It Was Totally Unexpected

"Who's your friend Roy" she said with heavy sarcasm on the word 'friend'.

"Surely you remember Megan from the leasing office."

She looked at Megan and said "You date married men often?"

Megan laughed at her and said "Only the ones that stupid wives throw away."

Nancy got a pissed off look on her face at that response and then she said to me:

"Why are you here Roy? I thought that you left town."

"I'm here to drink and dance. Isn't that what people usually come here for? And obviously I'm here or you wouldn't be able to talk to me."

"Where are you living?"

"None of your damned business."

"You still working for Stan?'

Why don't you get back to your group Nan? I'd like to spend some time with my date."

"Damn it Roy; you know I don't like being called Nan!"

"Tough shit Nan. After the shit you and your sleazy boss pulled on me I don't give a rat's ass about what you like or don't like. Does John know you are out with another man tonight? Maybe I should drop him a line and let him know."

"I don't have a dare. I came here to have a drink or two with Julie and Randy. I didn't know Art would be with them."

I called over to the other Table: "Hey Jules; is Art Julie's date?"

"I'm not getting involved in this Roy."

"The fact that Jules won't back your story tells me all I need to know."

"Damn it Roy; I'm not�."

At that point Megan said "If you don't want to get into a hair pulling contest with me you need to get away from me and my date. Now!"

Nancy gave us a nasty look and went back to her seat.

Megan smiled at me and said "I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

The band came back and we got back out on the floor and stayed out for two numbers and when we got back to our table Julie and her group were gone. When we sat down Megan asked:

"Are you really considering telling her lawyer boyfriend about your wife and this Art guy?"

"No. If she is cheating on him he deserves it since he is a cheat himself. I mean he did cheat with a married woman right? If, as she said, they just happened to be here I'll let her think and sweat that someday I just might tell him about it just to cause friction between them. Maybe get him to thinking that old 'one a cheat always a cheat' thing."

"You do have a deliciously evil mind don't you."

I just smiled.

I received a very hot kiss when I took her home and as I drove home I wondered if I could really get something long lasting with Megan. We did have something going in high school, but was it any more than just puppy love?

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

The next day I called Julie and asked her to meet me at Bud's Bar after I got off work,

"I told you I didn't want to get involved Roy."

"I don't want you to get involved Jules. I have something to talk with you about other than my current relationship with your sister."

"Okay, but no talk about Nancy and what you two are going through or I'll get up and walk out."

"Fair enough."

I got to Bud's before Julie and I figured the best way to handle things would be to just hand her the box with the jewelry inside and go from there. That way I wouldn't have to be the first one to mention Nancy's name and trigger Julie's flight.

Julie came in, looked around, saw me and came over to join me. Knowing her usual drink I already had it setting on the table. She sat down, noticed the drink, picked it up, took a sip and then said:

"Okay Roy; what's this about?"

I picked up the box from the seat beside me and set it down on the table in front of her.

"What's this?"

"Open it and find out."

She took another sip of her drink, set it back on the table and opened the box. I saw the expression on her face when she realized what was in front of her. She reached in and took out a diamond necklace and looked at it as she said:

"Mom used to let me wear it when I played dress up as a kid. Where did you find it?"

I explained how I got it and said "I know you've always felt that you should have gotten half when your mom passed. Now you have it all. What you do with it is up to you. You can keep half and give the other half to your sister or you can keep it all. You can tell your sister you have it or don't. When she finally remembers about the safe deposit box and finds it empty she will come to me and I'm going to tell her I pawned it."

"Why didn't you pawn it? That would really be getting back at here."

"Couldn't do it Jules. Those are family heirlooms and even though pawning them would spite Nancy it would be the same as stealing them from you and you have always been nice to me so I just couldn't do it."

"Truth be told Roy I've always wished I'd gotten to you before Nancy."

As she put the necklace back in the box she said "You will never know how much I appreciate this Roy."

She stood up, picked up the box, said "Stay in touch Roy" and then she left.

It couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it. The very next day Nancy showed up where I worked. She walked up to me and said:

"Where is my jewelry?"

"How did you know I was here?"

"When I found out you hadn't left town I figured you would be here. Where is my jewelry?"

"I got rid of it."

"You got rid of it? That jewelry was mine Roy. You had no right to take it!"

"Of course I did. The money I got when I pawned it covered the money you took out of our accounts."

"The money from our acco�. Wait! You pawned it?

"Yep."

"Damn you Roy! You had no right!"

"Not the way I saw it. You lied to me. You told me all you wanted out of our marriage was your personal belonging like clothing, jewelry and such. No mention of money."

"Horse shit Roy! You should have known without my saying it that I would want my share of the money."

"Lots of things I should have known Nancy. Things like my wife was a cheating backstabbing cunt, but I didn't. And you didn't just take your share. At most you were entitled to half, but you took more than half."

"I did not!"

"There was $15,600 and twelve cents and you took $7850.00. That was $49.94 more than half. I pawned your jewelry for that $49.94 and that makes us even."

"$49.94? My God Roy, that jewelry was worth over $60,000."

"It was? Oh well. My loss. Tell you what. The sign on the building said you had sixty days to redeem the property. Actually, it is only fifty-one now, but I'll make you a deal. I'll sell you the pawn ticket for $10,000."

"How am I supposed to come up with that much money?"

"Ask your new man. Maybe he will give it to you."

"How about I just call the police and tell them you stole my jewelry?"

"Go ahead. You have anything showing that there was any jewelry in the safe deposit box? You have anything even showing that you had jewelry to put in the box? Just get the fuck out of here Nancy. This is a place of business and you are disrupting it."

"This isn't over Roy."

"Get the fuck out of here or I'll be the one calling the police."

"Go ahead. I'll turn you in for assaulting me and John."

"Do it and my response will be to sue John for alienation of affections and sue the law firm for not enforcing their employment policy and allowing a relationship to flourish between a supervisor, that would be John, and one that he supervises which would be you. Think John would ever make partner if that were to happen? Best you just get the fuck out of here Nancy and don't stir the pot to piss me off any more than you already have. And take this little thought with you when you go. If you had come to me up front about not loving me anymore I'd of been hurt, but I would have just let you go and we could have avoided all the drama. Now go!"

She gave me a log look and then left. Did I believe she wouldn't stir the pot some more? Of course not. I knew Nancy better than she thought I did and she wasn't going to let it go. She would try and find some way to get to me where I couldn't strike back. But I didn't think she could do it. In fact, I was betting on it. I just hoped I wasn't wrong.

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

Next day a man came into work and asked for me and the receptionist paged me. I went up to the front of the building and Sally, the receptionist pointed to the man reading one of the many award plaques on the wall. I went up to him and asked what I could do for him.

"Roy Dalton?"

"That�s me."

He handed me an envelope, said "You have been served. Good luck" and he walked out of the office.

I opened the envelope and read the papers inside. They were pretty straight forward. Said pretty much what Nancy said they would say on the night she ambushed me. She didn't even ask for alimony. I signed them, put them in the enclosed stamped envelope and dropped them in the outgoing mail tray on Sally's desk. She asked "You getting a divorce?"

"Looks like it."

"Put my name on the list when you get around to looking again."

"You serious?"

"You bet I am."

As I walked back to the shop I had to wonder what other women saw in me that Nancy didn't. First Megan, then Mellissa and now Sally showing an interest in me was pretty good salve for my bruised ego.

I called Megan and told her I'd been served and that as far as I was concerned I'd been released from my vows. She told me she had committed to a bridal shower that evening, but would really like to have me over to her place the next night to have a celebratory dinner and I told her it was a date.

I was sitting at my place eating a TV dinner when I got a phone call from Julie.

"You are an evil man Roy Dalton."

"Who me?"

"I've spent the last half hour listening to my sister crying over what you did with her jewelry. She asked John for the ten thousand she needed to buy the pawn ticket from you, but he told her he didn't have it and wouldn't have it until the next quarterly bonuses given out and that was over two months away. She was in tears. She had only fifty days to redeem them and she didn't know what she could do.

"I took pity on her and told her that I had them and that I would give them to her as long as I could keep the necklace. She jumped at it. So thanks to you I have my necklace and the undying gratitude of my sister. Remember what I told you Roy. Keep in touch hear?"

"Will do sweetie; will do."

Whether I would or not pretty much depended on Megan. Yes, we did have something going in high school, but was it just teenaged fumbling's?

When I walked into Megan's I could tell she had pulled out all the stops for the evening. She was wearing a very revealing dress and sexy high heels. The table was set and there were lit candles along with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Your timing is perfect" she said. "Dinner is ready and if you will pour the wine I'll bring it to the table."

She set dinner on the table, sat down, picked up her wine glass and said "I propose a toast. To new beginnings."

I raised my glass and said "Hear, hear."

Dinner was great and the only thing lacking was romantic music in the background. Megan wasn't the least bit subtle about where she expected the evening to go.

"Dessert will be served in the bedroom" she said when we finished dinner.

As we undressed she said "This is where I wanted us to be all those years ago before dad go promoted."

It was the first time I'd seen her naked. I'd seen her bare breasts, but that was all. She was an extremely sexy looking woman. "Miss me" I asked the right breast as I licked the nipple and the evening progressed from there. Two missionaries, one cowgirl and a doggie. She wanted one more, but I didn't have another one in me.

We fell asleep together and from that night on we were basically a couple. I say basically because there were things we couldn't do because even though I felt I was free since being served I was still married until the divorce became final.

A couple of times Megan and I did run across Nancy as we went drinking, dancing or just out for dinner. Nancy did keep her distance although the looks on her face were just a tad hostile.

A week after my divorce was final I took a knee in front of Megan and asked her to marry me.

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

I was in the basement working on a cradle I was building for the twins who would be joining us in about three months when the basement door opened and I heard:

"He's here sweetie."

I put my tools away, vacuumed up the sawdust, cleaned my hands and then headed upstairs to have dinner with my father in law. When I came into the living room he was sitting on the couch and I could see that the wife had already gotten him a drink. I joined him and my sweetie brought me a beer and sat down on my lap and sipped her margarita as we talked while waiting for the turkey to finish.

The conversation was mostly the upcoming arrival of the twins, had we picked out names yet and why were we being so obstinate in refusing to find out the sex of the two before they were born. And then it, as it always � and I do mean always � happened, the elephant in the room was addressed. This time it was brought up by my father-in-law.

"Have you heard from your sister lately?"

"Not since the last time I mentioned. Have you heard from her?"

"No. I just wonder what is going on."

"I'm not calling her to find out. I'll talk to her if she calls, but I will not call her. All I know is what she told me the last time she called. She's left him over his constant cheating and is going to divorce him. Roy has always maintained that one or the other would cheat within a year of getting married."

My father-in-law looked at me and I just shrugged. I patted her baby bump and said:

"It don't matter none to me because I be the winner. I got you."

My father-in-law looked at me and shook his head. "I get more beers bought for me at the lodge hall because of you two. I guess I'm the only father in the state who has a son-in-law who married both my daughters. I still don't understand, and would probably be better off not understanding how you moved from Nancy to Julie"

Julie?

Oh right. I think I skipped over that part.

When I proposed to Megan she said no. It wasn't that blunt, but it was still no. She said she really liked me and she enjoyed what we had been doing, but she didn't love me. I was disappointed, but not overly upset which finally led me to understand that maybe I'd just been going through the motions with Megan. We had something going in high school so it should have just picked up from there right?

Anyway I got over it.

Over the next couple of months, maybe twice a week, I would hit a bar like Buckskins where they had music you could line dance to. One night I was at the Stagecoach Inn and the Band was Jimmy Little and the Barnyard Players. I was on the floor doing the line dance rhumba when I saw Julie Meyers come in and take a seat at the bar.

The dance over I went back to my table and no sooner sat down than Julie came over and asked me if she could join me. I told her to have a seat. She sat down and asked why I hadn't called.

"Why would have I called you?"

"I thought I'd made it clear when I told you I wished I'd have gotten to you before Nancy. I reinforced it when I asked you to keep in touch."

"Yes, and if I had done it and we had connected how would you be able to stay on decent terms with your sister? And what about your dad? Can you just seeing him welcoming me?"

"I'm not living my life to suit Nancy or my father. Nancy had her chance and she blew it so she doesn't get to tell me I can't have what she threw away. As for daddy he can either be happy for me or he can bag it. Now, to start your courtship of me I think you should ask me to dance."

Nancy wasn't happy and Julie told her to fuck off. Her dad was the surprise.

"Glad we can keep you in the family" is what he said when Julia took me over to her dad's house one Sunday for dinner.

Six months after meeting at the Stagecoach I proposed, Julie said yes and three months later we were married. Eight months after that I was informed I was going to become a father and three months after that I found out I would be a daddy to twins.

Am I a happy camper? You betcha!