It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, and here I sat, feeling blue. It had been three months since my divorce, and I still was not used to the emptiness my life had become.

Three months ago, I had kicked out my young, eighteen-year-old wife, whom I had married for less than three months. I had discovered her drunk and in bed with some young jerkoff. The divorce was pronounced in a matter of days.

Lawyers’ fees and a parting gift to her had left me poorer by $60,000. But, as the saying goes, an old fool and his money are soon parted.

We had married while I was on the rebound after my girlfriend of many years and I had parted. My old girlfriend had decided to accept a position in Italy as a designer while I remained in Montreal to run the company I had started. The parting was without regrets, and we remained good friends. Finally, however, we realized that we had come to a parting of our lives, which would endure.

I met Diane, my ex-wife, in a bar on Crescent Street. I immediately realized that she was much too young for me, but she was so sexy in her short skirt that displayed her long legs and molded her beautiful rounded ass and a halter-top, making her small, firm tits jut out. I fell immediately in lust with her. We ended up at my apartment for a night of non-stop sex, and three weeks later, we were married.

Since the break-up, weekdays were fine, but weekends were a drag. The week was filled with meetings, lunches, and business suppers, which kept me occupied. However, the weekends were a nightmare of loneliness.

I was feeling hurt and was not ready for any further pain.

Now I just retreated to my high-rise penthouse and lived like a hermit.

I killed the TV program that had been wasting my time and sat looking out of the floor-to-ceiling window. The view of the city and the river and mountains in the distance did nothing to alleviate my sense of being alone.

My attention came back to reality with the sound of the doorbell. I flicked the video monitor on, which showed me the image of a woman standing in the lobby.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Jack, is that you? This is Mary.”

“Mary! Who the hell is Mary?” I asked myself.

I punched the door release and watched the woman walk towards the elevator and disappear from sight. Sixty seconds later, I heard rapping at the front door. Opening it, I was greeted by a hauntingly familiar face, but I could not place who the woman was.

She smiled at my quizzical look. “You don’t remember me do you?”

“No, and I am sure I should, but I don’t.”

“I am not surprised. We only met for a brief time at your wedding to Diane, and your attention was elsewhere. I am Diane’s mother.”

My jaw dropped as I had erased all thoughts of that day from my mind. We had had no contact with her while we were married.

I smiled, “Well, mother-in-law or is that ex-mother-in-law? Please come in.”

Leading her to the living room, I waved her to sit on the couch while I sat across from her.

“What brings you here?” I asked.

“Jack,” she says, “I need to know why you and Diane split up so fast.”

“Well, frankly, Mary, what business is that of yours?”

“Quite frankly, it is none of my business; however, I need to understand some things with what she has done to me lately.”

“So, what has she done to you?” I asked.

She smiled at me and said, “Well, frankly, Jack, that is none of your business, now is it? OK, I had better go now,” she said.

As she stood to leave, I realized how rude I was being.

“Please, don’t go!’ I apologized. “This has been a horrible day for me, and it just came to me that I am taking my anger out on you. So please come back and sit down, and if you try to make me understand, I shall attempt to tell you what you want.”

She swayed back to the couch, and I sat next to her.

“How much do you know about Diane’s and my past?’ she asked.

“Very little,” I confessed.

“OK. Well, Jack, I married my ex-husband at the age of eighteen. In my case, I had to, as I was pregnant with Diane at the time. Like you, he was an older man in his thirties. Diane was born, and I dotted on her, then my husband died in a horrible car accident. He left me not penniless but certainly not living in the lap of luxury. He had left me the house but almost no cash.”

“As a result, I was forced to work to make ends meet to support Diane and myself. Wanting the best for her, I enrolled her in an exclusive boarding school. I managed that with the help of a grant from their board of trustees.”

“I got a job with a TV network and rapidly was promoted. I ended up traveling a lot.”

“Diane was happy in school, and I did my best to ensure that she had all she desired in clothes, money, and things. I did not want her to feel that she was different from the other girls from affluent families.”

“Over time, however, she started to be a behavioral problem. I had to deal with her drinking, drugs, and other antisocial habits.”

“She graduated six months ago and then one day came and told me that she was going to marry you.”

“I did a bit of quiet research about you. You seemed to be a dream come true, and as an older man, I had hoped you could exert a good influence on her.”

“Then she came to me last week crying her eyes out. She told me how she left you because you had been beating her, treating her like dirt, and had kicked her out with just the clothes on her back.”

“What?” I said. “You can’t be serious.”

“Anyways, to cut a long story short, she asked me to borrow $100,000, which she would repay after she got the settlement you had promised her.

“Now, do you see why I need your side of the story?”

“I see. Did you give her the money?”

“No. I did manage to lend her $20,000, which was all I could raise on short notice. But, unfortunately, she took it and left, and I have not heard from her since.”

“OK. I agree. You deserve to hear the real story. But first, can I get you something to drink? I have coffee, tea, or something stronger if you want.”

“Tea would be fine.”

I went to the kitchen, set water to boil, and laid out some biscuits to go along with the tea.

Returning to the living room, she was gazing out of the window with her legs folded under her skirt. She looked distraught.

“Here we go. Cream, sugar, or lemon?”

“Just plain, thank you,” she answered.

“Mary, what you have been told is just bullshit. I did kick her out of the house when I returned home early one afternoon. She was in the bedroom with some jerk having sex. Yes, she left with only her clothes and personal belongings. However, the following day my attorney gave her a check for $50,000 on the condition that she would completely disappear from my life and agree to a divorce.

“That is the absolute total truth. I never raised a hand on her, never even shouted at her, and certainly never mistreated her.”

As I turned to face Mary, I could see tears streaming down her face.

I raised my hand to brush away the tears. She flinched, so I hastily pulled my hand away.

She stopped me and placed my hand on her cheek.

“The little bitch,” she said. “A compulsive liar, a cheat, a thief. After all the sacrifices I made to provide the best for her she acts this way. What did I do wrong?”

“No, Mary, you did nothing wrong except maybe spoil her and give her a sense that she is entitled.”

She was sobbing, and I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her. I softly stroked her long blond tresses and soothed her neck muscles with a gentle massage.

Looking at her face, suddenly, I was struck by her beautiful eyes and the delicacy of her features.

Her features were perfect a tender mouth, large blue eyes, an upturned nose, and the whitest teeth I had ever seen—sheer perfection.

I realized that I had a warm body pressing against mine in my arms.

She looked up into my eyes and smiled at me. I felt myself melt, and all the pent-up depression I had felt lifted off my shoulders.

I caressed her face with the pads of my fingers. She stopped my hand and, parting her lips, took them into her mouth and sucked on them.

“Oh my god,” she said, please forgive me. That was an unconscious reaction.”

I leaned towards her and kissed her gently on the lips.

“Now that,” I said, “was a completely conscious reaction.”

She smiled and lifted her face to me, parting her lips. I saw her tongue peep out and kissed her with passion. Our tongues melded, and the kiss seemed to last forever. Finally, we both stopped and tried to catch our breath.