That Was It

I have never built a house or laid a brick in my life. This story probably shows that. But everyone needs a somewhere to live, so this is dedicated to people who build houses everywhere.

New Years Eve

That was it, I'd had enough. It was humiliating enough to have to sit and watch my 60 year old wife dance with a 20 something bloke from her office most of the night. But when the clock struck the New Year I expected her to come to me for a New Year kiss, but 'No' she kissed the young bloke she had been dancing with and it wasn't a quick peck, it was a full on snog. She stood and did Auld Lang Syne with him and his work mates. And she did it in front of all her work colleagues. And I had had enough.

I stood up, picked up my walking stick, reached into her handbag and got the car keys and headed to the front door. I couldn't dance with her as I had slipped over getting out of a light aircraft and got a fractured right ankle for the effort. My company hired light aircraft from our local airfield to get us around the country, it was quicker than driving and cheaper than a train. That was 5 weeks ago and it was still sore to walk on, dancing was out of the question, so was driving officially. I hadn't been drinking as the painkillers and alcohol together were not a good idea.

We took turns going to each other's company's New Year celebration. This year was the turn of her company where she was chief accountant, the young man she was dancing with worked for her in her department.

I had seen the pitying looks I got as much as the disgusted looks she got. An overweight overdressed 60 year old dancing with a 20 something fit bloke. That would be her problem on Tuesday the second, the first day back at work.

But now I am going home.

Ellie will have to make her own way home or stay with her boyfriend.

I walked towards the door. Our friend Julie was standing by the bar, she gave me a sad wain smile. We became very friendly with her when she got divorced about ten or twelve ye​​ars ago. Julie was head of HR. I think she thought I was going to the toilet which was by the front door. She looked startled when I passed the toilet and went towards the front door. I saw her look down at the car keys in my hand. She rushed across the dance floor as I left.

I got to my car, bugger, I would never get in the driver's door. Some idiot had parked too close. I would have to get in the passenger side and try to get over the centre console. That would be difficult with my ankle. The car was an automatic and I had driven it before using my left foot when I had broken my right leg playing Rugby. That was some years ago now.

I heard Ellie calling me as she came rushing across the car park, not a pretty sight. I looked at her and saw Julie standing by the front door of the hall we were in.

"David, where are you going? You can't drive."

"Home, I'll manage."

"But the party's still going on!"

I stared at her and in a low growing voice I said to her. "If you think I am going to take one more second of the humiliation of seeing my wife of 40 years dance with some bloke younger than our son, get ignored for the rest of the night, you have got another thing coming. And it was him you gave a New Years kiss to not your Husband, and in front of all your work people. I will be humiliated no longer. Now fuck off to your boyfriend, I've got to try to get in here."

She jumped aback at my use of the 'F' word. I rarely used builders' yard language at home.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think."

"No, you haven't for ages. Well, only about yourself." I saw that that hurt her. The truth does.

"I'll get my handbag." With that she went back inside.

Julie made her way to me. She gave me a hug. She pushed me back, looked at me and said. "Don't worry, they can't do anything, there is a moral behaviours clause. If they do anything they will both lose their jobs."

"That didn't stop the humiliation."

She looked sad. I looked at my watch, how long does it take to fetch a handbag?

Julie said. "Give me your car keys and I'll get your car out. Ellie couldn't get in there anyway, but I can slide across. I've always wanted to drive of this beauty." She held her hand out, I dropped them into it.

Julie opened the passenger door and slid across the car to the driver's seat. She started the engine, it sounded good. She moved it out in front of the main doors.

It was now over ten minutes, how long does it take for her to pick up her handbag?

It was 12 minutes before she got back. Jullie was standing next me looking worried.

"Where have you been? It doesn't take 12 minutes to pick up your handbag."

"I had to say goodbye to Richard."

"It doesn't take 12 minutes to say the word 'Goodbye.' What else were you doing?"

"Just a quick dance that's all."

"Most songs last three to four minutes. WHAT else did you do?"

"His favourite Grandad just died, and his girlfriend has dumped him. It was just a few dances to say goodbye."

"So, you left your husband outside at half past midnight on New Year's Day in the freezing cold to dance with your boyfriend. It was also enough time for a quickie in the bogs. That's a fucking good start to my year."

"How can you say that? I would never cheat on you. He's not my boyfriend. I'm sorry, but I was worried about him. I'm sorry."

"But obviously not worried about your husband of 40 years hobbling around on a walking stick outside in the cold. Get in the car and take me home or fuck off inside to your boyfriend and I'll manage."

I went to open the door. I must have winced. Julie got to the handle first and opened the door. As I got in Julie whispered. "I am sure nothing happened, but I will check. I'll pop round Tuesday after work"

Ellie started driving home. "Sorry sweetheart. He was upset. I was just consoling him, and I got carried away. I didn't forget you."

"Yes, you did. You spoke to me 5 times all night, yet you waved your fat arse all over the dance floor with Richard. Ignoring me in front of all your work mates. And you couldn't drink so you can't blame being drunk."

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I wasn't thinking"

"That's your excuse a lot recently, you've used it twice in the last few minutes. Well, whilst you were shaking your fat arse and floppy tits on the dance floor with Richard, I have been thinking as well, thinking a lot about our marriage, and I am still thinking."

"What do you mean 'Thinking about our marriage'?"

"You spent New Year's Eve shaking your body in that ridiculous dress with some man younger than our son, what else was I to do? Just drive the car and get us home in one piece."

"What's wrong with my dress?"

"It's totally inappropriate for someone of your size to wear a dress like that. I told you so and you told me it was up to you. You're correct, it is up to you, so I shut up and let you look stupid."

An icy hush fell over the inside of the car.

When we got home she let me out before she put the car in the garage. During the last bit of the drive I had made a decision. My ankle was throbbing now, and I was due a pain killer. Bugger it, there were still some Abbots Reserve bottles in the fridge. That'll do instead. I got one before she got in.

I was halfway up the stairs, bottle in hand when she came in from the garage, she had her phone in her hand. "Text from your boyfriend?"

She ignored the jibe and held her phone out to me. "No, just Julie making sure we got home safe."

I took it and checked and also if there were any messages from Richard. The message was from Julie and there was nothing from Richard. But that didn't prove anything.

I carried on upstairs, got to our bedroom, went in and closed the door behind me. We never close the doors in our house.

I sat on the floor with my back against it. There are no door locks fitted to the internal doors. I know, I built the house. Bum, I hadn't opened the beer bottle, good job I had my Swiss Army Knife on me.

I knew what was going to happen next, Ellie tried the door. "Honey, can I come in? I want to go to bed."

"Use the spare room or one of the kid's rooms."

"I want to sleep in our bed with you."

"You gave up the right to sleep in the matrimonial bed when you snogged Richard instead of me to welcome in the New Year."

"What?"

"You heard, you're not deaf."

I could hear her sobbing. That wasn't going to work either.

"But the beds are not made up."

"The linen is in the airing cupboard. You know that."

"But I want to be with you."

"Well, that's the first time tonight, isn't it? Just go to bed and think where you want this marriage to go. My ankle is hurting and I want to go to sleep. Now leave me alone."

I heard the squeak of the airing cupboard opening. I really must put a drop of 3 in1 on that.

I sat here thinking about how I got here. A very nice house, I know, I built it. Three nice cars. One a classic Rover P6. Two wonderful children with two grandchildren and another on the way, and a wife who I thought loved me up until tonight. Okay things hadn't been brilliant for the last 18 months or more, but I still thought we were okay. Just a bump in the road of marriage.

But now with the disrespect and humiliation plus leaving me outside for 12 minutes whilst she cozied up to Richard tipped me over the edge. Now was the time to seriously think about where we were going as a couple. But I had a problem. I love this house. I had built it. I had laid every brick with my own hands. I had improved grandad Phillips Rover and kept it running and used it at least once a week, she was getting neither of them.

Unfortunately, that's not always the way it works. Although the house was in my name, she had lived here for nearly 40 years. I'm sure some lawyers would argue she had a right to half the house. I would have to get my solicitor to check what might happen. I had a rough idea of how much it was worth, and if we had to split 50/50 I think there was enough in the savings for me to buy her out. I would be broke, but I would have my house. The car was mine; she was not touching that as much as she loved it. Probably because our Stephen was conceived on the back seat.

I left school at ​​16 I went to work with a mate of mine's dad as a builder. I spent most of my time carrying bricks around to start with and doing gash jobs. It was a time of a building boom and there was loads'a'money to be made. One of the old timers let me have a go at laying bricks, he gave me a few tips and I found that I was quite good at it. I found it therapeutic much like Winston Churchill did during the war. He used bricklaying to take his mind off the problems of the war for a while. I soon became a bricklayer full time and by now I was very good at it. But unlike most of my mates, I didn't piss it all up against the wall. okay, some of it went there but a lot went into savings.

Then a few things happened. When grandad Phillips had to stop driving, he gave me his Rover 3500 P6, one of the last ones off the production line. Grandad had it from new, I loved that car. He made me promise to keep it running and to use it, not just put it in a garage. I did. Beige with a brown vinyl roof, it looks fantastic.

Being in the business I decided it was a good idea to build my own house. I had mates who could do the electrics, woodwork, plumbing and the roofing. I just had to do the brick laying. I found a plot of land, put the deposit down, and got a mortgage. I approached the company architect. I told him I wanted some plans for a house. He said he could have let me have any of those of the houses we were currently building. I told him I wanted something different. I wanted to start small with the intention of expanding, putting on extensions when I could afford it or as the need arose.

I didn't know how many bedrooms or what I would need. I expected it to be no more than four bedrooms but start off with two and one garage, then expand that to two garages and build the bedrooms over. He liked the challenge. I saw his eyes light up.

After a month or so he came to me. He would start with a very large kitchen to cater for the whole house of up to five bedrooms. I know I said four but he wanted to give some leeway. Two smaller front rooms that could be knocked into one if we needed to and built accordingly. One garage to start with and a utility room on the back to keep washing machines and that sort of stuff out of the kitchen. With the aim of extending over that garage for an extra bedroom and then adding another garage with a bedroom above that, and if we needed more and extend out the back. He was starting with two bedrooms en suite but only one fitted at the moment. He then laid out several plans for extending the downstairs. Conservatories at the time were a new thing so we planned to have one put on the back of the kitchen, the size would depend on when I did it. After a few tweaks we had an excellent plan.

Unfortunately, that was when Grandad Phillips passed away. He had seen that I kept his car in immaculate condition, in fact I had improved it into a car as it should have been. I fitted high lift race cams, electronic ignition, I upgraded the brakes and fitted a sports exhaust which wasn't too loud. I made the suspension a little stiffer, so it wasn't so wallowy. It was quite sympathetically done. It still looked the same, just went and handled better. I think because of how I looked after his car that he left me some money, enough to get the house started. With a bit of help from my mates and the odd half pallet load of bricks that just seemed to turn up, plus the odd door or window that didn't work properly and was going to be thrown away. It didn't take long to have the two front rooms, kitchen and two bedrooms done. It cost me an arm and a leg in beer, and sometimes not a lot got done on some Sundays.

After I got enough done, I invited my Mum, Dad, Grandma and Grandad Johnson over for Boxing Day dinner. Okay parts of the kitchen weren't finished, there was no carpet on the floor in the second front room. Most of the furniture was second hand but I was proud of what me and my mates had achieved, and so it turned out were my grandparents. They came and saw me in January and gave me a cheque for a fair bit of money, on the proviso that every year I cooked Boxing Day dinner and invited them all over. That gave me enough to finish the house to phase one. I might as well have it now instead of waiting until they passed away. That was what Grandad Johnson said.

By now I was a supervisor in the company, which had got much bigger. I still laid bricks every chance I got.

Then one day they bought this slim, attractive young lady around one of the sites to see what we did. She looked at me and smiled and I was smitten. That was Ellie. She was a new accountant and she looked about the same age as me. I worked up the courage to ask her out, I was surprised when she accepted. We had been going out for about 15 months and she was around the house when she pointed out that on the corner of the house every other brick stuck out as if it wasn't finished. I told her it wasn't. They were there for the extensions.

"What extensions?"

"Bedrooms."

"How many bedrooms?

"That depends on how many children you want to have."

"Is that a proposal?

It was. She accepted.

Ellie was smart, pretty, vivacious and sexy. We had a lot of fun doing things together in and out of bed. We weren't each other's first. She had some lovely underwear, occasionally we could get a little bit kinky outdoors, the element of risk was our favourite. Life was good. Two children came and went. I tried to think when things started to go wrong, what did I do wrong. There must be something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

But I came back to the here and now. The reality of my life. I jammed the chair under the door handle then I managed to clamber into bed. I didn't sleep particularly well.

Ellie was downstairs sitting at the kitchen table when I got up. When I got to the bottom of the stairs she went and got me a cup of tea you put in front of me. "Sorry sweetheart I messed up last night. can we talk about it, can you forgive me."

"It's not just about last night, this has been going on too long, but last night was enough. Talk yes, forgiveness I'm not sure. Disrespecting and humiliating me last night, and you made yourself look like a fool and I don't want to be married to a fool, especially a fat fool at that.

"What do you think your boyfriend would say when you take the girdle off and he sees the rolls of that fat flopping around? And your bra, it's got so much structure in it, Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have been proud to have made it, when you take it off your tits hit your belly button. When you take that makeup off you can see how saggy your face really looks."

Actually, I was being harsh, her body wasn't that bad, but it wasn't the same one she had even three years ago. She had let herself go.

I didn't let up. "And why him? Do you fancy him or something? He's a good looking 'boy'." I emphasised the word boy. She looked down, what a giveaway.

"I like Richard, he is a nice lad, and he made me feel good." Then I saw it. She was trying to capture her youth back when we were in our 20's. Because we used to dance and kiss like that.

She looked up at me and said quietly. "His favourite Grandad just died, his Grandmother is upset and his girlfriend just dumped him. I was just trying to cheer him up."

"Cheer him up by ignoring me, there is more going on here than that. You've been ignoring me for the last year, when was the last time we had sex. Not make love, just have sex?"

"Last week."

"Last month and I don't mean December. It was over six weeks ago and do you remember what you said when I tried to get you to have a bit of fun?" She shook her head. "You said, 'Well if you must' and despite my best efforts with tongue and fingers, you just laid there with your legs open. I might as well have had a wank. It's less effort and more rewarding.

"Obviously I don't do it for you anymore, so you go chasing men younger than our son." I paused and said quietly. "Julie reminded me that your company has a moral behaviour clause and if he fucks you, you will both lose your jobs, and on top that I WILL divorce you. I still might anyway if things don't improve with your attitude. Got it!"

Then it hit me, I said. "You fancy him, don't you?" I glared at her, she turned away from me crying. That was it, she fancied him.

"I'm off to the gym, I've got an appointment. You had better think about where you want this marriage to go, because at the moment I can only see one way, and you won't like it." I stormed out, well as much as you can on one and a half legs and a walking stick.

I was recommended this gym by my physiotherapist to keep fit whilst my ankle healed, then to regain the strength in my right leg when it would stand it. I had to do daily exercises, even on New Year's Day.

The rest of New Year's Day was cold in our house, and I couldn't even have a beer. What a shitty start to the year, it can only get better, can't it?

I was up early on Tuesday getting ready for the first day back after the break. Ellie was still in bed. I made her a cup of tea and took it up to her in the spare room. She obviously hadn't slept well either. She got up and made me some toast. We didn't talk much, but she did come to the front door and give me a kiss on the cheek as normal when I left.

As I couldn't drive, the company had asked Tony to collect me on his way into work, it wasn't much of a detour for him. He was a cheerful, bright young chap who worked in our design office. How that place had changed in my time with the company. When I visited the architect to have a chat about my plans the room was full of men wearing suits and ties, leaning over big drawing boards. However, the overriding memory was of the cigarette and pipe smoke that filled the top of the room, no one bothered to open a window. Now it was full of young people wearing jeans, sweatshirts and trainers, sitting in front of a bunch of computer monitors.