New Man In Her Life

She had been unhappy the past year and often felt lost, but now, everything was changed. She felt wonderful, life was definitely looking up.

They had met by chance online – in a chat room of all places. They visited the room for months on end before finally deciding to chat privately. They chatted daily, but never really knew each other’s real names. It was amazing. They had lots in common. They both had children, they both were divorcees, mostly liked the same things. Yet, she was too afraid to actually meet someone in person who she had chatted with only online so she kept avoiding that issue. She was excited to meet him, but yet something in her psyche just kept nagging at her and kept her leery so she hadn’t made up her mind yet.

She went about her life daily and monthly, but kept the chat line open with her mystery man. For now, she was just enjoying the fun of the unknown. No pictures exchanged so far, just images in her mind of what he looked like, what he was doing during the daytime. Just images she enjoyed daily.

Eventually though, he pressured to meet, and she knew she couldn’t just keep avoiding it as he was not nearly as chatty, and she could tell he was getting anxious for a face to face meeting. He had asked her out to meet in a public place, a place she actually wasn’t very fond of as it held some unhappy memories for her. She tried to dissuade him, but then finally agreed to the meeting.

Shopping she went because she wanted to look extra special. Mostly, she only had work clothes and not really anything for a date since it had been a while since she had gone out on the town, let alone on a date. She hadn’t dated in years, had married early, and stayed in an abusive marriage for way too long, and since the divorce hadn’t really gone out except for maybe coffee with a girlfriend or two. For a long time, she hadn’t wanted any kind of relationship with a man at all because she no longer trusted men. Were they all abusive? Were they all just so self-centered, and selfish? Her ex had put on such a good act when they met, and even during their marriage had sometimes been very wonderful until the darkness set in, and she could never trust when that would be so she had decided she had to get out, escape, and it took a long time, but she did and she was finally free of him. Now that she was chatting with this exciting mystery man, she felt ready to trust again.

Finally, date night came…she was nervous but off she set to meet him at the restaurant. He had given precise directions for where he would meet her. She was to just take the table where he would instruct the restaurant to seat her, and he would be there shortly. When she arrived, they had the table ready for her. It was amazing because the table was covered with flowers, candles, and a huge vase of flowers. They smelled wonderful, and he even had a bottle of wine setting on the table. She wondered, had she told him she liked wine, and which one was her favorite? Again, she had that psychic feeling that she pushed to the side. Quit worrying, she told herself. You’re just nervous because of your past. Once seated, she waited with extreme anticipation of who was going to be coming to meet her. Would he look as she had imagined, would he be as nice in person, would they hit it off and like each other as much in person as they had on the internet? Lots of questions, and so far no answers.

It was getting late, and he should have been there by now. Was he standing her up? Where was he? Just then, there was a sickening image before her. “No way”, she thought, what in the hell is he doing here? Just her incredible un-luck, she thought. Of all things, her ex husband was standing before her with a huge smile on his face. Then it got even worse because she found out this was her date. He said he only wanted to talk with her once more and that he had missed her so much. He was so persuasive that she finally agreed he could sit down and they could have dinner, and after all their conversations, maybe he had changed.  

She had such high hopes that this mystery man would work out and he might take her home that she had taken a taxi to the restaurant instead of driving. After dinner, she tried to hail another taxi to take her home, but to no avail, and there he was again, begging to give her a ride home. He seemed to have changed since the conversations she’d had with him in the chat room. Why not, she thought? How could that nice man she had become so fond of over the past few months be her ex if he hadn’t actually changed? Maybe he had changed so she agreed and let him give her a ride home.

On the ride home, they chatted some, and he talked of how excited he’d been to find that she visited that chat room. Again, there was that psychic feeling, and a sickening feeling starting to creep into her. As he talked about how much he missed her, and about how could she leave him, how he would never let her go again, his face changed, and so did his manner. There before her as she watched, the darkness set in, and he morphed into the horrible ex that she’d finally escaped from, and the wonderful chat room mystery man was gone.

Her last thought that she had was how can I have been so stupid to fall for this all over again. And, as she turned, the last thing she saw was the gun.

Unexpected Development

As she headed out to work that morning, she was dreading the work day. A new associate had been hired by her firm and she hated the competition. She was a hard worker, had earned her position and now some young newbie was coming onboard. She had heard that this new associate was bright and very aggressive. Well, it wasn’t going to matter, she was steadfast in her career and had been an excellent addition to this company for years even if she had trampled a few on her way up the ladder. She wasn’t afraid of some twit coming along no matter how aggressive she might be because she was a force to be reckoned with. When she arrived at work, she was introduced to the new associate, they exchanged greetings, and then she abruptly walked away to her office.

Lunchtime came and went and she ignored the grumbling in her stomach. She could always eat later on, but now there was much work to finish. The most important presentation of her career was coming up soon. She would be heading to Europe in just a matter of weeks to make a presentation to a company that her company had been courting for years. It was extremely important that this company come onboard because they were financially stable, and that would much improve the company assets.

It was around 11:00 pm before she actually looked at the clock. She had been working straight through. When she arrived home, around 11:30 pm, there was the new associate waiting on her doorstep. The woman didn’t say anything, but just handed her a note and walked off to a waiting car. As she entered the house, she was reading the note, and stopped dead still. She couldn’t believe the words she were reading. The note said that this young woman was born in Mercy Hospital at 9:50 pm on October 21^st, and the note said you are my mother, and it was accompanied by a birth certificate.

It continued to read, I don’t want to know you; I only wanted to let you know who you are dealing with so that you could appreciate it! I’m the new CEO from the company in Europe, the deal was closed today, and you’re fired.