The banging on my door told me that the asshole and his cunt wife were back. They always had a problem with anything I did regardless of what it was. I could reach down and pet someone's dog and these two would be calling the HOA. They were those type of neighbors. You know the type, always angry at someone. Except this couple seemed to always be angry at me for some reason. I'm not sure why they chose me to be angry with me but they were. In the 11 months since I'd moved in, they have had the President of the HOA at my door at least two dozen times! Not once was there anything reported that was against the rules! Even Greg, the HOA dude couldn't figure them out.
I pulled the door open with some authority and said, " what the fuck you wanna bitch about now?" They seemed a bit stunned at first but went right into their rant.
"Who the hell do you think you are mowing your grass at 9:00AM! And on a Saturday morning at that! You woke Sandy and I and we both worked all week!"
"Hmmmm, well there is no rule against mowing my grass at 9:00AM on a Saturday morning. If the two of you were decent neighbors and not a couple of shitheads maybe I would be more considerate. But since you're not....fuck you both!" I replied in a somewhat comedic manner. "You two would bitch about me having a cold drink on my deck! You're not going to find anything to get me into trouble for, so go home and mind your own fucking business. Besides, trespassing IS a violation of the HOA rules!"
I stated as I closed the door in their faces.
I saw him raise his hand as if he were gonna knock again. He thought better of it. He is about five and a half feet tall and weighs about 150. I am 6'3" and about two fifty. I didn't think he was stupid enough to piss me off. His wife would have a better chance than he would. She was probably 5'8" and roughly the same weight as him. I kinda chuckled at the thought of him carrying her across the threshold on their wedding night. Or maybe she carried him! Although I have to admit, I didn't mind watching her walk away back to their house. Nice ass! She also had some nice titties too!
Well, that was the start of this Saturday morning. I guess it got me a little pissed of and a bit amused at the same time. But back to work.
My name is Ron, I run my own business. I have owned a wholesale lumber and building supply company that stocks several well known retail lumber and contractor supply companies across the US. For the past 15 years. It has been very successful. It still is but the current economy has made it a bit rougher. However, a competitor has made me an offer that will allow me to retire at the age of 44 and not have to work again! We signed the paperwork three months ago. As part of the agreement, I stay on for six months to help out with renewing the contracts with the companies we supply. I was finishing writing the new contract with one of my clients when I was so rudely interrupted.
Maybe they knew who I was and knew about my business. Could they be those type of people who hate business owners. I hear those things all the time. The people who believe that what your business makes is pure profit for you. They somehow forget that the investors make most of the money from publicly traded companies. Including themselves if they have a 401k or other investments. But they have a need to hate because they don't have that themselves.
Who knows what their problem is. It just brings to mind that seeing a hottie like her with him means one of two things, he's either richer than I am or he's hung like a donkey! This thought made me laugh for the first time today.
From the looks of their home, they either had money or were living well beyond their means. They own a very large house in the cul-de-sac. My guess would be roughly 5,000 square feet or so. I'd never been inside of the place but the outside gave the air of being very expensive. They did a good job of maintaining the yard and landscaping as well. As for me and my house, well, it's nice but I don't like living like I'm better than everyone else. When my wife Tracy was still here she'd often say that houses like the neighbors just scream "kidnap my kids!" Although we never had kids of our own.
Tracy, wow! Now my mind was going to start wondering back to better times. We had married at 22 years of age. Through twenty years of marriage we had some wonderful times. This business allowed us the ability to have some great times traveling and spending time together. We were never able to have children but often talked about adopting. Sadly, I began allowing this business to take over my life and without realizing it, I was pushing her out of my life. We spent less and less time together. I spent more time devoted to money and it cost me. It cost me her and it devastated me. It's my own fault though. I took her for granted and didn't see the signs that she was giving me that things weren't good until it all came crashing down.
I had allowed myself to be so self absorbed in what I was doing that I didn't realize that I was emotionally neglecting Tracy. She needed me and I was being an ass and trying to make my business even bigger and stronger. My dumbass didn't realize that in doing so, I was pushing her away. Not until that fateful evening.
I had returned home late again and tried to give her a kiss but she turned her head.
"What's wrong?" I asked quite a bit perplexed.
"I need to tell you something." She replied with some determination in her voice. Not an angry determination but more of a resignation type of determination.
"Uh, ok"? I responded as I sat next to her. "What is it?" I asked nervously.
She sighed, then sat silently for a few seconds staring at the ceiling. It seemed as if this were going to be very serious and I got more worried the longer she stared. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she turned to look at me.
"I want a divorce." She stated matter of factly. I was dumbfounded. I thought she must be pulling some sort of strange joke on me.
"You're kidding, right?" I asked fully believing that she would break out in a big smile and start laughing at the joke. But she simply shook her head no.
All I could do was stare at her. Suddenly feeling completely lost. Feeling like my world had just blown apart.
She spoke again. "Ron, I don't mean anything to you anymore. Your business is your lover now. I've been so alone for the past couple of years and you didn't even care." She said as a tear began forming in her eye. " I've met someone else. He makes me feel as if I am the most important thing in his life. I feel like I mean the world to him. I am special to him. I've not meant anything to you for a long time now. I've played second fiddle to your work and I can't, no, won't do that anymore." She stated as she began to cry. "I've tried so many times to bring you back to me but you wouldn't come back. You just put your heart and soul into that business, completely ignoring what should have been the most important part of your life....me!" She said tearfully.
I was numb. I was hurt beyond belief. But.....she was so right! I could only sit there, staring at her, feeling tears begin forming in my own eyes. I couldn't speak, couldn't bring a damned word to my mind to even argue about winning her back. She had me dead to rights.
I was finally able to speak after a few minutes. "I guess I thought I was putting together a way for us to retire and live a wonderful life. I guess that I got so wrapped up in getting there for us that I lost sight of what was the most important and beautiful thing in my life, you. I am so sorry Tracy, please let me fix this. I love you more than you will ever know. I can't lose you." I pleaded. "I will sell everything, I know now that you are more important than anything else in this world. Just give me the chance to fix everything between us. Please?" I pleaded.
"The time to fix things is long gone, I can't go back now. As I said, I've met another man and I love him. If you could have only seen the signs a couple of years ago when I tried everything to have you with me, to have time together then maybe we wouldn't be here right now crying. But you wouldn't listen, you wouldn't make that time for us. I have to move on now."
The numbness and sorrow of that night struck me deep. How could I have been so stupid. How could I let down the one woman who had been my best friend and my rock for so long. The only woman who I ever truly loved. She loved me the same until I destroyed that love and tore her heart out. The worst part was that in my drive to succeed, I didn't even realize I was tearing her apart.
I willingly gave her the house. She didn't want to take it but I insisted. It was paid for. No mortgage. I didn't want her struggling to make ends meet if she bought a house. She grudgingly agreed. I also offered her a very generous dollar amount in alimony because she deserved it for what I did to her. She didn't want any of it but my guilt wouldn't let me back off. I just deposited it her account every two weeks.
And so here I am, almost a year and a half later, still reeling from the loss of my wife. No dating, no other woman. I can't replace her. Even if I were to meet a great woman I'm afraid of her trying to have any kind of relationship with me would be unfair to her. I'm afraid that I would always be making comparisons with Tracy. It would be like a subconscious competition and that wouldn't be fair.
Not that I didn't want to have a woman in my life, I definitely get very horny but my hand has become my new lover! And I imagine it is Tracy when my "lover" is with me. I can't seem to let her go, even though I had to let her go.
Now, it's springtime again and I've actually noticed that my idiot neighbors haven't come around for months. Maybe they finally figured out that I don't violate any of the HOA rules and have given up on being assholes. Who knows but I haven't had to deal with their bullshit for a good while now. It's allowed me to concentrate on finalizing the sale of my business. It should all be finished in about a week!
I gathered up all of the paperwork. Contract. Legal agreements, etc. and headed for my car. Today would be the last day of ownership of a company that had made me very wealthy and at the same time destroyed what should have been most important to me. My marriage to Tracy. Thoughts of her never stopped running through my mind. I missed her badly. I know it was all my fault but I wish she would have allowed me to fix our relationship. But sadly, she chose to go. So here I am, getting away from everything that caused it to begin with. Maybe it was a psychological need to get away from it, who knows but what am I going to do with myself now?
By 4:00 PM, everything was signed and I walked out with a huge sum of money deposited into my personal checking account. I drove to the bank and had a cashier's check made out to Tracy. It was seven figures and I was about to surprise her with it. She'd earned it dealing with everything I'd put her through.
The drive to the house we once shared was a bit of a blur. I kept thinking that maybe she would change her mind after I gave her this check. But I knew better. She wasn't about the money, we had a lot of money before she left. She wanted someone to be in her life, that's all. So my mind wasn't focused on the drive and before I knew it, I was pulling into the driveway. That's when I realized that I hadn't even called her to see if she was home! So, while sitting in the driveway, I picked up my phone and called.
