Changing Room Epiphany
Copyright© 2026 by PostScriptor
Chapter 3
Donna called as Ollie was making his way back to the flat.
“Are you back yet, Ollie?”
“Almost. So, what goes?”
“I’m going to bring you two offers for your flat. They are both solid. The higher bid is for £10,000 over your original asking price, but...”
“Tell me, don’t just tease me.”
“You would need to be out of your flat in two weeks.”
Ollie pondered that.
“That shouldn’t be all that difficult. We have your movers come back and we put my furniture in storage until I find a new place to call mine own. Then I go to one of those extended stay places in the meantime.”
“Let’s talk a little bit more when you get back to the flat,” Donna pronounced.
“I have another thought to pass by you.”
“Hmmm...”
Donna arrived at the flat at almost the same time that the cab dropped off Ollie. She had several folders in hand that she brought with her.
After using the facilities, Ollie put on a kettle.
“Coffee or tea?” he asked.
“More coffee,” came the reply. “I drink too much coffee, but sometimes I think it’s the only thing that keeps me going. I’m not sure I even like it that much; it’s just a caffeine delivery system.”
They sat down at the breakfast table adjacent to the kitchen and Donna laid out the two offers.
“The lower offer is still £8,000 above your asking price, but they would be financing the flat, so they would need to get approval—inspections, appraisals and the like—but it would give you two months to find another place and move out. That could be handy.
“The higher bid, as I said, is £10,000 above your asking price, and their bid is cash, but due to their circumstances, they need to be moved in before the end of the month. Two weeks.”
“Now, I know you said that we could move you out by putting your furniture in storage and you could move into an extended stay residence, but I may have an even better idea.
“My sister Annabell and I own a number of properties around town. Mostly flats that we rent out. We just acquired a newly renovated building with four units that we haven’t rented out yet. We could meet there tomorrow, and you could look them over and take your pick. And one side benefit, if you didn’t want your name to show up as occupying the unit, that could be arranged. It would make it very difficult for your ex to track you down, which it seems to me to be something you are looking for. Of course, I’m only offering. If the units don’t appeal to you, I won’t be offended. Indeed, I would help you find another alternative.”
“Brilliant,” Ollie answered, “Let’s do that then. I hadn’t thought of keeping my residence anonymous, but disappearing from the wee wicked witch would be satisfying. I still haven’t heard neither hide or hair of her.”
After that, Donna and Ollie went carefully over the purchase agreements before Ollie signed the higher bid. Donna ran off to get the documents processed before the end of the workday.
Ollie was gobsmacked. His flat was on the market for one day, and it was already sold, and he was on his way to a new life. With or without Ella. Most likely without.
The next day, Donna showed up as expected and they went out look at the building that Annabell and Donna had purchased. It wasn’t quite as far out as Richmond on Thames, one of the most expensive and wealthy boroughs of London, so that walking over to Kew Gardens was unlikely, but it still had tube access, and it was far less expensive than a comparable flat in Richmond would run.
Ollie was delighted with one of the units that literally overlooked the Thames. It was almost the size of his London flat, which wasn’t that large itself, but it would be comfortable for a single man. He and Donna filled out the paperwork.
“Tomorrow,” Donna told him, “We’ll have the same movers as before, but they will bring your belongings directly here instead of putting them in storage.”
So it was, that the next day, Ollie was moved out of his old flat in London, and into a new rental flat. He slept that night the ‘sleep of the dead’ in his new abode.
It was only as Ollie was waking up in his new flat, as “Mr. Smith, Unit 104”, that Ella decided to go back to the gym after work.
She and Marc had been having glorious sex every night, but she had finally had to return to work in person. Ella was surprised and, to be honest, a bit put off, that she hadn’t heard a word from Ollie. She thought that by now he would be begging her to return to him, even if only for a few hours. But there was nothing but silence.
“Two can play that game,” she thought, and it only re-enforced her inclination not to reach out to Ollie. She did feel a little guilt, not about leaving him for Marc, but worry that he might have done something drastic to hurt himself. She wasn’t sure that he could survive without her guiding hand.
After work, she thought she would hit the gym and get a long put-off workout in.
She realized something was amiss when she tried to get into the exercise area, pressing her membership card to the card reader, and found it was rejected. First, she assumed that something had gone wrong with the card, but when she returned to the front desk to have her card recoded, the young woman at the desk informed her that her membership had been cancelled.
It was a very angry Ella who instructed the young woman to call Marc and have him come out to let her in.
It was only minutes later when Marc arrived, and after Ella explained her dilemma, he gave her a staff card. They went in together and Marc tried to calm her down as she did a light workout routine.
“That little shit. Who does he think he is? What does he think he is doing, other than pissing me off.” Her diatribe lasted for almost an hour.
To put her into a better mood, Marc took her out for dinner before taking her home and giving her the multiple orgasms that she had come to expect. Eventually, worn by the sex and her anger, Ella fell asleep.
In the morning her anger at Ollie returned. Before she left for work, she broke down and texted him.
“Ollie, you little shit, what were you thinking when you cancelled our gym membership?”
Ella expected an instant reply, thinking Ollie would be anxiously waiting to hear from her, but there was only silence. It wasn’t until after lunch that she received an answer.
“I had better things in mind to do with the money. Let Marc pick up your fees.”
You could hear her scream, “YOU BLOODY BASTARD” everywhere in the office.
~~&~~
Ollie had worked from his new home that day when Donna called him to let him know that she and Annabell were coming by that evening.
“We are your official housewarming team,” she explained.
And sure enough, the two ladies arrived in time to make Ollie a home-made dinner. They even brought the supplies (“We weren’t sure what you would have in the cooler,”) and a couple bottles of wine.
A roast chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans reminded Ollie of the kind of meals that he and Ella used to often have, and followed by a mince pie, all washed down with a German white, left everyone sated and happy.
More or less.
After dinner as they sat in Ollie’s new living room, he poured them each a glass of sherry and they sat around and chatted.
At first, it was about the move, the flat, how quickly his flat sold and how much, but then Donna raised a subject that she was a little sensitive about.
“Ollie, from what I understand, you have spent the last number of days doing a lot of shifting around your money and assets. Are you trying to cut your ex off and leave her penniless? I’m sorry, it’s a bit blunt and if you tell me to, I’ll shut my trap.”
Ollie pondered, thinking that Donna was correct that it might look like that to an outsider, but that wasn’t really his motivation.
“I can understand why you might think that, but it isn’t that at all.
“I expect to give Ella everything that belongs to her eventually. But I suspect that I may be saving her from herself. She isn’t penniless in any case; she has her job, which she has told me ad infinitum, pays her more than I make.
“You see, her paramour Marc, just before she left me for Marc, had just revealed that he was not merely a trainer at the gym, he was also a partner in the business, and that they were in the planning stages of a major expansion. Then, as she and Marc were leaving, Marc dropped a remark that indicated that he hoped to bring Ella into this proposed expansion project.
“To me, that meant getting her to invest in the scheme. My worry is that if she decided that this was a great investment, her faculties swayed by her current infatuation, that SHE might empty our assets into something that I would never even consider.
“The worst part is, that since we remain married and neither of us has filed for divorce and had our assets frozen, the courts would likely consider it a lawful act, even if she hadn’t consulted with me about it.
“Now, I admit, in the once sense, it is also self-defense for me against a woman, my wife, who I do not trust anymore. Over the past year, especially, she has become domineering and absolutely indifferent to me, my desires, opinions or anything else.
“I have frankly been too much of a wimp when it came to Ella for too many years, but I will not be ruined by her adulterous lust. Remember, except for the most recent years, I brought more money home than she did, so our assets are not really a 50/50 split.
“I have watched over the years as various businesses, like this gym, have expanded and failed. Indeed, gyms and restaurants seem to me to be notorious for opening and only lasting short times before they close.
“If she approaches me for money to invest in this very risky venture, then we will have to have a legal separation of our assets so she can waste hers, but mine will still be safe. If the venture is a great success, well, jolly good for her. But I suspect I won’t be with her by then in any case.
“Keep in mind, as well, the old saw that, ‘he who has the gold makes the rules.’ At this point I will make the rules. But things may not be as they appear: I’ve wondered if she doesn’t have money that I don’t know of. If we were forced into a legal separation of our assets, those kinds of things would be exposed as well.”
As Ollie wound up, he said,
“I don’t want to seem like a harsh, mean or hardhearted man. On the other hand, although I’m quiet and not assertive doesn’t mean that I’m stupid.”
Annabell and Donna sat there for a moment speechless. Ollie had just shown them that he was more complex and a deeper thinker about relationships and finance. They were abashed for doubting him.
Shortly thereafter, they bid adieu and returned to their respective residences, leaving Ollie in his new flat.
With the dinner, the wine and the sherry, Ollie fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.
~~&~~
It was a week after Ella had left the gym with Marc that she decided to go to the flat that she and Ollie had shared (she couldn’t really think of it as ‘home’ anymore) to refresh her clothing from what she had left in the flat.
It looked strangely deserted as she approached the door, no lights on, no sign of life. She got over her unease quickly though, suspecting that without her guiding him, Ollie was just neglecting things since she had left him.
She first tried to use her key to open the door but found it wouldn’t fit into the lock. When she realized that the lock itself had been changed, she thought to herself, angrily,
“Changing the locks to keep me out? I’m going to rip Ollie a new one when I see him. How juvenile and immature. He will have to sit down, and we’ll talk about this like adults.”
It was only then that she noticed a paper taped to the front window from the inside. She stepped over to read it.
“SOLD! Another satisfied client. Call Donna Freeland at 020.XXXX.XXXX
Ella was shocked, frozen to the spot. How could Ollie have done this? First it was cancelling the gym membership, and now their flat was sold. Then she remembered what she had come by for, getting more clothes. She didn’t know what to do except to call Ollie for help.
Ollie didn’t pick up, so she resorted to leaving a message.
“Ollie, this is Ella. I can’t believe that you sold the flat and I need to get more clothes, you miserable sod. Call me back so that we can straighten this out!”
About that time, Harold, one of their old neighbors noticed Ella and came out.
“Mrs. Morgan? Is that you?”
“Yes, Harold, of course it is me. Do you know anything about what has gone on here?”
Harold, who had never warmed to Ella, was laughing inside, but he kept a straight face.
“Ollie left this envelope with me and asked me to give it to you when, or if, you returned.”
With that he handed Ella a padded enveloped addressed to her. She took it and began to open it, while Harold, without saying another word turned to go back to his flat.
She finally noticed in time to call to Harold, “Thank you, Harold.”
He gave a little wave to her as he disappeared.
Inside the envelope was a key and a note from Ollie explaining where her belongings had been taken, letting her know that he had prepaid the first 6 months’ rent on the space.
Ella stood there in shock, not even sure of what shocked her the most, the things that Ollie had been doing, or just the fact that he was doing these things without instructions from her. ‘Maybe someone else is running him now,’ she thought, and discovered that she was quite disturbed at the thought. The irony of her hypocrisy didn’t occur to her, that while she had unilaterally chosen to leave him, she was upset that he had begun making decisions without consulting with her first.
She just stood there for several more minutes before she made up her mind that regardless, she needed to first find this storage facility and fetch clothes and other necessities for herself. The whole time her emotions were like a barely suppressed volcano.
While Ella was tracking down her goods in storage, Ollie was at a doctor’s appointment.
It was odd that Ella hadn’t remembered the appointment because she had scheduled it, but her mind had not been on Ollie. She had scheduled it at Marc’s recommendation because, for all his many flaws, Marc’s professional opinion was that Ollies posture problems might be the result of back issues, but before he started Ollie on a set of core strengthening exercises, he wanted to be sure that they wouldn’t be harmful.
The orthopedic doctor was a private practice, not NHS, so getting the appointment was fairly quick. They first sent Ollie to their in-house X-ray tech, who took a number of x-rays of his back for the orthopod to see. They were sent as images directly to the Dr.’s computer.
“Well, Mr. Morgan, I’m Doctor Sonnenshine,” he introduced himself.
“I’m a board-certified Orthopedic specialist.”
Ollie sat quietly, just nodding, typical for him with someone new.
The doctor looked at the x-rays for several minutes, and then he came over to where Ollie was sitting.
“Do you mind if I examine your spine?” he asked politely.
“Of course. It’s what I’m here for,” Ollie replied, with a smile to show he wasn’t at all upset.
The doctor used his hands to feel up and down Ollie’s backbone, sometimes pushing it in one direction or another. Then he pulled up a stool and sat down.
“Mr. Morgan, you have a scoliosis of the spine. That means that you have a curve in your spine where it doesn’t go where it should. It is bent.
“It’s not a severe condition—if you want to see a severe curvature of the spine, look up the pictures of Richard III’s skeleton online. But the curve is above your pelvis bone, and it actually goes straight up where it should normally curve slightly inward. That is why the upper part of your spine leans forward, and you seem to be slumping all the time.
“Have you ever been diagnosed with this before?”
“No, just people around me telling me to straighten up like a man, which I could do, but it was painful after a while.”
“I would imagine,” the doctor said, nodding in agreement.
“Now, for some good news. Despite the curvature, the disks between your vertebrae are in quite good condition, so there is no need for any surgery to fuse vertebrae together, or any need to go in and trim the disks.
“In short, your trainer at the gym was correct that the best thing that you can do to straighten your posture would be to do various exercises to strengthen your core, although there are devices widely available now that you can wear to help you maintain your posture.
“What I am going to do, is proscribe that you see a chiropractor and a physical therapist who can work with you on more specific exercises to help your back.”
When Ollie left the office, he had prescriptions for the physical therapist, a recommendation for a chiropractor and a brochure showing various devices that would help support his back in a more upright position.
What Ollie was really wondering was why no one had noticed his condition before? Maybe worse, why hadn’t anyone suggested that he get some sort of evaluation for it? In any case, now it was of no matter.
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