With many thanks to SEXYKAT for editing
I was not unhappy when Dot, my wife, left me. She was a bitch anyway. As it worked out, later on I became happy. Very happy. Very happy indeed.
We had not been getting along for quite some time so it was no great loss. We still lived together and I provided the money necessary to finance the household and keep up her extravagant lifestyle while she did some (damn few actually) of the domestic chores. I did the lawn and garden. We slept in separate bedrooms and hadn't had sex for well over a year.
One Friday morning, I left for my office as usual but I had a feeling that something wasn't quite right. When I got there, I found my business partner, Sam, wasn't in yet. That wasn't unusual, he was a lazy bastard, but when he didn't show up for the rest of the day it was definitely strange. Calls to his apartment went unanswered. When I got home that night, I found the house empty and my wife gone. She had taken all of her jewelry and some of her clothes. Nothing else was gone, not even her car. I found the household checkbook on her dresser but there had been a $700.00 withdrawal that morning and there was only $18.60 left in it.
It only took me a moment or two to figure out part of what had happened. I shrugged my shoulders and figured, "So what!"
When I opened my e-mail there was a message from Sam that said,
Dear Ed:
So long sucker, Dot and I are in love and are going off together.
Thanks for everything (and I do mean everything). Don't try to find us.
Sam.
P.S. You can have my half of the business. I took the $250.00 that was in petty cash as full payment for it.
Have a good life.
Fuck you,
Love Sam.
Sam was a good construction superintendent but a poor money manager so I wondered how in the hell he got enough cash together to support my high-maintenance wife. Then it dawned on me. I quickly called Master Card and Visa and canceled the company and my wife's credit cards. A few minutes after I hung up from them, someone from the Visa Card called me back and told me that our business Visa card had been used to buy two one way airline tickets to Bogotรก Colombia, South America, via Houston, Texas. The departure time was 4:00 PM that day so they were still en route. There was no other activity on any of the other cards. Sam's credit was so bad I knew he didn't have anything but the company credit cards.
I couldn't wait to find out what happened when they tried to book a hotel room in a foreign country with dead credit cards. The most cash they had was the seven hundred dollars from the household account and the petty cash, less than $1000.00 in all.
I fumbled around the house for the rest of the weekend, trying to figure out how things like the microwave and the stove worked.
Early Monday I went to our local bank and spoke to Tom, the manager, who was an old collage friend of mine. Armed with a copy of the e-mail, (and a three year old power of attorney signed by Sam) I explained what had happened and he helped me close out the company checking account that was in both Sam's name and mine. I opened a new company account with just me as the signatory. He directed me to a lawyer friend of his and said that he thought the e-mail and the power of attorney was all I needed to dissolve the partnership.
Just as I was leaving the bank, Tom called me over. "We just got an electronic transfer request from an international bank in Bogotรก Colombia to withdraw $200,000 from the account you just closed. What should I do?"
"Do the right thing and tell them that account no longer exists."
Now I was elated.
It didn't last that long though and by the time I got back to the office I was in a sour mood again. Although I had thwarted Sam's attempt to rape our business, my wife was gone (little loss) and I had no idea how to run my domestic life. The only machines I could operate in my whole house were the computer, the TV, the VCR and the toaster.
My office assistant/manager, Peggy, an old friend, noticed my mood and asked what was wrong. I told her everything and that I wasn't unhappy to lose either of my partners and all I really needed was help to run my household.
"Why don't you hire one of those young college girls to part-time house-keep for you? That's what I do. I give her room and board and a small salary and she keeps my place spick and span. I'll call my girl now and see if she knows anybody that is interested in that type of arrangement if you like."