Reposted 2019

She told me she wanted a divorce. I said OK.

I met Cindy Calver when we were seniors in high school. She is a year younger than me as she was born on the good side of the cutoff date to start school. I was on the other side of the date. I came from a family with ‘old money’. Cindy was from a working-class family. She was smart and motivated enough to get scholarships to cover all of her college costs. I was a straight ‘C’ student, and if it wasn’t for Cindy’s help and her looking over my shoulder I might have been a senior for two years. I wasn’t and am not dumb, I just wasn’t motivated.

I am Robert (Rob, not Bob or Bobby) Jenkins; I am now 42 years old. I have been married to Cindy for 17 years; we have two children 16-year-old twins Mac and Marci.

I was having my morning coffee when Cindy dropped the bombshell. She had not been very loving for almost the past four months. Since right after the start of the new school year she had been snippy, quick to argue, eager to criticize.

I was fed up with it all. I had basically moved out of the bedroom and into the guest house. The only time I was in the house was for my meals.

We were sitting at the breakfast bar when Cindy looked at me and said. “Rob, I want a divorce. We have not communicated for months.”

“OK, you need to find a lawyer. Is your lover going to be paying? Because you will no longer be on any of our accounts, and all of the ATM and credit cards will be locked down. The lease on your car is expiring at the end of the month and I will not renew it. This house and all the property is owned by my trust. You need to find a place to live as of midnight next Friday. I will call the security company and have all of the lock codes changed. You can take your clothes, your jewelry, and your personal property. Everything else stays here. Are you satisfied now?”

She sat there with her mouth open. When she finally said something she said, “There has been no lover, I have been faithful, I’m just tired of the arguing, and the fact that you left our bed.”

“Now wait just a GOD DAMN minute. Every argument except my moving into the guest house was started by you. How many times have you told me I was a piece of shit for not giving you what you want. How many times in the past months have you told you’re not in the mood to make love. How many times when you decide to let me Fuck You, not make love, you lay there like a lump. If you’re tired of all of this, YOU NEED A MAJOR ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT.”

I calmed down a little. “What happened to the beautiful and loving woman who I married? What happened to the great mother that the kids used to adore? What made that wonderful woman become a harridan and harpy? Yesterday the kids asked me if they could move into the guest house with me. They told me you were screaming at both of them because Marci dropped a cup on your ‘clean floor’. Come on, you screamed at them for an accident, you used to check to make sure that they were OK, and then help them fix the problem. I do not even know you anymore. You can have your divorce, but I am sure the kids will want to stay with me.”

Cindy was crying now. When she slowed down she asked, “Have I really been that bad? I didn’t know I was refusing you when you wanted to love me. I don’t know what is happening?”

Cindy and I dated all through senior year, and then I went into the Army and she went to college. We kept in touch through letters and phone calls. We both dated others but got back together every time we could.

I was lucky and was chosen for officer candidate school. I completed the program and came out as a cocky ‘butterbar’ 2nd Lieutenant. My specialty was medical support. I received orders to be stationed at a hospital in Germany. After a year I was rotated back to the US, and I got injured when one of my crew drove a forklift off the end of a loading dock. I made the mistake of going down after him when the forklift shifted and pinned my legs under it. Both of my legs were broken and required surgery and steel rods to repair them.

That ended my military career. I was medically discharged and spent six months at a VA hospital rehabbing. I received a 70% disability rating, and a pension. Cindy visited every chance she could. I finally was released after learning to walk again. I have to use a cane when I got tired, but other than that and knowing when a storm was coming; I was fine.

Cindy graduated from college with a secondary teaching degree, and I went to college to get my degree in computer science. We dated only each other until we got married when I was finishing my junior year. She became pregnant about four months later and worked right up until the school year ended. The twins were born, and Cindy did not go back to work until the kids were in school all day. She did keep up with her continuing education requirements. She became a great mother, and the school system was impressed that she was qualified to teach and hired her back.

I meanwhile graduated college with honors and discovered that my grandfather left me a large trust fund if I completed college. I found out about the trust a couple of weeks after I finished school. I got a letter from the family lawyer. The terms were that I could draw a stipend equal to my earnings each year. I could also have the trust purchase and own any house I used as a primary residence. I took advantage of that and had me a dream house built on 60 acres just inside the kid’s school district.

I also discovered that I loved programming. I developed a couple of inventory control programs, but my real love was the educational games I wrote for my kids. They turned out to be cash cows. The guest house was my contribution when I received a major licensing agreement for one of my inventory programs.

Our problems started to surface this last school year when a new school principal arrived. He was an outsider and seemed to me to have way too high of an opinion of himself. Cindy just started to gush about him like his shit did not stink.

When I talked to a couple of other teachers, they said he was smooth, but as an administrator he was average. He seemed to spend a lot of time pursuing the female teaching staff. It seems he felt if it was female, it was fair game.

I met the SOB at the meet and greet dinner dance that the school had each year to introduce the staff, new and old. As he approached our table, I saw the look of a predator when he looked at Cindy. He offered his hand, and when he let go, I made a big show of counting my fingers and checking that I still had my watch and rings. Mr. Jeffery Morton was not amused and left our area and did not come back.

I talked to all of the kid’s teachers and most of the school board. I presented the school board with an unlimited license to use my educational programs within the district. When that was announced Mr. Morton looked like he just smelled an egg fart.

Things started getting bad shortly after the school was fully in session. It started slowly. Cindy started to find fault with little things. She also started complaining about sex to the point I stopped trying.

A few weeks later she started to pick fights. I finally stop responding. The only time I responded was when I decided to move to the guest house. I had gotten fed up with the nitpicking. The argument started when Cindy started complaining that I wasn’t being a loving husband.

I shut her up with one comment; “I stopped being a loving husband? When was the last time you let me be loving? I will stay in the bedroom if you stay and watch me masturbate because it has been more than six weeks since I have been allowed to touch you, much less having a sexual relationship. Did you forget that I am your husband? Is it my imagination that you complained to me that I did not load the dishwasher last night? If you had looked, you would have seen that I not only loaded, but I ran the cycle and even put the dishes away. Get your bitchy ass out of my way and let me have some peace.”

Cindy had the good grace to look embarrassed. She quietly got out of the way. She did not say anything or try to stop me again.

As I was leaving I saw the sadness. I tried one last time to stop her pain. “Cindy, I am not leaving because I don’t love you. I am leaving because your actions and words are hurtful. If you will please take some time to think back you will see that you have changed since school started back up. I can’t stay here with you like this. I will be back to eat as a family, and if you or the kids want to do something together, I am willing, but I can’t live with the person you have become. If you can figure out what is going on, I am willing to listen. I am not abandoning the family; I am just moving 200 ft to the guest house. Please ... Please think about what I have said. Something has made you change, and it isn’t a good change.” With that, I took the last of my clothes and walked over to the guest house.