Home Sweet Home

As I was saying in my previous post, I was living large and loving life in Colorado. It was my home now, and there was no going back. I was in my early 20s, had a good job, a lovely little apartment in a great neighborhood, and access to the best skiing on the planet. Life was great!

Then along came boyfriend #2. He was a nice looking guy and fun to be around. At first. Unfortunately, he was also very needy and clingy. Where as boyfriend #1 was controlling and manipulative, this one was trying to smother me to death. Being around him felt like having a python wrapped around my neck. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t go anywhere without him, and if I did, he would whine about it for days on end. As a side note here, a grown man whining is not very attractive or appealing. And definitely not sexy.

But the big red flag came after only a few months of dating, when he took me to his best friend’s wedding. On the way home, with misty eyes and a voice filled with emotion, he declared that I would make a beautiful wife and a wonderful mother. The python did a little congratulatory happy dance as I struggled to breathe.

I had to put and end to that short but extremely uncomfortable relationship. But, just like BF #1, he wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. What the heck? Even I know that I’m not that much of a prize, and not that much fun to live with either, as my dear mother kept reminding me. Nor was I getting any younger. Another maternal reminder.

Ignoring my mother and throwing caution to the wind, I broke up with him. The result wasn’t pretty. He kept calling me at home, at work, and in the middle of the night. I even caught him spying on me through the windows of my apartment, which was a low move even for him.

Literally a low move, since I lived in a garden level apartment, which is code for I lived in a basement. He had to get down on his hands and knees and crawl through the bushes to look through the windows. Fortunately, my landlord put an end to that in a hurry.

But I had enough. I even considered moving again, but there was no way I was leaving my beloved city and state. However, I was done with men. I was perfectly happy on my own. I was an intelligent, capable young woman with my entire life ahead of me. I swore I would never date again, and I visualized myself eventually living in a small mountain town, living alone with a faithful dog as a companion.

After the past 2 relationships, a dog instead of a man seemed like a pretty fine idea, and it seemed like a flawless plan.

Until the day it blew up in my face.

To be continued…