Meanwhile, Tom was due to get out of the service soon. So, I was biding my time so we could start a new life together far away from Judy.
SEE ALL PRIOR PARTS BELOW ⤵︎
We arrived back In Waterloo; IA. Tom had gotten out of the service. My parents still had that trailer on their property, so we ended up renting there, to begin with. I looked for a job and had gotten hired at Perkins restaurant Tom started working for the same company my brother worked at, it was some sort of paper-cutting business. Keep in mind Tom was a lady’s man of sorts with his beautiful brown eyes and black curly hair he could melt your heart. Stood about 6 ft. tall and lean. I wasn’t the only one that found him attractive. Things was going along well between us. Dad had bought a run-down house and Tom and I moved into it. It had bats in the attic and occasionally, one would come down to the main floor. Tom would kill them with a tennis racket.
My brother and his wife owned the house right next door to us. It had an upstairs apartment. Tom had gotten into a few drugs while in the service and mostly liked his weed and cocaine. While I had experimented with several drugs I luckily never got addicted, I did like my alcohol. I had the day shift at Perkins, so I worked 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tom also worked days until about 4.30. We had hardly been home a few months when Tom dropped the bombshell. He came home one day and said, “I don’t know if I loved you.” I don’t know if I ever loved you, it was your idea to get married not mine. I sat there in disbelief after all that we had been through and listened as he told me he needs some time and some space to think things through. What choice did I have either give up then or give him the time? I opted to give him the time. As I said my brother had an apartment above his house, so Tom moved in there right next door. It was to be a time of reflection not dating or looking elsewhere but time to think and process all that we had been through.
Now my brother had married one of Tom’s sisters and as I said Tom worked with my brother, he would catch a ride to work with him. On this day, my sister-in-law picked him up to give him a ride to work. He had answered the door in disarray as he had just gotten out of bed. I was already at work waiting on tables. She stopped in to speak to me after she had run him to work which was in Waverly about a 20-minute drive. She informed me that Tom had answered the door and there was a girl there that looked like they had just both gotten up. And she knew where the girl lived because he asked her to give her a ride home. I was pissed, to say the least, I told her to come back when I got off work so I could go speak to this girl. As planned, she showed up and we went to the girl’s house. I knocked on the door and her mother answered I asked for her and her mother said she was at work. I told her mother I was an old friend visiting town and would like to see her, so she told me where she worked. It was a small restaurant. So off I went to go confront her.
I walked in and took a seat, and she came over to wait on me. I said, “do you know who I am?” At first, she didn’t but then I saw the fear set in her eyes and she said yes and how she was busy. I told her she could either sit down and speak to me then or I would be waiting for her outside. She chooses to sit down there. An incredibly wise choice on her part. She went ahead to tell me Tom had told her I was divorcing him and taking him for everything. I had to laugh at that, and I replied what does he own she mentioned a boat and a motorcycle. Now Tom and I didn’t have a pot to piss in and I told her it was all lies that we didn’t own anything, and we had never discussed divorce. I was satisfied with how our talk went and left there on a mission to go and confront Tom. He was turning out to be quite the player. Tom was in his apartment in the shower when I let myself in as the door was open. Tom was just getting out and had a towel wrapped around himself and started to weave his story into a lie. I stopped him dead in his tracks and said you’re already busted Tom I spoke to your friend and know you’ve been sleeping around.
I was so mad as I had been dutifully waiting at home for his decision whether he was going to give us another try, I snapped at him and told him I was going to go home and get dressed up and go out and I screamed at him “I hope I get fucked.” He didn’t like that at all he said he wanted to talk I told him “If you can make it over before I leave, I will talk to you otherwise I would be out.
Tom made it over and seemed to be angry and aggressive yelling at me in a tantrum of sorts when I told him I was going out he picked up my dog and threw him across the room. Well, the fight was on. You won’t hurt my dog. We got into a scuffle, and I got thrown around a bit. I demanded he leave, which he did shortly after that. I told him it was over between us, and he could have his freedom I didn’t care anymore. He was just a player and wasn’t going to change his ways and I’d finally had enough I was admitting defeat. So, we separated but no divorce yet. I wasn’t in any hurry and was still reluctant to admit defeat.
To be continued…
