Many people did not enjoy the ending to my last story, The Gift. They felt it was abrupt and left too many questions unanswered. It's been my experience that's the way life is sometimes. Thanks for reading.
As Paul Johnson sipped his morning coffee on his 56th birthday and looked out his kitchen window, he observed that the weather outside was much like his mood: dark and gloomy. The last year had not been especially kind to him. On his 55th birthday, he had a memorable fuck fest with his wife, Kate, who filed for divorce a week later. Now he was a lonely man in his 50's. He felt pathetic. He missed Kate, and all he seemed to do was to brood about what he could have done or should have done to save their marriage. It drove him crazy at times.
When Kate had filed for divorce, she sat Paul down and told him in a direct way. She seemed neither sad nor happy about it. Her emotions were at a zero, much like they had been in the last year of their marriage. Paul asked if there was anything he could do to change her mind, and she said there wasn't. He asked her if she would go to counseling, and she said there was no point. Her mind was made up. Paul asked her if there was someone else, and she denied it. Kate told Paul that she loved him still, but not enough to stay married. She wanted to live life on her own terms.
So, she moved out that very day to some unknown location and proceeded with the divorce, which was surprisingly simple and easy. Paul and Kate had no children. This had been a conscientious decision made primarily by Kate because she said that they needed to be free to travel and free to change jobs and cities if need be. Kids were a hindrance to that type of flexibility. Paul and Kate did not share bank accounts or investments. Again, Kate's idea. She wanted her independence. The only thing the couple shared was a nice house in a desirable city. They had each put up the same amount for the down payment, so when the house sold in only a few days, they split the profit, which was substantial. They had been lucky to buy when the market had been down, and now it had been soaring. After the house was sold, the divorce paperwork was signed a few weeks later, and Kate walked out of Paul's life. The last time he saw her was at the lawyer's office to sign the paperwork. She signed and left without so much as a goodbye.
"So that's what 15 years of marriage gets you?" Paul thought at the time.
After the divorce, Paul stayed at a Residence Inn for a few weeks while he decided his next move. He had grown tired of city life. Well, he basically had grown tired of the people with their obnoxious ways and attitudes. Added to that was the gridlocked traffic. Politics had become the new religion in the city, and Paul, an independent, wanted no part of it. Also, Paul, like a lot of men his age, had few friends. He had been a loner much of his life, and he also was not close to the few family members that were still alive. So, with the profit from the sale of his former house and money he had saved up for his retirement, he moved an hour outside the city and bought a small two bedroom cottage located in the mountains. The cottage was on five, mostly wooded acres. This had been Paul's dream to someday live in a place like that, separated from your nearest neighbor and living without the intrusion of city code enforcement or HOA commandos. Kate had not shared this dream with him, so he never thought it could happen.
Paul initially loved his new cottage, but then the reality of his situation set in. He was very much alone. The nearest town was halfway between the cottage and the city, and it was the kind of town where everything shuts down by eight o'clock. Thank god that he had the internet. That meant he could still work from home, and he had some form of entertainment.
So for a few months Paul lived an almost monastic lifestyle. He would eat, sleep, and work. That's about it. After a couple of months more, he decided he needed to break out of his rut. Paul knew that he did not really want to date anymore. Who finds love in their 50's after being a two time loser? Plus he did not want any of the drama or pain that went along with it all. But, he still wanted to fuck every now and again. After some research, he found the hook up sites and apps and went to work. He eventually had two fuck dates with women around his age. The sex had been unremarkable and forgettable. None of these women could replace his Kate. They had been a waste of the hits of Viagra Paul had taken before the dates. After the two encounters, he deleted his account and went back to his favorite hobby: brooding in his cottage.
So as Paul brooded on his birthday, the weather was rainy and dreary. He eventually did some work and then treated himself to lunch in the nearby town. Paul enjoyed the small tavern that was one of two restaurants in the area, the other being a waffle house. He sat at the bar and had a Reuben sandwich and a beer. The bartender, an older, bleach blond woman with saggy tits, pretty much ignored him. She preferred speaking with some of the other patrons while she chain smoked Marlboros behind the bar. Paul had learned that basically, if you weren't born in that town, no one wanted to know you. He didn't mind that the woman didn't speak to him, but he had really wanted another beer. After a while, he had to get back home to make a client call, so he estimated what his bill cost, threw the money on the bar, and left.
When Paul made it home, the rain had picked up. He made his client call, and contemplated driving the hour into the city to find some entertainment for his birthday, but after some thought, he said fuck it, had another beer, and stayed in for the night. "Happy fucking birthday," he thought.
Paul sat on his living room couch and started to watch a movie on Netflix. He must have fallen asleep, because he awoke with a start from a noise from his driveway. Paul stumbled off the couch and looked out the living room window in time to see a car leave his property. He was able to make out the figure of a person coming up the driveway to his house. Paul was slightly panicked. Who the hell was coming up to his house on a wet night like tonight? There was a knock at the door. Paul retrieved his pistol from the bedroom and slowly approached the door. Again, there was a knock. "Who is it?" Paul asked, but there was no reply. After a few moments, he quickly swung open the door with his pistol out, only to be surprised to see Kate, soaking wet, wearing a backpack.
"Kate, is that you?" Paul asked.
"Hey, Paul, is it too late to wish you a Happy Birthday?" Kate replied. Paul was somewhat in shock, so it took a minute before he invited Kate in from the rain.
Once she was inside the cottage, Paul took a long look at his ex-wife. She was wearing a soaked canvas jacket, and underneath that was a soaked Nirvana t-shirt. She wore faded blue jeans, and she had on a pair of old, black Chuck Taylor sneakers. Paul took her coat, and he saw that both of her nipples were erect. God, how he had missed looking at them. Her hair was longer than before, and it had a natural, almost wild look to it. Kate looked thin, but she had a nice tan. She still had that smile that had won Paul over years before. Overall, she was beautiful, even at 44 years of age. The instant Paul recognized her, he knew that she still had that incredible pull over him. He knew that he was nowhere near being over her.
After Paul recovered from the initial shock of Kate's presence in his house, He asked her, "Soooo, why are you here, and how the hell did you find me?"
Kate laughed and said,"a little internet sleuthing led me to your cottage. As far as why I'm here, that's a little bit more complicated." Kate went on to explain that after their divorce, she quit her job, took all her money, and began to travel. She hit Europe first and then South America. When she made it to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, she met some people who were living a nomadic lifestyle out of a van. She liked it so much that she bought a van of her own and began to travel, primarily in the United States and Canada. Her travels took her to the city where she and Paul once lived. It was there that her van broke down. So at the moment, it was in a shop waiting to get repaired. Kate admitted that she had blown through most of her money, which was no shock to Paul. She had always been terrible at managing money, which had led to many fights during their marriage. She did not have a lot left, and she did not want to blow it on a hotel. She looked Paul up, came to his new house, and hoped for the best. Basically Kate needed a place to crash for a little bit.
