LIFE BEGINS AT 50
By
The King at KingKeyInc
COPYRIGHT # PENDING
United States Copyright Office
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Kicked in the Face 3
Chapter 2. It Begins 6
Chapter 3. Head Game 9
Chapter 4. Finger Lickin' Good 17
Chapter 5. Hall of Shame 21
Chapter 6. Hot Crazy Matrix 23
Chapter 7. Another Broken Soul 25
Chapter 8. Hot Summer Days 32
Chapter 9. Hotter Summer Nights 34
Chapter 1. Kicked in the Face
"There's really no other way to say this. It's over. It's time for you to move out. My mother and I have an apartment for you for a year so you can stay near Izzie, and not move back to Philly and live with your Mom."
Silence followed for a few moments. "I'm not trying to take you away from your daughter" said Ann.
Well, it sure fucking feels like it, you dismissive, contemptuous, disdainful cunt!
Of course, I knew better than to say that but the mind goes where it goes sometimes. After sitting in stunned silence for what felt like an eternity but amounted to only a few seconds I replied. "I'll have to make plans to move my remaining items out here from Kansas City. When can I see this apartment?"
My soon-to-be ex-wife replied "We got a place for you at one of Melissa's buildings. I'll find out how to get you a key."
I stood up from the kitchen bar stool, where I had been hunched over, elbows on the quartz countertop listening to the conversation like I was a part of it, and yet observing it from afar. I stared at Ann disgusted and enraged. Without acknowledging her existence I walked out of the house. Before pulling out of the driveway I sent Sandra a quick text message asking her to meet me at the office because I had something important to share with her. I got in my car and drove off.
In retrospect, I was just ready to move on, sick of constantly fighting over the most insignificant things - almost everything I said or did would trigger her, and I was past the point of really caring about her reactions. I realized I had been saying those same words "
you dismissive, contemptuous, disdainful cunt!"
to myself every time we argued, for at least a year now. This was well overdue, and I knew it, yet I still struggled with the uncertainty of it all
. Life is full of irony
I thought. To this day I wonder why I gave up and walked away so easily, even though we constantly fought.
This cascaded through my thoughts while I drove to my office. Truth be told, I knew it was over years ago, and had been hanging on not only for our daughter but also because the past 3 years had been the worst of my life. My father passed away two years prior, as did Ann's step-father. My friend of 10 years and then business partner betrayed me by trying to oust me as CEO of our tech start-up. There was plenty of loss to go around, and then some, but I refused to give up.
I will fight all of this to my dying breath if I have to
I would think, over and over. There was nothing that could separate me from Izzie. I adore her and knew I was her lifeline. Even at such a young age she knew it also. I was the one constant in her life. Maybe a little too hard on her at times, but I never crossed the line to physical discipline. Being surrounded by weak-minded people who would rather bribe and pay their way through life left me feeling disgusted and terribly concerned about Izzie and how they were influencing her. This is what I was worried about, moving to southern California from the Midwest, but I had to trust that the hard work and time I put in raising Izzie while her mother travelled out of town every week for work would get us both through any crisis.
And now I was staring down such a crisis.
"Life is a real shit show" I stated to my steering wheel as I continued driving...
Just never thought it would be my own personal extravaganza
.
These thoughts continued while I parked in the open-air lot and walked to my second-floor office. It was a relief not working at home anymore. I worked from home for the last 20 years and had been quite happy doing so. Once the pandemic hit and everyone stayed home, all I wanted to do was get out. I always thought that was so ironic - it was the one thing I had missed for all those years by working in a home office. There were no water cooler conversations, no group lunches, no social life outside our home. Ann and I made it work, until she started her job out of town and had to commute every week.
She would come back late on a Friday night and leave on Sunday afternoon. I knew then that something had to give. There was a constant tug-of-war for dominance in the house. She could not see that by being "home" for less than 48 hours every week it was really not her home anymore - just a place she visited regularly. She paid the mortgage as we had agreed because her career had taken off. I was completely portable, working from home, so we moved to where she needed to be to take advantage of every possible opportunity. I loved the success she achieved because it was, and is, a testament to her determination and intelligence.
Too bad she's a complete shit-for-brains when it comes to our relationship
.
It dawned on me that she was likely planning this for almost as long as I had been considering leaving her. However, hope springs eternal and I always gave her the benefit of the doubt.