When you put too much emphasis on working and accumulating riches right out of school you can quickly find yourself approaching the end of your twenties never having put enough interest in another person or forming a relationship that can stand the test of time. It took a few years of this for trivial pursuit of wealth for me to realize I was hiding my loneliness behind hours of work. I thought my work was the cause of it but for me it was the opposite, loneliness drove me to work harder and longer hours. I didn't indulge in toys and extravagant lifestyle choices that could eat up a substantial part of someone's income, instead I had bought a nice home and had a nice yard and was quickly on my way to having it paid off. But now I realized that it was time to be less selfish with my life and look to meet someone I could share this with.
Our upper middle-class neighborhood recently had a young couple move into the house directly across the street from me. The wife named Maria was a very attractive blonde who was carrying a few extra pounds but in all of the right places. Her husband was around five foot seven and very thin maybe one fifty or so. He was loud, he was obnoxious, and he was very degrading to her anytime I saw them together. From afar I could see that he had her convinced that she wasn't beautiful and he was constantly nagging her about everything. When any of the guys on the street gathered to shoot the shit he always showed up with the intention of outdoing or trumping anything that was said. This would irritate the rest of us to no end and we tried to keep our conversations obscured as not to draw his attention on any given topic. When the woman would be out front and his wife stepped out to talk to the neighborhood ladies gathering he would go nuts and tell her to her to get her ugly ass back in the house and do something.
This went on for the first couple of years and still being single I found myself wanting to just take his attractive wife for myself and go. Each passing day I found her to be more beautiful than the last. She smiled more around me and I tried innocently to make her fell very special and beautiful. I was pretty sure it did not go unnoticed by her or any of the ladies who overheard me a times. My intentions were up front and I didn't hide the fact that I liked her from anyone including Chad who I once told that I would take her off of his hands if he needed me to. One afternoon I met her by the mail box, intentionally on my part just to get a chance to talk to her. When Chad saw me with her he came out through the front door like he was missing the beginning of the next war. He was in my face so fast it was almost comical. I am six foot one and about two ten so if anything happened I would have no choice but to hurt him. That incident didn't keep me from waving, saying hi, and making sure I was outside anytime she was coming home or going to work.
Maria worked in the office of one of the riverboat casinos nearby and had a nine to five job. It was easy figure out how to adapt to her schedule. Chad worked in his father's auto dealer repair shop and was home more than he was at work. So I had to be careful in how I interacted with her. I was a day trader and did most of my work from home. The markets didn't open early and they were closed by three so I had more morning and afternoon time than most people. I would research my stocks all night and on most weekends.
With Maria constantly bearing the brunt of criticism any time she and Chad were around it was hard to see her smiling unless I could catch her alone. During one of the recent neighborhood parties Chad was drinking and got a little carried away with his language and behavior in my opinion and other guests so I called him out on it. This didn't go too well and he accused me of all kinds of things telling me how I was just as stupid as his wife and that someday when my intelligence equaled his we could have a conversation but until then I should just keep my big mouth shut. Figuring it wasn't the time or place and that many of the neighbor's kids were around I let it go. I also started keeping a closer eye on him after he threatened me that afternoon.
Up until this point I hadn't paid too much attention to his behavior, habits, or whereabouts. One thing I noticed while paying closer attention is the traffic at his house when he came home from work. The times varied and most times he was followed home or somebody arrived shortly afterwards and then the visitor left after retrieving something from his garage. Another thing I noticed was that on occasion he would back into his garage and close the door only to leave ten minutes later. Putting all this together told me he was not conducting a legal business at that time. I couldn't tell if it was drugs or what but his dealings had a strange look to them.
All of this came together after a couple of months had passed when I looked outside my window to see multiple squad cars pulling up. There were FBI agents and ATF agents scattered throughout his property turning over every leaf and appeared to be gathering some kind of evidence. With Maria pleading hysterically to the uniformed police officers Chad was led out of the garage in handcuffs and the police were there for hours taking boxes and boxes away from his garage. Needless to say a crowd had now gathered on my porch for a better view of the festivities. The mood of the guests on my porch was mixed with many delighted to see Chad in this predicament feeling that he deserved everything he got but also sad for the predicament that Maria was most likely in for the near future. When the scene finally cleared up a couple hours later the women on the block attempted to find out more but were unsuccessful as Maria drove away to go see her father in-law.
The newspapers articles I found during the week said he was indicted on numerous charges related to trafficking in stolen high end vehicles and parts. That answered the question I had about the activities during the day while Maria was at work. The list of charges included him shipping stolen goods out of the country, wire fraud, money laundering, small narcotics trading, and grand theft auto. According to Maria she was unaware of what he did when she was at work and security tapes at the casino proved her presence at work daily keeping her from being a subject to the prosecutors.
Maria never changed her schedule and would go to work at the same time every day while her husband waited in jail for his trial to begin. Having the ability to travel and the vast financial network he had scattered convinced the judge he was a flight risk and therefore bail had been denied. Chad's father threw all kinds of money offers at the prosecutors for bond considerations to no avail. He would be sitting in jail alone with some pretty compelling evidence against him. To satisfy his jealous tendencies from behind bars Chad had some of his cronies watching Maria. The same black pickup truck with tinted windows went back and forth down my block each morning about the time she left for work and again when she came home. I now was even more cautious of the rendezvous at the mailbox and didn't know for sure what the surveillance was meant for.
When the trial finally started many details started popping up of how Chad had built his little fortune. He started out small dealing drugs on the side and had been trying to go bigtime. As he worked to schmooze one of the major suppliers in the area he realized that he was being asked for upfront capital in an amount he didn't have and couldn't come up with. The supplier offered up contacts but one of the things he required in good faith was for Chad to come up with a black Dodge Charger. Chad somehow manage to steal a car and satisfy his first commitment. Then the official business started and Chad found himself having to steal more cars and strip them for expensive parts. Using his father's car dealer as a hot point he started buying beat up high mileage leased vehicles off lease for a cheaper than market price. These cars were usually only a year or two old with heavy mileage and had been leased to people who drove daily for their jobs. Once he had legal title to the vehicles he sold them back to one of his supplier's contacts.
The vehicles were then matched with stolen vehicles of the same type and year and they set about exchanging VIN numbers and registrations and then reselling the cars at a premium. The ring worked itself around popular models and bought and sold parts for exotic cars as well. This was strictly a steal, swap VIN or strip, then ship or sell operation. The drugs Chad sold slowly built in volume and before he knew it he was deep into the crime world.
Sentencing was harsh. He received multiple twenty to thirty year sentences for his crimes with an outlook of at least twenty before parole would be considered. Some of the sentences ran concurrently or it would have been longer. They also went after every penny he had stashed leaving nothing but Maria's current income alone. That left a very upset woman alone in her big house. Chad continued to have her watched but that required having to pay someone to do it. The courts were still going after his hidden assets which would make paying the henchman he had on the street very difficult if not possible for him. He simply could not pull that many favors to maintain a virtual presence outside of the federal prison he was moved to for the long term. Eventually his finances and desire to watch her diminished and I saw less and less of the watch cronies.
Maria went about her life like a good wife should and ignored the other wives in the neighborhood when they suggested a divorce. Her religious upbringing did not allow for that and both families were against it. I watched daily as she struggled to smile and she lost some of the extra pounds she carried when I first met her. We talked openly and had started getting closer to one another when Maggie from next door suggested that Maria and I would make a great couple since we were the only two singles left in the neighborhood. After a couple of others at the impromptu backyard barbecue agreed verbally Maria got upset and went home. She was not about to crossover any lines or vows she had made. I might have considered pursuing options before she reacted negatively to the suggestions that day.
Surfing the internet on the weekends and checking my personal email took me to an idea I never would have considered or thought of on my own. I would splurge and pamper her anonymously. It was generated out of reading an online ad for a Golf and Spa resort. Their vacation packages described how the wife would be pampered by the staff as the husband golfed. With a little deviation this could be something I could do for her. I read ad after ad from these different resorts trying to find a resort to send Maria to. She would have to think she won it and know that there would not be any sales or marketing gimmicks she would have to attend like you see from many of the other free vacation sweepstakes that hit you from all directions. The idea kept hitting major roadblocks regarding travel, overnight stays, anonymous funding, etc. It then hit me that if I kept her from knowing my identity and use other local resources I could do this on my own.
Nearly all of the spas included pedicures, manicures, hair styles, makeups, a pampered lunch with tea, a massage, and even some included a voucher for the woman to purchase an outfit or lingerie out of the resort boutique. I would have to outsource all of this with the exception of the massage. That I wanted to do myself, I would just have to manage the intricate details for that part to work out. There was also the issue of getting Maria to accept the invitation without knowing who sent it. Chad would eventually find out she did this, he may even encourage it since it was free and would keep her from straying. But how would we get him to go along with this?
With an extensive use of Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, and some other neat editing programs I started putting this together. First item of business was to flood her with an image of total pampering, one that she would never have been afforded by her cheap self-centered husband. The next order was trying to find a way to send her the invitation anonymously. The invite would have to be initiated through the mail but how would she communicate back?
The brochure for my fake pampering day was actually fun putting together. I even wondered if maybe this should be a business start-up and not for the sole purpose of bedding my neighbor. There were pictures of salons doing most of the manicures and pedicures, a couple of shots from a hotel website advertising in-room massages, a few glamour hair-dos, and some photos of various boutique racks displaying evening gowns. I arranged the schedule to have the day start at Nine AM and end at Ten PM. The details stated that if she accepted this she would be taken by limo to the salon for her hair, nails, and makeup. Shortly after that she was to be taken to a tea room at one of the upscale hotels and then to shop for her evening gown prior to her dinner back at the hotel. More details were planned but not communicated in the initial brochure.
After three weeks of planning I started getting anxious to send the invite. I borrowed the communication ideas from a website about planning your affair. These ideas worked well with what I had in mind. The invitation was completed and looked very professional in my opinion and mailed with the hope it would arrive on Saturday.
You Have Been Selected
To receive a day planned to
