At an Office Party at Cock of the Walk
(I won the award for the "Punkiest Employee with the Funkiest Alarm Clock)
Another Dressier Office Party with Mr. Sour
If you knew me then, you would know
that it didn't take me long before I was in another relationship. A
guy I knew from high school was working for an office supply company
that our office ordered from. He had also dated a friend of mine in
high school. It was good to see him when he made deliveries but I
really thought nothing of him romantically speaking. He was just a
nice guy. For privacy we'll call him David.
All that changed one evening when I was
doing my grocery shopping at Jitney 14 in Belhaven. His office was
close by and he was in the check-out line next to mine. We talked
for a minute and he asked me if I was doing anything that night. I
had no plans so he brought the 12-pack of Miller beer he was
purchasing over to my sparsely furnished apartment. When I say
“sparsely furnished” I mean I had a bed and a dresser with a
mirror and a few drawers. No table, no chairs. So we sat on my bed,
drank beer and watched the movie “Fletch”. He was a very witty
guy so we laughed and laughed. Things got a little interesting for a
while, but, remember, I still had to TELL HIM about myself. I didn't
that night, in fact we had several dates, until I finally had the
courage to confess my secret. Again, no rejection, no pointing and
laughing, just acceptance and love.
He was the kindest man I had every met.
Nothing ruffled his feathers. He was easy-going, fun and loved me.
However, by this time, my alcohol abuse was doing nothing but going
up, up, up. David drank as much as I did usually Seven-Year-Old
Charter and Coke. Sometimes we drank beer, but not that often. Back
then, wine coolers were just coming out and getting popular. My
favorite was the Fuzzy Navel flavor so I drank my share of those. I
wouldn't say we got drunk every night but we did drink some during
the week and definitely all weekend.
I had virtually moved in with him into
a small, very nice little house he had built behind behind his Dad's
house. He also had a baby girl from a very brief marriage and we
loved getting her every other weekend. He was a devoted father and
she was a precious baby. Hard for me to believe she is all grown up
now.
Yes, we drank, a lot! We were once
escorted out of The Comedy Barn for heckling the comedian. He
deserved it. That was a fun night but I was so angry! I had never
been asked to leave anywhere in my life. I got into David's van,
promptly propped my feet on the passenger side dash and slammed my
stiletto heel into the front of his glove box! The next day or so he
found a stick-on Ford logo that covered it nicely.
We made trips to New Orleans for my
birthday, to the Coast for his and visited his mom in Louisiana
several times. We had so much fun together. I had never been with
anyone who treated me with such kindness, love and respect. I am not
sure I really ever got used to it. Didn't everybody have a mean,
bi-polar step-father and a girlfriend who liked to beat you up on a
weekly basis? Surely not.
The kids, mid-to older teenage boys and
their girlfriends, would hang out and drink with us probably 2 or 3
times per week. Thinking back, if one of those kids had ever had an
accident after leaving David's house, it would have been David's
fault for supplying the liquor. I shudder to think how irresponsible
and stupid it was to do that!
One night, one of the young guys came
by with a beautiful, young blonde. She was tiny, petite and just
David's type. He called me the next day which was a Friday and asked
if I was going to aerobics as I did some days after work. I told him
I probably would and he said that his dad wanted to take him out to
eat at The Hill (any south Jackson folks remember that place?) and
they might be out really late. I told him that was fine and went to
stay with my mom that night.
Of course, that night I started calling
him about 10:00 PM thinking surely they would be home from dinner.
No answer. No answer all night until 3:00 AM. I finally went to
sleep thinking the worst. The cute girl never left my mind. I knew
what was happening in my heart of hearts. There was no answer at all
on Saturday or Sunday. Monday after work I went to his house and sat
on his front porch waiting for him to come home. When he got home
and was walking towards the port I saw it. He had an obscenely large
hickey on his neck. Aside from the fact that I felt my heart had
been ripped out and stopped on, a HICKEY? How tacky!
Of course I went inside with him to
have a drink and tell him how I felt about his betrayal. I also
wanted a confession from him, as if the hickey wasn't enough! He
told me what I already knew. He and the petite blond that had come
to the house that fateful night went out to a bar, left the bar and
promptly went to bed. His excuse was that he felt like we were
getting too serious and...wait for it...wait for it...I no longer
satisfied him sexually. I remember almost involuntarily turning my
face away from him. I could feel my cheeks burning with hurt,
embarrassment and devastation. I managed to stand up on my wobbly
legs which were not wobbly from the couple of drinks I had but from
the shock of what he had said. I left and never went back.
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