I use Grammarly to spell check, but it's not 100% but a lot better than I am.
If grammar and punctuation mean a lot to you, maybe move on to something else, it's all my work and it's what you get.
Does 1+2+1=4?
I'm Dan, a 45 year old divorced man living in a flat on my own.
I have friends who I see and go out with, but not a lot, my divorce cost me a lot in self respect that I'm having trouble getting back.
It's sad to admit that "mother knew best", Betty wasn't right for me Mum told me even before we got engaged, and I didn't heed her advice to make sure that the house was safe from being taken from under me if things went wrong, of course nothing was going to go wrong was it, we were in love, we would never let each other down, do the dirty on the other would we,... it turned out I wouldn't and Betty did.
Long story short, I was royalty shafted in the divorce.
So that's my life in a nutshell.
I'm getting over it as best as I can, staying away from my old life as much as I can, I still don't trust lots of people who I thought were friends of mine as well as Betty.
It was good old mum who found the flat I'm living in, I wasn't in the right shape to make a good decision about what I wanted to eat, let alone a flat to live in, so mum sorted one out for me.
When I moved in, I had been living back at home for 6 months, it was clear to see that the whole flat had been completely redone, new carpet, curtains, bed, well everything looked and even smelled new, that even went as far as the front entrance way and up the stairs to the top floor where I was to live.
How mum found this, and how lucky I was I didn't find out for the next 5 years.
I moved in and mum was the only person who knew it was a new start for me, I'd kept my job, I run a small business, I do domestic electrical work, nothing big, a shop unit is as big as I want to go, and only then if it's privately owned, I'd been caught out by big corporate jobs and promised myself and mum not to be caught again like that.
I did alright, I'll only be a rich man if I win the lottery I say with total confidence, I know my limits.
Being a small business I keep as local as I can, why travel miles to do the same work that I can get done locally is my motto.
Once I was settled in I sat one night thinking, what did I want to do now?
The flat was only missing one thing that I could think of which was missing, a video door lock, easy for me to install, I made a note to ask Mum who the landlord was so I could ask their permission to install one, I could put a good one in for little cost, there were only the three flats and it would be easy to do for me on a few days when I didn't have any work, as happened sometimes.
The other thing I wanted to do was some sort of work for the benefit of the community, I looked online and found that there was a local volunteer group for the canal, I would go there the next weekend, see if it was anything I wanted to help with.
Mum said to leave it with her about the video door lock and I wasn't thinking about it when a week later Mum called telling me that it was fine providing that I didn't take it out if I moved.
When I purchased the lock set and cable I brought a CCTV camera that would plug into the recorder as well, it wasn't that I felt unsafe, but it was just a whim that if I was burgled it might be a good thing to have a couple of pictures of the perpetrators.
It proved easier than I expected, it only took me a week of odd hours to complete. Putting the recorder somewhere safe was proving a problem, and then I thought about the loft space above me, I was the only one that had access so that was that, the CCTV camera I had was one of these very small things you could hide, it wouldn't be any good for a car number plate down the road but a face 15 foot away it was perfect, I hid the camera in the light fixture, it faced the front door and only way in showing a lot of the hallway in detail, I hoped that it would never be of use and after the novelty of a new toy it just sat there doing its thing and I stopped looking at the app to see myself coming and going.
I went volunteering at the canal, it was a fun day for me, and I started to make friends with the others, after the summer into autumn it was the AGM and dinner dance for them, I didn't want to go but got badgered into it.
Turned out to be a good evening, turned out that Lilian was a dam sight better looking dressed to go out than in her overalls that she wore at the work parties, a lot better looking.
We danced a lot and I walked her to her car that night.
At the second work party she was making the tea for everyone, we took it in turns.
"Dan, why haven't you called me?" I wasn't sure what to say. Because I was scared of what happened before because I didn't want to make a fool of myself? I went for "I thought she would be in a relationship and I didn't want to embarrass her or myself by asking such a question."
"Well you can forget that, the only relationship I have at the moment is the cat that insists that I feed it. So anything you want to ask me?" The smile on her face said it all.
That night we went for a drink, I received a kiss on the cheek on walking her to her door.
Midweek we went for a drink again, it being a lot quieter we could talk more, the weekend we were both at the canal cutting scrub and tidying up the towpath, we went to the cinema in the evening.
The next week was much the same, but it had gotten comfortable for me, we chatted and held hands as we walked and the kisses at the door had become a lot more intimate. Over the next month it continued, we saw each other at least 3 times a week, it was at the start of the next month that the weather had changed to be wet and windy, getting from the car to her doorway the umbrella turned inside out and we got drenched in rain.
"You need to come in, I'm not standing out here in this kissing you," Lilian said.
Inside she had her coat off and looking over her shoulder told me to get out of my wet coat, she had to go dry her hair.
I took my coat off and shoes, they were wet through as well.
"I'll make us a coffee Dan, go sit inside." She said walking past me into the kitchen, wearing a robe.
I went and sat on the sofa, it wasn't long before she came and sat beside me putting the coffee cups on a table.
"Now this is better, no cold drafts." She said leaning in and kissing me, we were quickly getting into it when she pulled back and took my hand.
"Come on Dan, we both know where this is leading, let's just go and be more comfortable." She pulled me up and I followed into her bedroom, it was a lot of kissing and touching until we were both undressed, Lilian didn't hold back, she led the way and I followed.
I warned her I hadn't come prepared for this, so no penetration, she said that it was okay that she trusted me and she was safe as well.
I had to warn her again not long after getting inside her, it had been a long time for me and I wasn't going to last.