I'm in the process of going through a nasty divorce. While I won't bore you with the details, let's just suffice it to say that I'm getting taken to the cleaners! To give you an idea of the magnitude of the screwing I'm getting, as of right now, I'm going to have about $117.00 a month to live on after taxes.
That said I had a couple of choices on where to live. I could go back to Mom's and live in her basement. I could check out the local homeless shelter or I could crash at my brother's house. Of the three, Steve's place looked the best.
I called Steve and asked him if I could crash there until I got back on my feet and he told me that he would have to ask his wife, but that he didn't think that it would be a problem. I told him that I appreciated it and to let me know. A couple of hours later he called and asked me if I needed any help moving my stuff over to his place. I was ecstatic and told him that all I had were my clothes and a broken TV, so it shouldn't be a problem.
That night I drove over to their place and Steve and Lisa helped me unload my car and take my stuff down to their basement. I again told them both how much I appreciated it and Lisa spoke up and said, "No problem. It will be nice to have someone around when Steve is out of town."
I hadn't really thought about it at that point, but Steve was out of town quite a bit. He was employed by a telecommunications company and his job took him all around the country. Here recently his job had even taken him out of the country once or twice.
Looking around the basement I figured that this wouldn't be so bad. It was finished with a full bath and a kitchen. Being a walkout, it really wasn't a bad setup. If I were careful, I wouldn't disturb them and could pretty much stay out of their hair. After getting my stuff in, Steve and Lisa went back upstairs and I blew my air mattress up. About a half hour later Lisa called down that dinner was ready and that I should come up.
I replied that I would be right up and I looked around. True, this wouldn't be all that bad, but I still felt odd having to survive on the charity of my family. Man, how I had fallen! I guess that I felt sorry for myself. Here I was 36 years old and sleeping on an air mattress in my brother and sister-in-law's house. Oh well, shit happens! Time to pick myself up and make the best of things. I went upstairs to join them.
Steve is actually 4 years older than I am and couldn't be much different than me. Where I am a big guy, 5'10", about 220lbs and very athletic, Steve is about 5'5", skinny and kind of a bookworm. Until he hooked up with Lisa everybody in the family had kind of accepted the fact that we thought that he might be gay.
Lisa is 31 year old and is very petite. She stands maybe 5' tall and I doubt seriously if she weighs more than a hundred pounds. Her hair is a dark brown, almost black and she wears it fairly long. Quite often she pulls it back into a ponytail and when she does, she looks like she could pass for a high schooler. I can't say that I had ever really checked her out, but I'd also have to say that if asked, that I would say that she is pretty attractive.
Going upstairs I walked into the kitchen and Lisa was just putting a big pot of spaghetti on the table. Steve came in and opened the fridge. He asked what we wanted to drink and I waited for Lisa to answer first. She said a beer and I said that sounded good. Steve grabbed two beers and a Zima for himself. We sat down to the table.
As we ate I felt a little uncomfortable. I knew that it was all in my head, but I still felt like a mooch. Almost as if he were reading my mind, Steve said, "Bobby, you know that whatever I have is yours. You don't have to worry about living here.
I responded by again thanking them. I also told them that I would try to stay out of their hair as much as possible and that I thought that I had a part-time job lined up.
Steve said that was cool, but he wanted me to feel comfortable and not to worry about being "in their hair". Dinner went on and I relaxed. Steve was excited about his next assignment. He was going to get to go to Italy and would be gone for a month.
Lisa repeated that she was actually happy that I was there. She then went on to tell me about the guy next door that every time Steve went away would hit on her. As she said this, she looked at Steve and he kept his eyes down and averted her gaze. I didn't know what to make of this little exchange and decided to not say anything in order not to open a can of worms between them. I did pick up on something weird about it though.
Lisa went on talking to me and proceeded to tell me the story. It turns out that several months before Lisa had gone out to the back yard to tan. As she laid there she got the feeling that she was being watched. She had sat up and turned around in time to see the curtains on her next-door neighbor's window quickly being pulled shut.
Again, I wasn't totally comfortable with her telling me the story because of the undercurrents of tension about it that I had picked up on. Lisa kept going though. She told me how it got to the point where every time she went out into the back yard, that this guy would come out and stare at her.
Like I said, I didn't really want this conversation to go on, but when a pregnant pause came up, I found myself blurting out, "What did you do?"
Well, she told me that at first she just ignored him, but that then he had gotten more forward and started flirting with her. She said that she politely excused herself and went back into the house and thought that she had gotten her message across. That was until the next time Steve had left to go out of town and there was a knocking at the door.
She said that she had answered the door and there he was. She asked him what he wanted and he had replied, "her!"
I was shocked that the asshole would be so bold! I then asked Lisa what she did then?
Lisa responded that she had slammed the door on him and had screamed for him to leave her alone!
I asked her if he had and she said, "no." That she could see him watching her every time that she came or went.
Steve piped up at this point and told me that he had confronted the guy and that he had denied it all. Steve said, "I don't know what else to do?"
Well, like I said before, Steve isn't a very big guy. He also has never been a very physical guy. Even though he is 4 years older, it had been me who had to come to his rescue when the bully started picking on him when we had been in school. I asked Steve if he wanted me to have a talk with this prick?
Steve said, "No, that he didn't want any trouble."
I looked over at Lisa and she had a look of exasperation on her face. She spoke up again and said, "Well, anyway, like I said, I'm really glad that you're going to be here, especially with Steve being gone for a month.
I told her that she didn't have to worry, if the guy gave her any trouble, that I would take care of it.
Steve repeated that he didn't want any trouble. I told him that it wouldn't be any trouble and smiled at him!
We finished dinner and I went back downstairs and crashed. Over the next several days I did my best to stay out of their hair. I'd get up, go to work, hit the gym and come home in time to crash. I pretty much came and went through the basement door and didn't see either of them until the day that Steve was suppose to fly out.
I had just gotten home from the gym when he called to me and asked if he could come down. I yelled at him, "sure."
He came down and told me that he needed to talk to me.
I said, "What's up?"