All names, places and references are fictional.
When my wife and I married, we were like what I guessed any couple would be. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other. We had a very fulfilling sex life, but after many years and a couple of kids, it had devolved to maybe once a year. During those times, she'd spread her legs and just expect me to perform, no foreplay, nothing to really get either of us in the mood. That led to my erectile dysfunction issues and she wasn't terribly understanding and that caused conflict in our marriage.
I'd spent a lot of money and time on doctors only to find that there weren't any physical reasons, so that led to psychological exams, which in turn led to marital counseling.
I was just under fifty and felt I was far too young to be experiencing these issues and the medical diagnosis supported that, but the one thing that stood out was when one of psychologists had suggested that it might be mental, but perhaps not with all women. She was pretty quick to say that she wasn't suggesting that I go cheat, still I felt I understood what she was telling me.
I was still physically fit, and according to some of my female coworkers, still a somewhat attractive guy. One thing I had noticed over the last few years was that I would get and keep erections when I would occasionally view some online porn and even masturbated several times. That kept me sane I guess you could say, knowing that at least the equipment still worked so to speak. But a large aspect of sex for me was pleasing my partner and that part was still missing.
My wife had just gotten offered a partnership in her law firm and with the hours she was working and given that the kids had moved out a few years ago, we decided on some time apart. I think I should have felt bad about that, but frankly, I was looking forward to being alone. I moved out of the house and got a two bedroom town house on the other side of town.
We weren't hurting for money. My wife was making a really nice six figure income, and I was as well. She was an attorney, and I was a C-Suite member of a large corporation. My role was Information Security and I managed the IT team.
The job wasn't without stress, but overall, I had a great team and we had pretty clear goals and focus. So aside from the occasional breach attempt, things were pretty good with my team.
The town house I had gotten was in a nice neighborhood and was what I guess would be considered a bit high end. It was fully gated, had lots of amenities and its cost sort of made it exclusive.
Granted it wasn't the home I was used to, but I honestly enjoyed the solitude. It was sparsely furnished, but I had enough things there to make me feel at home and I was enjoying how quiet it was. My daughter, Samantha, or Sam as we called her, had been really supportive during my wife and I's separation, my son Kevin, on the other hand, was what I would consider really reserved and indifferent.
Sam had come over and we'd had lots of discussions and she was very driven in asking why things were this way and specifically what led me to move out. At first I tried to use my wife's new role and our agreement to have some time away from each other, but she was persistent and I eventually shared all of the tests and why I'd had them.
I had warned her that it'd be a fairly private over-share that would cross the line into too much information. She laughed, and seemed unphased by what I had shared. I wish it had been that easy for me.
She looked me in the eyes. "Dad, do you think it's just a you and mom thing, or a you and any woman thing?"
"I don't know honestly, I've only been with your mom for the last thirty plus years."
"Dad, don't take this wrong, but I get the feeling that you and mom are test driving a divorce. I know that both of you have sort of tried to put on a brave face for me and Kevin, but it's more than obvious that you guys have stopped being husband and wife. It might be time for you to test the waters."
"I'm not sure. We're still legally married."
"Have you thought about it, dad?"
"I have. But haven't had the courage to act on those thoughts."
"Dad, you're a good looking guy, I'm sure you'll not have any issues meeting someone, in fact next Saturday there's a mixer here where you can meet your neighbors."
I started laughing, "Thanks for your vote of confidence. I'm not sure I'm ready to go meet people."
"Dad, I'll do some checking for you and let you know what I find out. Plus, I'll also give you some ideas on what to wear. Before you start to complain, you're going, end of discussion."
She got up to leave and came over and gave me a hug. "Dad, you've not been yourself for years. I'm happy you shared this with me and I'm looking forward to getting my old dad back. "
The week had flown by. My daughter had come over and dropped off some things to wear to the mixer. She explained that it was not too informal and almost seemed business casual. So she'd gotten me a nice button up shirt, some socks and then looked in my closet to match some slacks and a sports coat to go with them, even going so far as to choose shoes for me. She was really putting a lot of effort into making sure I was presentable.
I had been to enough mixers over the years, both for my job as well as my wife's to understand the general flow of these things. I wasn't a fan of them, and never drank alcohol during them because at least in a business setting, they almost always felt like a forced social interaction with people that weren't friends.
I've even seen them used to prune employees based on behavior. My wife's firm used them to identify which junior attorney's may have drinking problems. At least her particular firm would exercise some sound judgement and counsel the person and offer help if they felt they would be worth retaining. Others would be released.
My company had a larger tolerance of dumb-assery during our mixers, but I can assure you, that behavior was still noticed and would come back to haunt people during performance evaluations in the non-technical areas.
I went over to the recreation building and was surprised at how large it was. I hadn't really explored the property, outside of reviewing the pictures on the website. I was impressed. It didn't have the normal feel of a corporate mixer. I was greeted by a nicely dressed couple. I recognized the man as Tom, the guy that I had dealt with to sign the lease. They introduced themselves as the property management and leasing team. The lady introduced herself as Nichelle, the property manager. She was a very attractive lady, and was at least six feet tall without heels. She had a caramel skin tone with green eyes. There would not be a situation where she'd not be considered beautiful.
She smiled and extended her hand, "Doug, you are our newest resident and you've signed a two year lease and paid up front. Both are somewhat rare, thank you for both wanting to be with us for the next two years, but also for unexpectedly paying up front. We certainly appreciate that."
I accepted her hand and laughed, "Of course. It's easier for everyone involved. You get paid, and I don't forget to pay and have you guys come calling."
I was using several techniques I'd learned over the years to begin to memorize people's names in large group settings. It helped shape conversations with people to hopefully keep things from getting awkward.
After we excused ourselves, I moved over the bar and got a ginger ale. It served two purposes, one, it helped calm my stomach and two, it appeared as if I had a mixed drink. I was just walking around the room noting when people showed up. As the evening progressed I met numerous people and briefly introduced myself. Most seemed quite a bit younger than me, and seemed to cleanly fit into what I would consider a young professional category. In all honesty, it felt like I was clearly an outlier based on age. From a quick scan of the other guys there, I was in the top 10 percent or so for what might be considered healthy. Quite a few guys were overweight and didn't appear to be healthy. I sort of chuckled to myself and thought about some of the younger IT guys on my staff. If you had to pin down a stereotype, it was that of what everyone imagined a geek or nerd to be. Very pale, glasses, overweight and patchy facial hair.
I recognized that from myself from many years ago when I started in IT as a Database Administrator. Luckily I'd had some great mentors and they convinced me that while my technical skills were good, my interpersonal skills needed work. They invested in me and I was open minded enough to really accept the training they provide. I continued to learn and educate myself over my career and I ended up with two Master's degrees, one in Cybersecurity and one in Communications. The latter was probably more responsible for my promotions and certainly my current role.
The mixer was coming to a close and I noticed Nichelle up on the stage when she grabbed the mic and started to make some announcements.
"First and foremost, thank you all for coming over and spending the evening getting to meet your neighbors. I think we can all agree that we had fun. I even saw a few of you dancing. Those pictures may or may not be in the next newsletter." That got a pretty big laugh out of the group.
"We're doing something new for this mixer. I'd like to present a few awards to some of our residents. The first one is for our most tenured resident. Nicole, I know you're out there, I've seen you tonight, please come up to the stage. While we're waiting for Nicole. The next award is for our newest resident, Doug, come on up."
I was walking up to the stage when I noticed another person moving towards the stage at about the same time. She was a gorgeous woman. Not quite as tall as Nichelle, but still well above average. She had a stunning figure, sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes. Her smile, though, was lighting up the room.
We were standing next to Nichelle when she presented the awards to us. Nicole got her award first and it was a bit larger than the one that I was given. Nichelle had even made a joke about the awards getting bigger with tenure.
