Chapter 7

I would pass Beth’s everyday hoping to see her outside and give me an excuse to stop and chat. But lately she seemed to be keeping longer hours than I did. My mother-in-law called constantly asking me if everything looked normal around there. I told her I had not heard or seen Beth in well over a month. She told me they talked on the phone every other night or so. Then she told me something that made my heart sink.

“I think Beth has met someone new, Jeff.” my mother-in-law said.

“What makes you think that?” I responded in my bravest voice.

“Last night she asked if it was too soon for her to be interested in another man?” was her reply.

She went on to tell me Beth had told her nothing specific, but from the conversation, she had figured that she had recently met someone. My heart sank and I felt sick to my stomach. I quickly made up an excuse and ended the conversation. I sat there stunned. I had no idea what to do. I thought about going over to Beth’s and confronting her, telling her how much I loved her and asking her to be with me. But the more I thought about it, I was sure that was so unfair to Beth. If she had indeed met someone else, what a terrible position I would put her in. No matter how much it hurt, I had to back off. I decided to take a shower and go to bed. I really did not feel well.

I skipped the next two Sundays at the in-laws, keeping to myself. The last thing I needed to do was run into Beth. I tried to keep myself busy with work and errands, doing my best to stay preoccupied. Soon it was the weekend again and I headed home Friday evening. I drove passed Beth’s and saw her taking packages out of her car. She waved at me and motioned for me to stop. I pulled to the curb and lowered the window. She came over with a smile and leaned in the passenger window.

“Hey, Jeff, how are you?” she asked brightly.

“I am ok, how have you been?” was my response.

“Things have been rough, but they are getting better.” she replied.

She went on to tell me that things had quieted down between her and Lance. In fact they had dinner the night before and managed to work out most of the financial arrangements of their divorce. She told me that they actually got along much better now than when they were together.

I just smiled and shook my head as if I understood. She then asked me why I hadn’t been to her parents house in almost a month. I responded I just had not been feeling well lately and wanted to be alone. She frowned at me and told me she understood, for the past few years, even though her and Lance lived together, she in fact felt alone.

“Jeff, I have to discuss the building with you. We are either going to have to sell it or we have to buy Lance out.” she informed me.

I had not thought of this. I still owned half of the building that Beth’s business was in. Lance owned half of Beth’s share. I started to ask price, amounts, things like that.

“Tell you what.” she said, “I am going to clean up, I will go out and get dinner, meet you back at your place about eight o’clock. We can come up with a plan.”

“That’s fine.” I replied, “See you then.”

Beth arrived about ten minutes after eight carrying bags of take out from Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was glad to see Beth wearing long jeans, and a button up blouse. The last thing I needed was anything to make me feel even worst about what had happened. We went into kitchen, sat at the table and began to eat. I really was not that hungry, my stomach was in a knot.

Beth began to explain the arrangement that her and Lance had agreed upon. Beth wanted to keep the house but could not afford to buy Lance out of it. She agreed to giving him half of their savings and buy him out of the building in exchange for him signing over the equity in their home to her. So basically what it amounted to was having to come up with about 175,000.00 to buy him out of the business. She had roughly about 50,000.00 in cash from the savings which was her share. She agreed to sign over the complete building to me in exchange for me buying Lance out with the balance.

Money had never been a problem with me. Thankfully Susan and I had prepared in the event one of us had died prematurely. We had mortgage protection on our home, the business and several pieces of land we owned together. All of the balances were paid a few months after Susan’s death, leaving me with only minor expenses. In addition we each had two large life insurances policies, so I was financially secure.