Carol stood there knocking on the door of Jan's house until she opened it. "Holy shit, what the hell happened to you?" she screamed as Carol walked in.
"I've lost him for good," was all Carol could say.
"What the hell did he do to you?" Jan asked.
"He used me, like I used him for the last year. God, I never knew Steve had so much anger inside of him." Carol said as she started to cry.
Through her tears, Carol told Jan what she had told him and what had transpired that evening. "And everything he said was true, except the fact that I didn't love him; because I do with all my heart and soul."
Paul came in and asked Carol if she wanted him to talk to Steve. "Don't you think you've said enough? If you guys hadn't gone on and on teasing him, I don't think we'd be in this mess right now," Jan told him.
"What are you going to do?" Jan asked.
"I'm going to get my kids, and move back in with my parents, what else can I do? Steve hates me, and I don't blame him." she said with a whimper.
In an hour, Carol was all cried out, there was nothing left in her. Jan gave her a change of clothes, and helped her pack up her sleeping kids in the van. When she got to her parents, she put the kids back to bed and sat in the kitchen drinking coffee.
"That damn idiot doesn't know what he losing," her father shouted.
"Hold your voice down, you'll wake up the kids," her mother, Tammy replied.
"Get some sleep honey, it'll all look better in the morning," she told Carol; but it didn't.
I didn't sleep much that night. When I got up, Carol was gone. I began to feel angry, not only with her, but at myself also, for what I had said and done last night. My anger was still there, but it wasn't out of control, like it had been the previous night. I made himself some coffee, and cleaned up the kitchen from last night's nightmare and went back to bed, alone, for only the second time in over two years.
Carol's parents had let her sleep, but by noon the kids were jumping on her bed. "When are we going home mom? Where is dad?" they inquired.
"Kids, we're going to spend a little time with grandma and grandpa, kind of like a vacation," Carol told them.
"Is dad coming with us?" they asked.
"Honey, dad is out of town, but will be back soon," Carol replied. She knew that wasn't going to happen, but didn't have the heart to tell them the truth right now.
When she went down stairs, her mom told her she looked like hell. "Honey, grab yourself a cup of coffee, and I think there are still a few pieces of bacon left on the stove."
Her dad put his newspaper down, and started in on the both of them. "All right ladies, since you've decided to keep me out of the loop, what the hell is going on?"
Carol told her dad, what happened the night of the party, and only what Steve had said last night; not what he'd done. He said nothing until she was finished.
Looking at his wife he asked, "You knew about this and didn't tell me? What were you thinking woman?" he asked.
"We thought it would all blow over in a day or two, but now it's totally out of control." Tammy replied.
"Damm right it is," he shouted. "What kind of man wants to be with a women, who says he can't satisfy her? Then having him hear you tell everyone, that even when you were having sex, you were thinking about someone else. Shit, if I ever heard your mother say, what you did honey, I would have tossed her ass to the curb myself." That was something Carol didn't want to hear right now.
Her dad left the kitchen shaking his head, telling her he didn't have a clue how she was going to get herself out of this one. Her mom asked if she had any immediate plans on contacting him, and she looked down at the floor and said sadly, "no, not right now."
"I'll give him some time to cool down, but I do need to get some of mine and the kids stuff out of the house though." The following day, Carol and her parents pulled all of her and the kids clothing out of Steve's house, when he was at work.
I was thankful when Monday rolled around; at least I had work to take my mind off my troubles. I told Nancy and my boss that I didn't want to see or speak to Carol, because as of last weekend, we were separated and that I just needed to be left alone.
When I went home Monday night, I found everything gone. "I guess that answers the question of her wanting to get back together; it probably wouldn't have worked any way."
After that, I dove into my work, and training for the marathon. I started working twelve plus hours per day plus spending two hours a day running or cross training. This went on for a solid two months. Although I missed Carol terribly, I was nowhere ready to even talk to her right now.
Over the next three months, I did either a 5 or 10K every weekend and really developed into quite a runner. I took either first, or second every time I ran and even made the local paper three or four times; as the towns up and coming running star. Every once in a while I thought I had seen Carol, or one of my kids at the races, but after I finished they seemed to have disappeared. Yes, my kids. I still thought of them as mine, even though I wasn't their real father; I still loved and missed them.
But my feelings for Carol were a whole other story though. Every time I thought of her, I became angry all over again. The effect was I trained that much harder to relieve the pain. I still had feelings for her, but also hated her guts, for what she did to me.
One thing that did surprised me though; I hadn't been served yet with divorce papers. I had decided from the onset that if she wanted out that bad, she would have to divorce me. Because of her dad being a lawyer, I had expected to be served in about 2 to 3 weeks after Carol left. But nothing had arrived. Well, it was up to her. The house and everything else was mine before I married her. And since I hadn't formally adopted the kids yet, there would be no child support. So I was basically single, married in name only.
With my added notoriety, I got hit on all the time. At the gym girls would pass me their phone number and the women in my running club, were always asking me, if I wanted to come home for dinner, or they had a friend that I would really like. I always smiled, but told them thanks, but no thanks.
It was about four and a half months into our separation, when I saw Carol for the first time. I was having lunch with a customer, when she walked into the restaurant with a tall, good looking, black guy. She never saw me, and as I watched her, it looked like it was more than just a business lunch. As they laughed and ate, I got angry all over again. If I hadn't been with a good customer, I would have left. I guess she's moved on, and by the size of him; she was going to get her pussy finally filled up again.
I was on a long run one morning, when Mary came up behind me on her bike. "Hey good looking, long time no see," she told me. I didn't recognize her for a moment, and then pulled off my headset to hear what she was saying. "How you been?" she asked.
"Not bad, keeping myself pretty busy, how about you?" I said just making small talk.
"Dan keeps me hopping, and I decided to start working out, to lose a few pounds," she replied patting her stomach. "Seeing anyone new?" she asked.
"Mary," I snapped.
"Just wondering," she said.
"I see Carol's moved on though, her new beau looks big enough to curl both her toes and yours too, if you know what I mean," I said with a smirk.
Mary thought for a minute. "Where did you see her?" she asked.
"At the Holiday Inn by the airport. She came in with a black guy about 6'4" and they were all over each other," I replied. "If you see her, tell her no hard feelings, and I'm glad she found someone to fill her void." With that, I said my goodbyes and headed out through the park.
"Why in the hell didn't Carol tell her that she had found someone new? Boy, talk about fast work," Mary thought to herself.
Mary called Carol and told her to meet her at Tim's Lounge after work for a drink, so they could catch up. Mary then called the rest of the group and told them to meet her there also. As Carol walked in she saw the fearsome foursome, as she called them. She sat down and order a glass of wine.
"Can't stay long girls, the kids and I have movie night tonight," she told them.
Mary spoke up first. "Alright, who's the new man in your life?" she asked.
Carol looked puzzled and replied, "What new man?"
"I saw Steve yesterday, he told me that he saw you and a tall black man out for lunch and you guys were all over each other," Mary told her.
"That was Don, we went to school together and he played football with my ex-husband in high school. He just signed a new contract on a house, and my dad was just looking it over. We were just reminiscing about old times, that's all," she explained.
"Well, that's not how it looked to Steve," she replied. "He told me, he was happy you've moved on, and found someone who can curl your toes," Mary replied.
Carol told herself that she would never cry about it again, but the tears started to flow. "Now he thinks I've replaced him, I just can't win can I?" she sobbed.
"Have you called him lately?" Beth asked.
"I did for a while, but he never took any of my calls, so I just stopped calling," she told her friends.
"And neither of you have gone to a lawyer?" Tina asked.