Chapter 37 Mick and Keri The Beginning Of The End

It was a busy time of the season for me. I had been on the road with the various levels of championships that our team aimed at. I had been spending a lot of nights sleeping in my apartment and missed Keri so much. I needed to make sure to make it up to her when this last Championship was over and the team took a break.

The past several years and been great and I did not want to mess it up this time. We had settled into a bit of a boring and mediocre life for the past six months as I focused on my team and its’ rise to a national level of competition. We even had kids with Olympic possibilities.

I kept thinking that I should do something, but there did not seem to be enough time for everything. It was wearing on my nerves, too. During the competition this last weekend, I had gotten a little hot under the collar and I had thrown the three ring binder I keep practices and workouts and test results and stuff in and destroyed it.

I decided to head out to the Office Max to get a new one during my lunch break since Keri had a conference downtown and could not join me. The shop I was headed for is down in one of the various little entertainment districts that dot the downtown area. This one was across the street from the sushi buffet that Keri and I often go to for lunch. It was our favorite spot to enjoy each other’s company ... in public. I was walking at a good pace with my headphones on and my phone turned on to my music library. The music was up tempo and helped me walk at a good healthy speed. As I was going along I would look into the windows and bars that I passed, just as a normal thing.

As I got to the sushi restaurant, I looked in to see a woman sitting at the bar with a great head of thick black hair amd a glass of wine in her hand. As I looked in I saw two things. First she was sitting next to a guy who had his arm around her and second her hair had a few streaks of silver in it, just like Keri’s. I slowed my pass and focused a little more and an icicle stabbed me in the heart. The woman turn around just enough that I could see her face, but she could not see me. It WAS Keri.

She and the man were at the bar chatting and as I watched they laughed and he kissed her. She did not pull away. She did not look insulted or upset as she sipped on the wine and looked into his eyes. And then she kissed him back. I almost blacked out.

I walked across the street and into the Office Max store and stood in a place where I could watch. After about twenty minutes the two of them walked out of the sushi restaurant, holding hands, and without any conversation, walked across the cross street and into the new high end hotel that had just opened.

Leaving the store, I started walking my mind blanked out the music. I suddenly found myself at the door to my office and did not know how I got there. My mind was a blank. I went back to work and muddled through the rest of the day. I went to practice and got through it like I was sleep walking. After practice I took out my phone and sent a text to Keri and Sarah, like I normally would.

“I am beat and have a ton of work to do. Sleeping at the apartment tonight. Talk to you tomorrow.”

I went to my apartment. Although I lived with Keri, I kept the apartment near work for days when I WAS really swamped and DID need to get some work done. I walked in, turned on the lights, locked the door, removed my coat, fell into bed and cried myself to sleep.

The next morning I woke up around 6:30 and took a shower. I stood under the water stream and remembered the first time Keri had come to my apartment. She let herself in and I ended up in this very shower, with my dick in her ass. It was the start of the finest time of my life. Now it seemed that it might be over.

I kept telling myself that maybe there was a reasonable explanation for what I saw. Maybe it was Keri’s doppelganger. Maybe there was something else. No. I saw what I saw. I saw the looks in their eyes. I wondered how and if and when she was going to tell me. Was she going to let me down easy or just drop a bomb on me? Had she been meeting him for a long time?

I decided to wait until later in the morning and I drove to Keri’s house. Funny, I didn’t think to myself “our home”. I pulled up to the garage door and the signal from the Lexus opened the door. I walked in to a quiet house. Sarah was not there and if she was, she was in her apartment and as soon as I walked in her alarm would go off telling her someone was home.

The intercom remained silent. Sarah was not here. I walked back into the garage and found the big leaf bags that we used in the yard. I pulled two of them off the roll and returned to the bedroom. In the closet I began to pull down all of my shirts that had to do with my team. I stuffed them in one of the bags. I collected all of my team polo and t-shirts, my sweat shirts and hoodies. Then I went to the dresser and packed up all of my underwear, except for the sexy ones that Keri had bought for me.

I did a quick inventory. I had all of my team gear and socks and underwear. I left all of my dress shirts and slacks and coats and sweaters. I left the dress shoes as well. I packed up all of my toiletries from the bathroom and then lugged both of the bags down to the car, throwing all into the trunk. I started the car and drove back to my apartment. After putting everything away in my closet, I sat down on my computer and opened the email program.

I typed in Keri’s work email and began to type.

“I saw you at lunch yesterday” Was on the Subject line.

“I guess you were just waiting for the chance to tell me when you got done at the hotel. Well, no need now. I will return the car to you in a few days when I have a replacement. I guess I should have known that this could not last. Keep the rest of my clothes maybe they will fit the next guy. Good bye”

Without taking the normal split second to think if I should hit “Send” I just clicked on the tab and off the email went. I then busied myself with the day’s work and got ready for the days practices.

Some unknown amount of time later my email notice chimed and an icon popped up letting me know that I had an email from Keri. “Re: I saw you at lunch yesterday” in the subject line. I deleted it without opening it. A few minutes later another and then another, all deleted. Then my phone began to ring.

I turned the phone off and went back to immersing myself in the mind numbing tedium of paperwork. More emails, more deletes.

After about an hour, I was sitting in the quiet of my thoughts when there was a knock on the door. I tried to ignore it. The knock became louder and faster. Finally, I could not put up with the noise. I stood and headed for the door. As I walked past the table by the door I picked up the keys to Keri’s car and opened the door.

There stood a mess of a woman. Her hair was unkempt; her eyes were red and swollen from crying. She looked franticly into my eyes.

“Here are your car keys.” And with that I closed the door.

Soon there was more pounding on the door. Now the sound of a pleading voice.

“Mick, please open the door. Please, we need to talk. Nothing happened. Mick. Mick! MICK!”

I returned to my desk and turned up the music until the noise at my door stopped.

At 2:30 I got up to go to practice. I walked the 15 minutes to the practice facility since I no longer had her car keys and proceeded to bury myself in my kids. I was not my normal self and it was apparent. One of my assistant pulled me off to the side and asked what was wrong. All I could say was “Keri left me.” I had to return to practice rather than break down into a tearful mess.

After practice I shrugged off the questions and concerns of my staff and began my walk home. As I walked out the doors, there was a black Lexus. I walked past it like I had not seen it and continued on. I never knew if it was Keri’s car or not.