Ronnie Brooks looked at the lipstick message on his bedroom mirror, GOODBYE BABY!
The end had come with no warning. He thought they had a good thing going. Guess things weren't as good as he thought.
Sarah and he were childhood sweethearts. They met in fourth grade and had been friends or boyfriend and girlfriend till they married at twenty one.
Seven years later she was gone like the wind. No fights, no arguments. No clue that she was ready to move on.
At least she hadn't cleaned out the house when she left. The only things missing were her clothes and a few CD's.
He called the bank and checked the account balances in the household checking and joint saving accounts. The checking account was short the amount of her check. Half the joint savings were gone.
He quickly moved all the remaining money into his account and changed the pin number on the computer access.
He then checked the credit cards. The zero balance in the joint account was unchanged, but hers showed several cash advances over the last several days.
Ronnie called and cancelled the joint account.
He looked around the house again for a note. After a through search still no note. But he found charge slips in her closet from a high end lingerie shop from last week. It wasn't her account either.
The name was George Acree, one of her co workers. He was married with young children.
SAME OLD SAD STORY.
9 Months Later
Ronnie Brooks sat at his desk in his home office working on a proposal for a new project.
Leaning back in his desk chair, he thought about the night he found that message on his mirror.
Sarah had sent him an e mail the next day full of excuses for her behavior and why it was all his fault.
"He was more interested in his job than she, he wasn't romantic enough, and he was lousy in bed." She had written. "Plus he had let himself get out of shape and wasn't appealing to her anymore."
She also wanted half the equity in the house and almost all of the furniture. She also wanted him to pay for the divorce because it was all his fault.
Ronnie reread the letter several times and being in possession of an analytical mind he studied each part.
In all honesty he was very interested in his job. His current project had a large payoff, a big bonus and a promotion. Then they would be able to remodel the house the way they wanted and Sara could quit work and have the baby that he had thought they both wanted.
Ronnie had tried to be romantic but Sara had laughed about it. She had said they had been together too long for all that "mushy" stuff.
As far as being a lousy lover, they had both been virgins the first time. Sarah had been unwilling to try new things.
He had been out of shape. But if she had taken time to notice, he had lost thirty pounds and was working out at the gym three times a week. But she had been working late and out with her friends most of the nights he was not traveling and at home. She was preoccupied most of the time.
He had decided that night that she wasn't getting anything that the court didn't force him to give up.
