Chapter 2

It was hard to put Maeve out of my mind. Her scent was still on the bed. I washed the pillow covers, but her scent still lingered on the pillows themselves. Likewise the mattress. I kept finding things of hers that got left behind. A hairpin here, the button from a blouse there, a lipstick that had somehow rolled under the couch.

Maeve called me two or three times a day and I finally had to get an unlisted number for the home phone and a new cell phone number. She called me at work, but I had all ready bribed Donna to handle that. A couple of times when I came home from work she was waiting in the parking lot for me and as soon as I saw her I pulled out of the lot and found a sports bar where I could kill time until she left.

Then there was a three week spell when she didn't call me or my work or show in my parking lot and I began to think that she had finally got the message that we were through and I could get on with my life.

Silly me.

It was ten in the morning and I had just finalized a deal that I had been working on for two months. Donna stuck her head in my office and told me that Matt, my boss, wanted to see me in his office. I walked down the hall to it and Charlotte, his secretary, told me to go right in. I walked into Matt's office to find him standing next to his desk and talking to ... Maeve! Matt saw me and said:

"Here he is now. Come in Rob, have a seat. I believe you already know Miss Billings."

Maeve looked at me and smiled as she said, "Good morning Rob."

She winced when I said, "Good morning Miss Billings."

"Rob, Miss Billings came to me with an advertising idea that I like and since she already knows you and you know the ins and outs of what we do she has asked that you work with her on it. This is really going to help us Rob so give her what she needs. I've got a ton of things to do this morning so why don't you take Miss Billings..."

"Please call me Maeve."

"Why don't you take Maeve over to your office and she can fill you in."

Once in my office I asked, "What are you up to Maeve?"

"Oh come on Rob, you aren't dumb. You won't take my calls, you run when you see me, so I needed a way to get to you that you couldn't avoid. I made your boss an offer he couldn't refuse and told him that I would need to work with you on it."

"But why Maeve. I made it clear that we are history."

"Not while we are both still alive Rob. You are my man and that is all there is to it. I'll do whatever I have to do to get you and keep you."

"Nothing has changed Maeve. You know my feelings and they have not changed."

"No more secrets Rob. You ask and I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I won't hide anything from you. And no pre-nup. What I have is yours and with no strings attached. All I want is you Rob."

"I don't think so Maeve. Now what is this thing you have sold Matt on and what do I need to do?"

"Give it up Rob. There is no way that we can spend several hours a day together that I won't get to you. Why prolong it?"

Prolong it I did — for all of three week. But she was right. There was no way I could be constantly in her presence several hours a day and stay away from her. Slowly, but surely she pulled me back and a date was set for the wedding.

My apartment was too small so I moved into Maeve's condo and then Maeve set out to spoil me rotten. I love golf so she bought a membership in a country club. She thought I needed something a little more substantial than a five year old Chevy pick up so I came home from work one day and found a Cadillac STS parked in my assigned parking space. I would have preferred something a little less ostentatious, but recognizing Maeve's need to be in charge I smiled and thanked her.

Next she decided that the condo was too small for us and decided that it was time to get a house. We must have looked at a hundred — quite a few that I liked — but Maeve didn't think that the ones I liked were good enough.

"We are going to entertain a lot honey so we need something with a pool and a large patio area" is what she said, but (and I was well aware of it) what she meant is that "I'M picking out the house." What the hell did I care? I was going from an apartment to a house and the truth of the matter is that I wouldn't mind having a place with a pool.

She finally picked a 12000 square foot five bedroom with an in ground swimming pool, a huge patio and two tennis courts. It had an attached four car garage and sat on five acres. She looked around and then did what she once told me that she didn't want to have to do. She hired a groundskeeper to take care of the outside and signed a contract with Molly Maids to take care of the inside.

We went furniture shopping for the new house and while she did ask my opinion she bought what she wanted. There were some disagreements along the way and when a time or two I insisted on something she got "huffy" with me, but I ignored her and she liked that even less. But I knew going in that she had a controlling nature and for the most part I let her have her own way. I was not unmindful of the fact that giving in to her on everything could lead her to start believing I was "spineless" and I was never going to allow that to happen even if I had to fight tooth and nail over something.

The first three years went by and we were happy together. Things went smoothly as long as I let Maeve do what she wanted. I would throw up an occasional roadblock just to keep things honest.

The "control" and "in charge" were always there. Planning a vacation I suggested Cancun, but she said no, that St. Thomas was where she wanted to go. The next time I wanted to cross the water to England and she decided on Vancouver. The third year we were going to take three weeks off and she asked me where I thought we should go. By then I knew the playbook so I decided to get sneaky on her. We each had a home office, hers downstairs off the dining room and mine in one of the extra bedrooms upstairs, and one day when she wasn't home I went into her office and snooped around. I saw literature and brochures for Australia and New Zealand and I knew if I said France or Spain she would say maybe next time, but that she would like to go to Australia and New Zealand. The next time she brought the subject up I said that I'd always had a hankering to see Ne Zealand.

"Maybe some other time, but this year I think we should go to England and maybe cross the channel and spend a couple of days in France. I KNEW she wanted Australia, but it HAD to be her decision not mine and I knew that as soon as I said I wanted to go to New Zealand there wasn't any way in hell she would go there.

Why did I put up with that kind of bullshit? Because I loved the silly bitch and if giving in to her made her happy so be it. And besides, it wasn't as if I really cared where we went as long as we went there together.

The fourth year is when it started to go bad although it took me a while before I realized it. It started with Maeve working late two or three nights a week. There was always a good reason. Trouble with this advertising campaign. Problems with that client needing late meetings to solve. Hey! Maeve was in the advertising business and it was what she had to do right? It took a while to register on me that the nights Maeve worked late we never made love when we went to bed.

"Too tired baby."

"Not tonight honey, I'm whipped."

"Maybe tomorrow sweetie; I've got a ripping headache."

"Not now Rob; I really don't feel like it."

This after us rarely going a week without making love three, four and sometimes five times a week. Then other things happened. Phone calls and no one there when I answered or the sound of someone hanging up when they heard my voice. Maeve on the phone saying, "Got to go. Talk to you later" when I would walk into the room. She took showers as soon as she got home and she had never done that before.

A couple of times I had come home during the day and found that Maeve was home also — with a man and a different man each time. Both times I had seen her car in the driveway and I had called out as I came into the house and by the time I got to the kitchen the man was sitting at the table and Maeve was digging through the icebox. The story was that they had been to a meeting with a client and were on the way back to the office and decided to stop and have lunch rather than returning to the office and then going out to lunch. Looking back on it now I can't believe how stupid I was. In my defense I can only say that I was in love and love can make you blind to some things.

Why would I think she was cheating on me? Hadn't she busted her ass to get me? Hadn't she done everything including almost crawling to get me back after I split from her?

The beginning of the end came about by a fluke. Maeve called me and told me that she was working another late night. Ten minutes after she called the out of town client I was working with asked me to join him for dinner. The restaurant he wanted to go to was on the other side of town — a side of town I rarely visited. It turned out that the reason he wanted to go there was that his daughter worked there as a waitress while attending college.

We drove over, met his daughter and had dinner. After dinner he wanted to go to the lounge across the street and have a drink or two. The place was pretty dark inside except for the dance floor area. Fred and I took a corner booth in one of the back corners. I was halfway through my first drink when Fred said:

"Now there is one lucky son of a bitch. I turned to see what he was looking at and saw Maeve dancing with some guy. She did look spectacular. She and the guy she as dancing with were pressed pretty tight together and the guy had both hands on her ass and was pulling her into him as he ground his dick into her leg.

Some other guy might have gotten up and stormed out onto the dance floor and kicked some ass and then told his wife what he thought of her, but I didn't do that. For one thing, deep down inside of me somewhere I think I always expected that Maeve and I were not destined for the long haul. I suppose it went back to the "dates" she went on when we were going together and spending most of our nights together. I did know that I was disappointed. I also knew that it was over between Maeve and me. There wasn't any story she could tell me that I would buy. If she had been sitting there having a drink I might have bought that she was having a drink with a client much as I was, but no client is going to have both hands on your ass and grind his cock into you.

The song ended and Maeve and the man kissed and moved off the dance floor and to a booth where two other men were sitting. I finished my drink and told Fred that I needed to be going and he told me he was going to be spending the night with his daughter so I said my goodbyes and left. I headed on home and as I drove I started mentally making lists of what I needed to do. I was in bed when Maeve got home. She showered before coming to bed and when she got in bed she snuggled up to me and I pretended to be asleep.

In the morning I was up and gone before Maeve got up. When I got to work I called an apartment finding service and told them what I wanted. At lunch time I hit a couple of used car lots and found a two year old Chevy crew cab with a long bed and put a deposit on it. Just before quitting time I called Maeve and told her I would be working late and then made sure that I didn't go home until after I knew she would have gone to bed.

For the next two weeks I avoided Maeve as much as possible. The apartment finding service had found several places that met my criteria and I went and looked at them. I chose one and put a deposit on it and then I got out the Yellow Pages and found an attorney close to the office and I called and made an appointment.

By the time I had everything in place three weeks had gone by since I had seen Maeve at the Purple Mushroom. She was a little perturbed with me because I had been avoiding her and we hadn't had sex in three weeks, but I was able to sell her the story that we were working an a very lucrative contract at work and it was causing me to work extremely late hours and I was dead tired when I got home.

"You know how it is Maeve. Look at all the late nights you have been putting in working on campaigns and deals."

There wasn't much she could say to that.

Then the day came when my attorney told me the divorce papers were ready to be served and I set it up to have Maeve served at her office. The grounds were Irreconcilable Differences. I couldn't go for Adultery because I had no proof, but it didn't matter since all I wanted was out of the marriage and any grounds that would get it done were all that I needed.

That night was another night when I called Maeve and told her that I would be working late again.

"But guess what? We finished up the paperwork today and this will be the last night I'll have to work late."

I hit The Extra Point and shot some pool until I thought Maeve would be in bed and then I went home. Maeve wasn't there when I got there. I went into my home office and made sure that I had everything I wanted all boxed and ready to go. I had already lined up George to help me load what I wanted into my truck the next day. I took one last look around and then I headed for the bedroom. I had no idea where Maeve was — or with who — but I wanted to be in bed and pretending to be asleep when she got there.