Chapter 1

I lived in my house for eight years without meeting any of my neighbors. Sure, I knew that certain people belong to certain houses, and we would do the obligatory wave, but to actually stop and talk to them, no. In my defense, I was typical of all my neighbors. Ten years ago, this was a corn field. As a bedroom community, we have all the benefits of Des Moines' water, sewer, gas and electric, but we actually lived outside city limits. Because of the location and the size of the lots, houses here run from one to two million. In Iowa, two million gets you a very nice three bedroom two story house with a full finished basement complete with three car garage. I actually designed the layout which was way cool.

Fast forward three years, I now know the names of everyone who lives in this community of twenty houses, all thanks to my "wife", Beth. She knows not only their names, but most of their life histories. She is friends with almost all of them or at least on friendly terms.

Kate is my closest neighbor. Her and her husband moved in about a year after I did. She has since had two kids. Before Beth, I just knew them as the cat people. The fat gray fur ball roams freely around the neighborhood, which is a minor irritation of mine, especially when I find it in my garage. You often see it coming out of the prairie grass across the street with some small critter whose life it ended moments before.

It was shortly after Beth's sixteenth birthday. I was actually doing a proposal at my desk in my home office / mostly game room. Beth had gone out to get the mail when I heard her return and it became clear that she was talking to someone. I looked up to see Beth enter the room followed closely by a blonde 30-something woman who I recognized as the woman next door. She was carrying that cat.

"Look Babe, Kate stopped by. Melvin here", Beth reached over and rubbed the cat behind its ear "was hiding in our garage. Apparently she has a V. E. T. appointment." She spelled out vet as if the cat would have a clue. That was for Kate's benefit more than the cat. I was to learn that Kate probably loved that cat more than both her husband and two kids combined. Beth had picked up on that right away.

"It's so nice to finally meet you, Bruce. You have quite the new bride here." I managed to nod as I stood to shake her hand. Fortunately, Kate didn't seem to notice the dumb-founded look on my face as she seemed more interested in looking around my office which gave me the opportunity to give Beth a "WTF?!?" look which she returned with an even bigger smile.

"These are Bruce's diplomas along with various awards. I apologize for bragging here but I am married to a computer genius. He sold his first software company when he was only twenty-five and then went out and started another bigger company which he sold five years later. Now he just does private consulting for these big insurance companies. I got me quite the catch, considering I grew up so poor. I didn't even get to sleep in a bed until I left home at eighteen. It wasn't that my Momma and Daddy didn't try hard, but being a black couple in Mississippi, well, I... , but you don't want to hear any of that."

Having scanned the room, Kate asked "So how did the two of you meet then?" I had no answer but Beth did.

"Well, I am sure you will find it a boring story. After working half a day at the convenience store, I cut through the park like I normally do and there he sat. He was sitting on the park bench, reading a book. I just knew then and there I had to meet this man. Do you believe in love at first sight? Because that is exactly what it was for me. That little cupid nailed me hard with his little pointy arrow. Of course, I had to work it to finally win him over. You can't imagine the women who just throw themselves at him." Although not the first or the last time, her talk had me blushing.

She continued, "I made up some lame excuse to talk to him. Seems he was in town on business, just killing time between meetings. " She leaned in as if to whisper, "I probably shouldn't tell you this but I ended up back at his hotel that very night and we have been screwing like bunnies ever since."

It was now Kate's turn to blush. When Beth noticed Kate glancing at her ring finger and lack of ring, Beth went right into a full explanation, "Yea, I feel naked without my wedding ring on", she held up her left hand for all to see. "Babe, when did that jeweler say he would have that fixed?" Before I could answer her fictitious question, she continued "I can't believe I knocked the diamond off. It was lucky I found it. Bruce told me I was crazy for wanting to plant a flower bed in that back yard. Luckily I was able to find the lost diamond. I would definitely need some extra strength knee pads. You know what I'm saying, right?"