The final episode. There is no sex in this story. And before you ask for a follow-up to the story, no, the end is intentionally how this story ends, make of it what you will. Enjoy or well you know the rest.
*****
Today was an interesting day.
Although I had moved to the south of France initially, I never really warmed to the place, or got on with the people there. So, after a couple of weeks, I went further south and now I'm more than happily settled in Spain. The folks around here, and I am twenty miles from the coast, are friendly and unaffected by tourists. I've found that there are enough Brits living permanently or overwintering in the general area that I am not too lonely for company and understandable conversation.
I bought outright a small studio flat in a street just off the market square. Within a short walk, this tiny town boasts a couple of cafes and a supermarket. I work in a small garage on the edge of town which services just about anything with an engine. It is relaxed, no-one works too hard and is well, compared to my previous existence, fun to work there, to be honest.
My needs are as simple as they ever were. It is just that there is no current squeeze to share my otherwise relaxed and contented existence.
I was just enjoying my lunchtime siesta, on the shaded lower balcony of my two story studio flat, when I was roused by a loud banging on my street door. Who could it be at this hour with the whole town asleep or making love in the shade?
There she was, Maisie, standing at my door, large as a house and loud as a regimental sergeant major, her raucous voice echoing down the narrow alley.
"Tracked you down at last, you bastard!"
"Hello, Maize," I said, surprisingly calmly, "To what do I owe this dubious pleasure?"
"Aren't you going to invite me in out of this hot sun?"
"No, I'm not," I replied, noticing the two wheeled suitcases on either side of her bloated frame, "There's no room at the inn, I'm afraid. I only have one room, one bed, so you are not staying."
She pushed past me. I am such a bloody wimp.
Why is it that some guys beat up women, who keep on coming back begging for more, while someone like me, who has never struck a woman in his life, and would never, gets treated like a bloody doormat?
God, I thought, she was the fattest I'd ever seen her, she positively wobbled up the stairs to my studio on the first floor.
"Get my bags, hon," Maisie puffed as she climbed the steep stairs.
She didn't ascend exactly, every step was laboured, her voluminous printed cotton frock swishing back and forth across her huge arse. Good, I thought with a hint of a smile, revenge is so sweet.
"My bags, hon!" the harridan panted again as she looked back from near the top.
I sighed, even divorced I seem to be at my ex's beck and call. Damn, those bags were heavy. I couldn't leave them outside, nor dump them at the bottom of the stairs, I wouldn't be able to open or close the front door.
"Oh, this is nice!" I heard from the summit.
"Yes ... It ... Is. ... You ... Are ... Not ... Stay ... Ing." I panted, loaded as I was with what must have been the complete Paris Collection including the prefabricated fucking walkway.
"Nonsense, you wouldn't put your wife out on the streets would you?" floated down the disembodied voice.
"Ex ... fuc ... king ... wife!" I panted.
I needed to make a point forcefully here, but found myself at a disadvantage. I was only halfway up the stairs and thinking of setting up a base camp there to gather my strength before driving for the summit. It was far too hot at this time of the day for this kind of physical exertion and I was beginning to lose the will to continue.
"And yes I would, I will!"
"Nice balcony," the female voice felt fainter now, or was I beginning to lose consciousness? Oxygen, I badly needed oxygen.
"No pool?!" the voice louder again, shaking me from my indolence.
"Right! ... No ... pool"
I started climbing again. "It's ... a ... one ... bed ... flat, noth ... ing ... more, ... noth ... ing ... less, ... I ... told ... you ... ear ... lier, ex- ... wife!"
I thought it important to labour the point. I mean, who was supposed to be in charge here in my flat? (Reader, please don't answer that, I can only take so many negative vibes at once.)
"Not ex-wife, not technically, anyway, hon," she said, in a way that sounded like she was gloating.
"What?! ... I ... filled ... in ... all ... the ... papers ... and ..." I was at the top of the stairs at last, released the bags and stood sucking relatively coolish air into my labouring lungs, "I ... paid ... the ... bloody ... court ... fees."
Standing in front of me with her back to the open doors to the balcony, Maisie appeared as a menacing silhouette, her hands on her hips. By golly, she was bloody huge.
"Oh, you filled in the petition all right, Jerry, and the court awarded the decree nisi a couple of months ago, but you haven't applied for the decree absolute yet, so we are still technically man and wife."
"No shit!"
"Yes, shit! You didn't give your online lawyer your change of address, so I got all your mail forwarded on from our old house. Oh, nice fucking job on that house by the way, you bastard! Also, I had to get home from the coast by train. Lucky I had a bit of cash on me, as all our credit cards were completely maxed out. Nice surprise that as well, you evil sod!"
"Oh! Impressed with the house, then, were you, hon?" I grinned, noticing my natural inclusion of the unmerited endearment far too late to stop it coming out. I was hoping she would regard its use as ironic rather than a slip. That house was a piece of work, though, I was quite proud of it, in my own little way.
"Yeah, some builder was doing some preliminary demolition and clearing work when I got there and allowed me to take anything I wanted, I think it amounted to two carrier bags-full." She laughed at that, moving away from the window and sat her wobbly bloated body on my sofa and looked around my comfortable little flat.
"You are not staying," I said, "There's no room for you, still married or not, I can apply for that decree absolute any time I want."
"Course you can, sweetie," she cooed, "No telly?"
"On the mezzanine," I indicated the set of steps in front of the kitchen area leading up to the open-plan bed and separate bathroom, before looking back at her, making herself comfortable on the sofa.