It was the summer of 81, and I was living with my grandparents in Lafayette. My grandparents lived in what was historically referred to as "the servants quarters" which was basically a 3 bedroom shack located about a football field away from the mansion that the guy my grandfather worked for, owned. The owners were heavy into real estate and owned a great deal of land in the city. For being rich, they were really nice. They had a below ground pool which was not too far from my grandparents house. I always thought it was odd that the pool was so much closer to the servants quarters than to the actual mansion, but that's neither here nor there.
I was 18, single, and probably in the best shape of my life considering that I'd just had my first child less than a year prior. I had made the stupid mistake of getting drunk and letting the guy I'd had a crush on since childhood have his way with me. My parents adopted the child, since I was little more than a child myself. Six months later I made the decision to go live with my grandparents for a year to save up for a car.
I had cart blanch to use the pool whenever I wanted, and I did. Whenever I wasn't working, you could find me at the pool. I was in such good shape, that despite the fact that I smoked, I was still able to swim 50 laps without resting. I did this for almost the entire summer and I'd never felt stronger physically, but emotionally, I was lonely.
My days consisted of working 2 jobs so that I could save up enough money for a car. I had been at it for about 6 months before I met the guy who would change my life forever.
His name was Bob. I met him one night at my second job where I was a bartender for a restaurant. I'd met plenty guys before working there, but I wasn't interested in dating. I was working on a goal, and the last thing I needed was to hook up with anyone. In fact, knowing I would only be there temporarily kept me from even wanting to meet anyone, but there was something about him that attracted me, and before I knew what happened, I'd agreed to go out on a date with him to shoot pool. We had a great time. He had such a great sense of humor. He had me laughing the whole night.
When he brought me home, he asked if he could kiss me. I wanted to kiss him, so I leaned in and we met in the middle. Although I hadn't kissed a lot of guys, his kiss left me breathless. Reluctantly, I told him I had to get inside, since I had to work the next morning. I had given him my number, but wasn't sure I'd hear from him again. To my surprise, he called me the very next morning before I headed off to work. Just to let me know he had a great time, and to ask if he could take me to lunch. Before I knew it, we had been on 3 dates.
Everything seemed to be going great except for one thing. Bob was very vague about himself. I began to notice we talked mostly about me. Anytime I tried to find out what he did for a living, or where he lived, he always seemed to find a way to not answer the question. Told me he was between jobs right now, and that he was staying temporarily at his folks house. I had only known him a couple of weeks, so I figured maybe it was just too soon for him to feel comfortable confiding in me.