, it is past time – for me to move on.”

“Oh God Rob; don’t you realize that what we have now is almost perfect?”

“Maybe for you Maeve, but not for me.”

“Don’t you realize that marriage would change everything?”

“In what way Maeve?  What would change other than I would go from being your man three quarters of the time to being your man full time?  What would change other than your having to give up being curious and satisfying that curiosity?”

She was silent for several seconds and then she said, “You couldn’t live with me full time Rob; I’m too much of a controlling bitch.  What was it you once told me?  That I had a touch of “My way or the highway” in me?  It is more than a touch Rob, way more than a touch.  I have to be in charge Rob.  My father was the original male chauvinistic pig.  As far as he was concerned women were put on this Earth for one reason and one reason only – to serve men.  Lick my boots, fetch my pipe and slippers, get into the kitchen and get dinner ready.  Why my mother never killed him I’ll never understand, but I grew up promising myself that I’d never let a man control me that way.  Unfortunately I went too far the other way and became the female counterpart to my father.  Although maybe not quite as bad.

“But I have a need to boss men around.  The men I’ve gone out with since meeting you?   In each of them I sensed a touch of the submissive so I dated them, pushed them around until I got sick of them and then walked away from them.  As far as you being my base?  That is partially true, but only partially.  What you are Rob is my rock, my anchor.  I need you Rob.  I love you and I have to be with you.  I feel empty when you aren’t there for me.  These last two months I’ve been absolutely miserable.  I need you Rob; I really do need you.”

“Your need changes nothing Maeve.  I meant what I said.  I am not willing to be your ‘main man’.  It is ‘only man’ or nothing.”

“We wouldn’t last that way Rob.  I would try to boss you around and sooner or later you would get tired of it and sooner or later you would walk away from me.”

“That is where we are now Maeve.  I am tired of your walking away from me and fucking other men and then coming back to me and acting as if it means nothing.  Well maybe it means nothing to you, but I don’t feel the same way and that is why I walked away from you two months ago.”

I looked at her sitting there looking dispirited and I wanted to take her in my arms and comfort her, but I knew if I did I would be lost.  On the other hand I loved her so much that it hurt.  I made a decision and I asked her:

“Tell me about your need to be in control – to be the boss?”

“What can I say?  I need to be in charge.”

“Are we talking BDSM type stuff?  Whips, chains, ball gags, handcuffs and stuff like that?”

“No, I just have to be in charge.”

“Give me some examples.”

She thought for a minute and said, “With the last guy he wanted to go to his apartment and I said no.  I told him that I wouldn’t feel comfortable at his apartment or taking him to my place so I told him we would go to the Fleetwood.  I didn’t suggest the Fleetwood or ask him if the Fleetwood would be okay, I just told him that we were going to the Fleetwood.  Why the Fleetwood?  I’ve no idea.  Telling him what we going to do was the point. The next night he wanted to go to The Stockman for dinner and I said no, we were going to Angelo’s.  Again, it was all about making him do what I wanted.  It did not matter what he wanted I always wanted the opposite and I always got my way.  It was like you put it – my way or the highway – and he went along with it every time.”

“It sounds like you had the perfect man so why didn’t you keep him?”

“Because I didn’t love him.  All I wanted was to boss him around.”

“Do you need to love someone to boss them around?  As long as you could push him around weren’t you getting what you wanted?”

“Up to a point yes.”

“And that point was?”

“It’s the flaw in the whole thing.  I want to be the boss, I want to make him do what I want, but at the same time I was disgusted with him because he was spineless.  He went along with everything I told him to do just because he wanted to get into my pants.”

“Well it worked.  He did get into your pants.”

“Yes he did, but only because I wanted to boss him some more.  He wanted a blow job and I told him I didn’t do that.”

“You do it all the time with me.”

“Haven’t you been listening to me Rob?  It isn’t about what I like or do; it is all about what I can do to the guy.  He wants head and I say no.  He says he doesn’t like to eat pussy I say get down there and start munching or get out.  It was all about me Rob; all about me and what I wanted.  I need that Rob.  I need to be able to push like that sometimes and I can do it to guys like the ones I’ve dated since I met you because I don’t love them.  I don’t care about them in the least.”

“Have any of them ever said, “No, I think we will do it this way?”

“None of them ever have.”

“What would have happened if they would have?”

“I would have walked away from them.  That is why we can’t get married right now Rob.  Sooner or later I would try to boss you around and I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t put up with it and then I’d have a fit and it would go down hill from there.”

“You are probably right about that Maeve.”

“So we can go back to the way we were?”

“No Maeve, I don’t think so.  I’m not willing to be part-time.”

She stood up and slowly undressed and then she cupped her tits in her hands and said;

“Are you telling me that you don’t want this?”

“Of course I won’t say that, but I am telling you that tonight is the last time.  Next time you show up I won’t let you in and you can take that to the bank.”

“We will just see about that” she said and then she said, “Show me to the bedroom lover.”

It was another exhausting night.

She was waiting for me when I got home from work the next day and she was smiling until I closed the door in her face.  The next three nights in a row she showed up and I wouldn’t let her in my apartment.  I didn’t see her for a week and then one night she was sitting on the steps outside my apartment door waiting for me.  She stood up as I approached and said:

“Okay Rob, you win.  Set a date.”

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

Maeve had no living relatives and all I had was a few aunts and uncles and my cousin George so we decided on a simple civil ceremony.  Maeve knew a judge and arranged for him to perform the ceremony.  A week before the wedding Maeve asked me to meet her for lunch.  When I got to the restaurant she was already there and had ordered for the both of us.  We made small talk as we ate and when we were done she asked me to come back to her office with her.  She said she had some one she wanted me to meet.

When we entered the building the security guard waved her over and pointed out two men sitting in the waiting area.  Maeve went over and talked with them for a minute and then she came back to me and we got on the elevator.  The elevator stopped on ten which was the top floor of the building and Maeve led me down a hallway to a room that said Conference Room C on the door.  We walked in the room and there was a man sitting at a long conference table with a pile of paperwork in front of him.  He stood and greeted Maeve and then looked at me and said:

“Is this the lucky man?”

“Indeed he is.  Rob, this is Milton Spaulding.  Milton meet Rob.  Milton is my attorney.”

I looked at her with some confusion on my face.  “Your attorney?”

“Yes. Milton handles most of my affairs and he wanted this meeting.”

“Most of your affairs?”

“It will all become clear in a second.  Have a seat and let’s get started.”

“Started on what?”

Milton looked at me surprised.  “The paper work of course.”

“Paper work?  What paper work?”

Milton slid a folder over to me and said, “If you will just sign on the last page on the line provided” and he handed me a pen.

“Sign what?”

“The pre-nuptial agreement.”

“A pre-nup?  Why in the hell do we need a pre-nup?”

“It spells out the duties of both parties in the case of a break up of the marriage.”

“I know what a pre-nup is.  The question was why in the hell do we need a pre-nup.  We aren’t movie stars or anything like that.  Why in the hell do a sales manager and an advertising agency secretary need a prenuptial agreement?”

“An advertising agency secretary?” Milton said and he and Maeve exchanged a look.

“He doesn’t know” Maeve said.

Milton turned to me and said. “Miss Billings doesn’t work for the agency, she owns it.  The reason for the prenuptial agreement is that Miss Billings has a net worth close to sixteen million.”

I have no idea what my facial expression looked like when I heard that, but if it were physically possible my jaw would have hit the floor.  “Sixteen mil” I muttered to myself and then I looked at Maeve and said:

“How much other shit are you hiding from me Maeve.  How many other secrets are you keeping from me?  First there was the domineering shit and now this.”

I pushed the folder back across the table to Milton.  “No need for a pre-nup Mr. Spaulding because there isn’t going to be a marriage.”

I stood up and walked out of the conference room.  The suddenness of my departure caught Maeve by surprise and I was almost to the elevator before she came running down the hall yelling:

“Where are you going Rob?  Wait Rob, wait.”

The elevator was still on the floor and the door opened as soon as I pushed the button.  I stepped on and pushed the button for the lobby and the door closed as Maeve ran up. Crying out:

“Wait Rob.  Please Rob, don’t go.”

Just before the door closed I said, “Goodbye Maeve.”

When I reached the lobby and the elevator door opened I found the security guard standing there,

“I’m sorry sir, but I’ve been instructed to hold you here until Miss Billings can get here.”

“You certainly will be sorry if you get in my way.”

I started to walk by him and he put out an arm to stop me and I kneed him in the balls and then walked by his bent over form.  Once outside the building I called my secretary and told her I would be visiting customers and wouldn’t be back to the office and then I turned my cell phone off and headed for the Extra Point.

About halfway there I decided against going.  I didn’t need any more drinking, I didn’t feel like shooting pool and I damned sure didn’t need to hear George tell me “I told you so.”  I drove out to Steven’s Point and looked out over the lake and just stared at the geese and ducks with my mind a blank before getting myself together and going on home.  I was not surprised to see Maeve’s Jeep Cherokee in the parking lot and for a second or so I debated pulling back out of the lot and going to the Extra Point anyway.  But then I decided to just get it over with.

She was not in the living room when I entered the apartment and that told me that she would probably be in the bedroom and no doubt naked so she could cloud my mind.  I wasn’t going to play that game.  I went into the kitchen, got a beer from the fridge and sat down at the kitchen table.  I was on my second beer when she came into the kitchen wearing my bathrobe.  I didn’t say a word; just looked at her and sipped my beer.

She stood there and watched me for several seconds and then she got herself a beer and sat down across from me.  She took a pull on her beer and then said:

“Why didn’t you wait when I asked you to?”

“Why and to what purpose?  So you could feed me some more bullshit?”

“I never fed you any bullshit.”

“No?  What about letting me think you worked for an advertising agency?”

“That wasn’t a lie.  I do work there.  Okay, so I didn’t tell you the agency was mine.  So what?  I still work there.”

“You are splitting hairs Maeve and you know it.  Everything I know about you, everything you have led me to believe is a lie.  The way you dress, the way you live, a two bedroom condo in Woods Park, a two year old Jeep Cherokee, all of it designed to make me think you are someone you aren’t.”

“I didn’t do anything to mislead you Rob.  I drive a Jeep because I can throw my sleeping bag and camping gear in the back, put it in four wheel drive and go where I want.  And why a two year old one when I could have the latest and greatest from Detroit?  Have you seen the bangs and scratches on that car?  I go to some pretty rough places with that Cherokee.  Why should I waste good money on a new one just to beat it up?

“I live in a two bedroom condo because it suits me.  I can only sleep in one bedroom at a time.  I have an extra bedroom for company and I don’t need any more than that.  Where in the hell is it written that if somebody has money they have to spend it on things they don’t need?  Will a BMW, a Lexus or a Mercedes do a better job of hauling my camping gear?  What good would having a five bedroom mansion do me?  It would be one more thing to worry about.  I’d have to hire a caretaker to take care of the grounds because I sure wouldn’t.  The same with the inside of the place.  I’d have to hire a maid and God only knows what else.  No thank you.”

“You are still splitting hairs here Maeve.  You still hid things from me.  The ownership of your agency, your money and who knows what else.”

“Do you have any idea of how often men have tried to become “The love of my life” when they found out what I have?  Do you have any idea of what it is like having to always wonder whether the man is really after you and not your money?  My knowing that you didn’t know is what allowed us to build the relationship we have.”

“From your side maybe.”

“What does that mean?”

“What that means is that what made our relationship possible was my being able to get by your “dates” while we were together, but we don’t have a relationship any more.  What took place in your conference room today ended it.  I meant what I told your lawyer.  There isn’t going to be a marriage.”

“That isn’t fair Rob.”

“Was it fair to me to spring your surprise on me today.  To have me walk into that conference room and then hit me with what you hit me with?  Don’t you think that since you had made up your mind that I didn’t know what you had that you could have prepared me for Milton?”

“I thought you would be pleasantly surprised.”

“Well I was surprised, but it wasn’t very pleasant.”

“You are over reacting here Rob.”

“Am I?  What’s tomorrow?”

“Thursday.”

“And what was supposed to be special about this particular Thursday?  We were going to shop for wedding rings.  We don’t even have the wedding rings yet Maeve and this afternoon you and your lawyer were already planning out what we will do in the divorce.”

“That’s not fair Rob.  Pre-nups are standard for people in my position.”

“Well they aren’t standard for people in my position and the last thing in the world I expected was to be hit with one out of left field.  You need to put your clothes on and leave Maeve.”

“You don’t mean that Rob, you can’t mean that.”

“I’m sorry Maeve, I can and I do.  You have too many secrets Maeve and my capacity for surprises is limited.  Your need to push men around and your sudden wealth were quite enough for me.  Get dressed and go find some submissive guy and do your thing, but leave Maeve, just leave.  Put your key on the table and go.”

Watching her walk out the door was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do, but it had to be done. The Maeve I thought I knew did not exist.”

To be continued.