A heads up from the author:
The story was spellchecked by the Word spellchecking program. I proof read it once, but I have been known to make mistakes. If you require better I suggest you go to your local library and check out books or go to a book store and buy works done by professionals.
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I was sitting at the kitchen table staring at the magnets stuck to the refrigerator door. Looking at them, but not really seeing them. My mind in turmoil as I contemplated what had just been laid on me.
Me? I'm Robert Devins. Bob to my dad (Robert if he is pissed at me over something) and Bobby to my stepmom. Pauline (my ex-girlfriend) called me Rob or sometimes Robbie. Nancy, my current girlfriend, at various times had called me all of the above. I'm twenty-one and a senior at Eastern Michigan University and one term away from a degree in Civil Engineering.
I work part time at my Uncle Bill's civil engineering firm and I'm expected to go to work for him full time when I graduate. Something the upsets my father no end. He has always wanted me to join him in his business doing internet security and selling and repairing computers. The problem is that I hate computers. Maybe not hate, but I sure don't like the damned things so no way could I see making a career out of working on them. I could never get my dad to understand that.
I can work with them if I have to and it is pretty much a given as a civil engineer that I'll be using CAD programs. I just have not been able to convince dad that working with them is not even close to the same as working on them.
I need to get into the family dynamic that brought me here. My mother died in an automobile accident when I was ten. Shortly after I turned seventeen my dad married Vanessa. The story I got was he met her when he made a service call to one of his customers. I could certainly understand the attraction because even as a seventeen year old I could recognize a walking wet dream when I saw one.
What really blew my mind was that Vanessa was only six years older than me. We seemed to get along okay, but I couldn't help thinking that something was just a little 'off.' I put it down to living in a house without a woman's presence for seven years. It was kind of weird in a way seeing my dad behaving with Nessa (as she liked to be called) the same way I was behaving with Pauline.
Of course dad was having sex with Nessa and I hadn't reached that point with Pauline. I'd come close, but Pauline said it was too soon. I had high hopes it would be my birthday present when I reached my eighteenth birthday which was the day before senior prom. And if not on my birthday there was always that old saw about girls giving it up on prom night and that๏ฟฝs just what happened.
She gave me a gift certificate to Old Navy for my birthday and her virginity (and took mine) the night of our senior prom. Later I found out it was a family tradition. Her mother, two of her aunts and both of her older sisters had given up their 'pearl of great price' on prom night.
I was happier than I pig in a very large mud puddle, but the end of summer was going to be very bad for me. I was staying home and going to EMU, but Pauline was going back east to school. We made each other promises that we would be together forever and when she came home with her degree we would get married. It wouldn't be all bad she told me. We would have the holiday breaks, spring break, and an occasional weekend and of course summer vacation. The big thing is that we loved each other and that would carry us through the hard times. When she came home for the holiday break we picked up right back from where we left off and had a great time.
Right up until the day before the day she had to leave to go back.
We were sitting in Harry's Shake Shack after seeing a movie when she said:
"You know I love you, right?"
Even as young as I was I knew those words were nearly always followed by something the hearer wasn't going to like and that was the case then also. She had decided that she needed a social life and had decided she was going to date other guys while she was away. I protested and pointed out she could have a social life without dating. I pointed out I had a social life without dating.
"Me and the guys find lots of things to do when we are not in school or working."
"I don't want to do things with a bunch of girls. I've made up my mind and I'm going to date. I'll still come home to you on all the school breaks. You are my man baby and you always will be."
I could see she had dug in her heels and my attacking the idea wasn't going to do any good so I dropped it. I knew it wasn't going to end well and it didn't. She didn't come home for spring break and I heard she went to Panama City with some guy and they shared a room together the entire time they were there. It was confirmed by three separate sources. I guess it didn't occur to Pauline that college students from Michigan also would go to Panama City on spring break.
Once I knew what she had done I decided it was time for me to start dating also. When Pauline did come home for the summer she found me in a somewhat steady relationship with Nancy Wilde. When she called me to let me know she was home and wanted to know what we would be doing that night I told her that I had no idea what she would be doing, but I had a date with Nancy. Before she could say anything I said:
"Got to go. She'll be here in half an hour and I need to get ready. Thanks for calling" and I hung up the phone.
Of course that wasn't the end of things. The next day she showed up at my part time job just as my lunch break started. I'd brought a bagged lunch and was sitting in the break room eating when she came in and sat down with me. She was in attack mode and she went right at it.
"Where do you get off hanging up on me and what's this bullshit about you dating someone else when I'm home?"
I laughed and told her I'd answer her second question first. I told her that since she had decided to date others I decided that if she could also and since I'd no idea when you would be home I'd made a date. Then I said:
"The answer to your first question is that I didn't want to talk to you and, in fact, I don't want anything to do with you anymore."
That wound her up and she demanded an explanation. I told her I didn't have the time for it as I needed to get back to work. I told her I'd give her fifteen minutes at Harry's Shake Shack when I got off work. I told her I'd be there at 5:10 and if she was there when I got there she would get her fifteen minutes, but if she wasn't there I wouldn't wait around for her.
She was waiting when I got there and I joined her in the booth. Lynn came over to take my order and I ordered a strawberry shake. A soon as she walked away Pauline said:
"Okay; so what's with the attitude?"
"Attitude? What attitude?"
"The way you are behaving toward me."
"I didn't realize it was an attitude. I thought I was just letting you know that I've moved on and you are no longer in my life and to shorten this meeting I'll lay it out for you. When Christmas break was over the day before you went back to school you flat out told me you were going to date once you got back whether I liked it or not. You did promise me you would come home to me on all school breaks.
"But you didn't. Spring break came and it did not see you here with me. You took the time you promised me and went to Panama City with some guy named Gary and spent the time you were supposed to be here with me shacked up in a motel with him. That put an end to our relationship. Don't bother trying to tell me you didn't do it because several students from here who were our high school classmates also went to Panama City for spring break and they saw what they saw and clued me in as soon as soon as they came back. We are done Pauline and you have no one to blame but yourself."