Thanks for reading.
There were some things that he loved about having his own place; No conversation being made just for the sake of conversation, no kitchy art in the kitchen that said "Live, Laugh, Love", and the whole house didn't smell like some damn candle warmer. There was no one nagging him if he had a crappy day at work and just wanted to sit and play some games xbox. It just made life a hell of a lot simpler
He threw a frozen pizza in the oven. The Digiorno's box didn't quite look as appealing to him as it had a few weeks back. You could only go through the flavors so many times, but for five bucks. When he had been with Lisa, they hardly ever had pizza. He wished they would have had pizza and beer more, but she was always saving for something. Instead she would make something she read about in some magazine about frugality that tasted a little too nutritious. Always a vegetable on the side. If she hadn't been such a minx in bed he would have said that she was the most boring person on the planet. Just wanted to talk about the future, and college and family.
He smiled to himself. When push came to shove, the service he really wanted to keep her around for made her more of a high priced slut than a he used to think. He could get the same from his hand without dealing with all of her shit, and there were plenty of women hotter than her and more willing than her on the internet on some free porn site. As a bonus they didn't nag the hell out of him.
He was still a little surprised that he was thinking about her. Life didn't get much better than it was right now. He had plenty of free time and plenty of free money. Flirting with the women at the office was no longer forbidden, not that really stopped him before. It rarely went too far, even when he was still with her. His craft had slipped a bit while he was stuck in the relationship, but a few months would get him back. The ball and chain had held him down for too long. The air smelled like the smell of a bachelor, like the smell of freedom. He thought back to the night when he found out who she really was.
**********
He still remembered the shocked look on her face when he broke the door in at the apartment. Her jaw was almost on the floor. He had known something was up. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that. He was out having some fun with some friends after work. She was too damn cheap to go out and have a beer, and he knew that was how you made it up in the world. You couldn't just wait for connections to come to you, you had to go out and find them, and happy hour with the office was the way to do it. The office ladies getting a bit tipsy didn't hurt much either. She had called him a of times early that evening, asking him to come home, but he could barely hear her. The phone just buzzed after that when she called. He knew how damn rude it was to be picking up phone calls when you are trying to build a relationship, and he wasn't going to screw up a chance with his boss.
His manager, Jack, really knew what he was doing in life. He was always flirting with some new beauty at the bar, and he had taken more than one for a roll in the back of his Mercedes. "And you should see the car rock and roll." His boss said with a wink. Jack had been stuck with an anchor of a wife as well. They had a house out in the suburbs, so there kids could run around and have decent schools. After Jack dropped his old lady, all the sudden, all Jack needed was an apartment. All the sudden he had all the time to do what he wanted, including work extra to get ahead. Even with the Alimony and child support, he always had enough to buy a girl a drink, or maybe three- Whatever it took to start droppin' those panties.
Jack could drop in for his kid's games, so he was neglecting that either. Jack seemed to have it all figured out.
Ben sure as hell wasn't leaving the guy who was getting ahead to go home to a girlfriend that seemed more concerned about falling behind. If you are in sales, you have to be learning form the winners.
She had been sitting in the front room of their apartment when he walked in at 9, wearing a little black dress, with that stunned look on her face. He knew the reason a second later when he rounded the corner. The neighbor sitting on a chair popped into view. He was a little weaselly runt, one of those guys that knows too much for their own good. Gene smiled as he looked up, looking all happy until he realized the trouble he was in from the look on Ben's face. It didn't take a damn genius to know that that anybody sitting with someone else's girlfriend at night had something coming, and Ben was more than happy to deliver. Ben had to admit, he don't look as good as he did in high school, but despite the ninjas people are always telling you about, weight matters. The guy that played running back like won't having much trouble beating the hell out of the guy that was the captain of the Math Squad.
The runt barely got up to his feet before he was back in the chair. The fist of a 240 pound man will do that when it hits the face of a 160 pounder. Gene's face made a popping sound as Ben hit him. There is only one way to deal with someone disrespecting you in your own home, and it isn't gentle. Little shits like him got uppity when they went off to college, but a hammer to the face would set them straight.
Lisa threw herself between them, screaming at him. Ben still couldn't believe the gall of his own girlfriend. She knew she was caught, and the first thing she did was take the bastards side. Ben didn't like it, but he knew what you do with women that won't stand behind their man. If he let her get away with disrespect, she would think she ran the place, that she could run all over him. The room reverberated with the sound of his slap, and her body twisted as she fell over the back of the couch. By this time, Gene thought he could actually fight back. What kind of pussy name was Eugene anyway? Gene shouted and charge in, but it was clear that Gene had never hit anything but the books. Ben's fist sunk into Gene's gut, and then Ben dropped him with a punch to the side of the head. That kind of punch would take a little longer get up from. Ben strode around the side and kicked Gene in the gut. Then burning started. His whole face lit on fire. The fire filled his lungs. He hacked and coughed, his body trying to reject the pepper spray, the phlegm filling his throat and almost making him vomit. All he could think of was the fire in his nose and eyes, and the feeling of mucus streaming out of his nose and mouth onto the floor as his body tried to fight the burning.
He did hear the others in the room, coughing and sputtering. He even seemed to remember Lisa kicking him once as she walked past to put a fan in the window. That sorry bitch never knew when to quit. He wanted to show her, but he couldn't even open his eyes. He could his wife and some other women mothering over Gene, but they just left him on the floor.
When Ben heard the cops show up, he knew where he was going. He had spent one night in the slammer before on a drunk and disorderly when someone had picked a fight with him.
It was about as he remembered, only this time had a little extra spice. He looked at the wall, and wondered what the hell he had done to deserve this. The decor in the room did little to help the mood. The stark white walls were nicely decorated by profanity that had carved in by people carving poems purely of profanity. They really didn't rhyme either.
