That night I went back to my place and for once didn't drink a drop. I'd shown her, she in turn had shown me, and now I'd taken it to the next level. The only question I needed an answer to was what I wanted going forward.
I thought I'd been happy down here or was I kidding myself? People don't live in Key West, they exist because everything costs three times as much down here. I really didn't have much of a life but I also didn't have to answer to anyone except the guy who owned the bar. I slept on it and woke up the next morning still wondering what I wanted. It took two more days to finally make up my mind. I looked out my window that morning and saw the rain coming down and knew the streets would be flooded and the place would smell rancid until everything dried up. I wanted my kids and maybe Megan, that is if we could go back to what we'd once had.
Answer the fucking phone! I screamed into my new cell as the phone rang at my parent's house. On the tenth call my mom finally picked up.
"Morning Rick," she said with an exasperated tone in her voice.
"Where is she?"
"Packing up as we speak. She gave you a second or was it a third chance and you fucked it up!"
"Wrong, she fucked it up! She was the one that started it and she was the one that ended it when she had me served. I'm not saying I didn't do some stupid ass things, but our marriage had been going downhill for months before it imploded."
"Rick honey, what do you want?"
"First, I want you to stop running interference for Megan and I want to see my boys."
"Can't help you there. Like I said, you booked and Megan will have full custody when she files again before she leaves to God knows where."
"Ask her not to do anything until I can get back up there. Then, if she still wants to fight it out in court we can go at it and throw what's left of our marriage on the bonfire and watch it burn."
"Rick, I can't promise you anything but I'll talk to her." She went quiet. "But, this is the last time, you hear me?"
"Yeah, I hear you, but if it all goes sour you won't have to worry about me any longer." I left that statement open ended.
I thought about flying but what I had left with me down here I wanted to keep. So, I loaded all my earthly possessions, filled up my tank with gas and got ready for my return trip.
On my way out of town I hit the bank, cashed the twelve grand check, and emptied my savings account. Probable wasn't a good idea to be traveling with twenty grand in cash, but what the hell, I'd done stupider things.
I drove almost straight through which I wouldn't suggest to anyone. I had to stop once and sleep for a couple of hours when I found myself drifting from lane to lane. The only good thing was it gave me one hell of a lot of time to think.
Kids. That's what we'd been acting like. Tit for tat was the norm rather than the exception over the last couple of years. Mature couples talk, immature adults get mad and do stupid things. Looks like we both fell into number two.
It took a day and a half but I made it back to Minneapolis in one piece. I got no warm welcome from either my mom or dad.
"She packed up her car this morning and headed out. Said she was tired of trying to talk to an asshole. Her words not mine," my mother told me.
"Did she say where she was going?"
"Nope, and didn't ask. She did say that when she got to where she was going she'd let me know but not to tell you." She had a wide grin on her face.
"Bitch," was the only world that covered this situation.
If Megan thought she knew me, she was definitely wrong. With twenty grand burning a hole in my pocket I made a call to Dave, an old friend of mine who just happened to be a lawyer.
"She took off with my kids and said she was going to make sure I was never going to see them again. She can't do that can she?" I said to my new lawyer. "You're not divorced right?"
"She threatened me last year and even got a restraining order against me, but eventually stopped everything. I think she's trying to take them out of state."
I was lying through my teeth and never mentioned the fact that I hadn't been home in the last year and a half.
"I know a judge that hates to see husbands get screwed over in the courts. And hates it even more when the wife takes off with the kids. Let me give him a call and see what I can do."
Two hours later Judge Reynolds signed an order for Megan to return my boys to me and backed it up with a warrant for her arrest. I'd heard about Amber Alerts but didn't know much about them... I didn't have to... her red Toyota was being looked for by everyone on every highway in Minnesota. My mom and her parents weren't happy with me when they saw the Amber Alert on TV.
"Steve, what the hell have you done? Her mom shouted at me as her father held her back."
"I want my son's back and since we're still married that's my right by law."
"You left her!"
"She filed papers on me. Hell, I had to get a court order to even get my clothes out of my own house! I guess I can thank you for that piece of work," I said looking at her father.
"I was only trying to protect my daughter and grandsons."
"If everyone would have stayed out of our business two years ago, maybe none of this would have happened."
"If you would have acted like a responsible husband and father instead of an immature teenager I wouldn't have had to do what I did." Okay, he had me there.
"Well, she's not going to get too far," I told both sets of parents. "Maybe this time she'll be forced to talk to me."
It took almost six hours before they caught her. She had stopped for gas and the attendant recognized the car. Ten minutes later she and my boys were in a squad car headed back to Minneapolis. I was told in advance she wasn't happy.
Our first meeting was in a conference room at the jail.
"You had me arrested? Really? The police even pulled their guns on me before I was handcuffed and thrown in the back seat. You really are a piece of shit, you know that?" She was letting me have it with both barrels.
"You want to talk?" I asked.
"Tried that for over a week in Key West, got no where."
"You never told me that we were still married. Remember, the last I heard, was that you wanted the house, my 401k and my ball cut off and bronzed. You'd already cleaned out our savings and checking accounts, what was I supposed to think?"
"Dad did most of that."
"No, he didn't. You let him do those things."
"Whatever! Just drop the charges so I can move on."
"Sorry, no can do. Not until you and I come to some kind of understanding."
"You know the charges aren't going to stick. My dad is already talking to a lawyer and by the end of today I'm going to be out of here anyway."
"Yeah, but I'm going to have custody the boys, at least for the time being." She glared at me. "And to answer the question you asked me in Key West, no, I haven't taken anyone to bed since I left and frankly I don't believe you haven't."
"I unlike you never fucked anyone and got an STD."
"Now we're splitting hairs. You were the one that wanted a free pass to expand your knowledge remember?"
"Like I said, unlike you, I never went all the way." She was smirking at me now.
"Well, if you hadn't ratcheted it up, we'd still be married."
"You idiot, we're still married."
"On paper only. We haven't been married in the true sense of the word in almost two years. Ever since you started your Friday girl's nights out." She was quiet this time. "And, how you managed to lose everything is beyond me. I sent you money every week. There was more than enough to make the house payments. All you had to do was swallow your fucking pride and take the money. But no, you had to be stubborn lose everything" She didn't look so high and mighty now.
"It was just a fucking house, no more no less after you left."
"I didn't leave, you drove me away! Remember?"
"And you slept with that slut... and don't give me that shit that it didn't count because you were drunk. There are thousands of men spouting the same excuse divorced every day. And I didn't serve you papers until you walked out."
We weren't getting anywhere, but at least we were talking even if it was just to hash over our past mistakes.
"When are you leaving?"
"Not. At least for a while. Gave up my job down there and I'm not sure what
I'm going to do just yet."
"Well in that case it why don't you take care of the boys until I get this matter straightened out. Take them out to dinner; they like Chuck Cheese if you can remember back that far."
"Enough with the cheap shots. Where are their clothes?"
"In the trunk of my car that's been impounded thanks to you."
"Then, I'll take them to the store to get a change of clothing. And don't worry, I won't tell them their mother is going to be an ex-con."
"Funny, very funny, you're a real joker."
"Well, at least I'm not the one having to go back to jail." See didn't look so smug when a lady guard escorted her back to her cell.
Her parents were taking care of the boys and weren't happy when I arrived to pick them up.
"You got my daughter thrown in jail. How can you be such a lowlife?" her mother said as her dad stayed behind her. I think if he'd said anything I would have decked him. He'd been the one to empty my bank accounts and get me served.
"I'm just here to pick up my boys," I said. It wasn't a request.
"My daughter will be out in a couple of hours. Why don't you wait until then and we can all sit around and talk."
"Carol, not going to happen. I'm here to pick them up now. You can either send them out or I'm going in and get them. Your choice." The look she gave me wasn't special.
