I met one fellow at the church I attended. His name was
Bob and he seemed nice enough. He took me to a baseball game, then proceeded to
explain things to me as if I couldn’t tell what was going on. I said something
about it and he told me he liked to explain things. Another time he took me to
a local amusement park where he played some of the arcade games. When he won, he
chose what he wanted and kept the prizes. I remember being puzzled. After all,
wasn’t it normal for a man to win the prize and give it to the lady with him?
In this
case, I believe the relationship ended because of an incident totally unrelated
to us as a couple. I was living at mom’s house and one night, a friend of my
mom’s and her little girl stopped in for a visit. The little girl became
thirsty and we offered her some juice. I went to the fridge to get her some and
there were two identical containers containing similar liquids. I knew one was
starter for a special cake and the other was juice, but I wasn’t sure which was
which. After looking at each container carefully, I chose the one I thought
contained the juice. The little girl drank two small glasses and pretty soon we
realized she wasn’t quite herself. We quickly realized I must have given her
the cake starter by mistake and that it was alcoholic. I was horrified and
embarrassed.
Bob came by to take me to evening
service at church and agreed to take the little girl and her mom with us, so
that we could get her prayed for. As he parked the car, the little girl started
singing in a drunken voice and I giggled about it. He snapped at me that it
wasn’t funny. That was the last time I heard from him.
There was
George whom I met through a radio call in show. When I met him, I had 3 cats,
one male and two female. George didn’t seem to mind my female cats, but every
time my male cat got within a few feet, he made karate motions as if he wanted
to chop him up. Then one night he called me to apologize for going to a strip
club with his friend, something he’d promised me he’d never do. I didn’t really
care that he’d gone. What did bother me was the fact that he was crying and
sounded drunk. Between that and the way he reacted to my male cat, I got to
thinking, “what would happen if George got angry while drunk?”
I broke it off shortly after
that. He told me he’d never hurt me and that just made me more sure than ever
that he was dangerous since I’d told him I was breaking it off because his
mother and I didn’t get along.
I met one fellow over the phone
one night when I called his apartment looking for his roommate. Somehow we
started talking and discovered that we both like country music. A few days
later he called me to say that Wynona Judd and Clint Black were coming to a
venue a few hours away, and would I like to go. Of course I would. Wynona is
one of my all-time favorite artists. As we got closer to going, he asked if I
would drive as my car was more economical than his. Then he said that because
he’d bought our tickets for the concert, I could drive over and back, paying
for the gas out of my pocket, of course. A few days later, I brought up the
fact that we would need to eat something somewhere along the way. He said he’d
buy the food if I’d buy the drinks. Turned out his idea of food was cheese and
crackers. I couldn’t believe what a cheap jerk he was. I was under the
impression that when a man asked a woman out, he picked up the tab, unless they
agreed at the start to go Dutch. Not only that, but at the concert he bought
himself a program, but didn’t offer to do so for me. If he treats every woman
he dates that way, he’ll never marry anyone with any brains.
There were a few men I met
through my dry cleaning job. Frank was the first. Towards the end of our relationship
he admitted to having used me, but justified it by saying I’d used him too. It
took me a long time to figure out that I’d used Frank as an escape from my
living situation. I spent the night with him whenever possible, so I wouldn’t
have to be at home.
Then there was Brian. Things
looked really good at first. He even told me he’d considered making me his.
Then he suddenly seemed to drop off the face of the earth. After several months
of no contact from him, I went to his place of business one day to give him
some information for an event I thought he’d enjoy, plus it was a fund raiser
for a good cause, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone. Brian wasn’t there, but his
father was. When I told him the purpose of my visit, he told me his son had
married and moved to another state. I was pretty surprised. I later realized that
he was one of the biggest cowards I’d ever had the misfortune to be involved
with.
The most memorable of those men
had to be the man who managed his son’s boxing career. His name was “Action
Jackson.” He kept asking me out and I kept saying “no.”
The man simply didn’t give up.
Twice he came in while I was working at the back of the shop and on each
occasion someone else offered to wait on him. Each time he told them he wanted
me. The other woman in the shop, Debbie, went so far as to tell me “he was
really ‘jonesing’ me.”
I was so embarrassed. My boss
encouraged me to go out with him as the man had money, until he realized it was
the father who wanted to date me and not the son. I finally agreed to go to
breakfast with him one day and somehow it ended up being an all-day date to a
local scenic area. By the end of the day, I felt like he’d managed to find all
my buttons and make at least one attempt to push them. He especially couldn’t
understand why I didn’t immediately trust him. I got so angry that I wanted to
hit him. The reason I didn’t is that he told me that he’d rather I hit him than
sit there and cry. I figured if my tears were going to make him miserable, I
was going to let them flow. So I did.
I did see Action one last time at
the shop. By that time I was very pregnant. He told me that he was disappointed
that he wasn’t the father. As if I’d let him get that close to me.
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