A Second Chance

'******

Saturday I sat in the parking lot and watched my apartment windows for about an hour before getting up enough nerve to go up to my place. I wasn't in the mood to confront Sandy just yet but would if I had to. The place was empty and kind of a mess. Looking in our bedroom her closets were empty and her makeup and personal items were also gone, same with the rest of the place. There were still a few things of hers left, but ninety present of what she'd brought with her was gone.

The note on the kitchen table caught my eye as I went for a Corona in the refrig.

That's it, one half page? Hell, when I broke our neighbors front picture window as a kid I wrote a longer 'I'm sorry' note.

Steve

I don't know all of what you saw Thursday night, but it's not what you think. The guy I was dancing with is just someone I work with, that's all. There is nothing going on between us, you have to believe that. I know my flirting went too far, but that's all it was. Please call so we can talk this out. I don't want to lose you over something stupid I've done. I love you please believe that. I'm staying with my parents until we work this out.

Please don't let this wreck our future together.

I'll give you a couple of days before I call you again. Hopefully by then we'll be able to talk.

I LOVE YOU

Sandy

Nice, sweet, right to the point and made no difference to me any more. I'd warned her before and been told I wasn't her father. Damn right, I was her fucking fiancée for Christ's sake. What would Sandy have done if she'd caught me all over some hot babe? Grinding on the dance floor with some hot blonde, grabbing her ass, kissing her among other things? I'd probably never hear the end. At least she wasn't going to bug me for a couple of days anyway.

"******************

Anytime you start something new there are bound to be more than a few issues. The outgoing manager had left more than one problem and it took me the rest of the week just to put out the old fires. I also found dealing with the new clients was challenging. Most of the time our salesmen oversold our service packages and we were the ones who took the heat for what we could and couldn't do. Let me rephrase that, we could do anything, for an additional price that is. After Wednesday, I was counting the hours until the weekend.

'****************

I finally took Sandy's call Thursday night. I'd thought long and hard about what I was going to say, and I knew she wasn't going to be happy.

"Steve?" Sandy said as I picked up the phone and said hello. "I thought I was going to get your answering machine again."

"Nope, you've got me Sandy," I replied.

"Steve, it's not what it looked like honey. I guess I had too much to drink that night and got carried away flirting with him."

"Do you always kiss the guys you flirt with to?" I asked now getting my dander up.

"It was just a little peck to thank him for the dance," she said still trying to play down what I'd seen.

"I'd hate like hell to see what you'd give him if he bought you a damn drink Sandy," I shot back.

"Steve, please let me come over so I can explain myself. There is nothing going on with him or anyone else, you've got to believe that," she said pleading with me now.

"You're probably right, but your actions weren't those of a woman who is engaged to be married," I said in a calm voice even though I was now pissed again. "I think we need some time apart from one another. That way we can both think about what we really want and if we'd be better together or apart."

"Steve, no, please believe me when I say that I want to marry you and don't need any additional time to think about it."

"Well Sandy, maybe you don't, but I do. In light of how you've changed over these past months, I'm not sure I want to marry you now," I told her.

"Please Steve," I heard her sob. "Let me come over so we can talk face to face and work this out," she pleaded for a second time.

"If you come over now in the mood I'm currently in, you may not like my answers. Feel fortunate I'm not asking for my ring back at this time," I told her. "Give me a couple of months and please don't harass me. If I want to talk to you, I'll call you. Do I make myself clear?" I asked.

I heard a quiet sob along with an I love you before I hung up.

"Maybe she'll think twice before she disrespects me the next time. So the next two months went by with me by myself.

"****************

I found out two things during this time. One, I hated dealing with new customers and their complaints and two; I had a hard business streak in me.

"Ken, it's not working," I said to my boss on Friday afternoon. "I don't like what I'm doing and I'm not giving our new customers the attention they deserve. Peggy would be a much better customer service manager than I am."

"Steve, I haven't received a single customer complaint," was his reply.

"Yet. Sooner or later you will, and then the hammer will fall. We can't afford to lose any new business in this economy," I said hoping to show him I was still a company man and didn't want to leave, just transfer somewhere else.

Ken called Peggy in and said that I'd recommended her as my replacement. After we pulled her down off the ceiling, she thanked us a million times before leaving for what would be a great weekend for her.

"Steve, what do you want to do? I mean, is there any area with the company you think you'd fit in?"

"There is one, but I'm not even sure about it," I told him. "You know the department that sends people into other companies to show them where they can cut costs? That's where I want to go."

"Steve, you'll be traveling most of the time, are you sure about this?"

Ken, I don't have to smile and be nice, all I have to do is show them where to cut to save money; and that I can do."

Three phone calls later I was transferred and scheduled, along with another associate, out on a new project effective Monday morning.

'******************

The following Monday, Ron and I were touring the facility, scanning their books and operation procedures. After getting up to speed we sat with their management team and company president.

"What exactly are you looking for?" I asked the president of the company.

"We need to cut at least ten percent and unfortunately these manager are too close to make the hard choices," Pausing for a moment he continued. "If we don't make cuts, we could lose market share and go under in six months and none of us want that. Just take a hard look and come up with your best recommendations, but we need to move fast if you know what I mean."

Two weeks later we gave him our recommendations. They were harsh but would get the results he was looking for. We shook hands and left.

"Steve, you were brutal," Ron said as we left their offices. "You've got him cutting his work force by five percent and demoting two department managers along with cutting his production mix by twenty percent."

"He'll get more than the ten percent he's looking for, and I even gave him the list of people to let go. Hell, he can just tell them that they lost their jobs because of me, I don't give a shit."

"Steve, I never knew you had this mean streak in you."

"Ron, It's not mean, it's just strictly business, that's all," I told him.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side."

However, my bosses were elated at what I'd done. In no time I moved up in the pecking order and even picked up the nick name 'Ax Man.' when I was assigned a company, the phrase that always proceeded me was, 'the Ax Man comeith.'

'***********

Sandy and I were still talking but that was about it. I had even gone on a few dates for no other reason than to see what was out there. No one at work interested me and even if they did, no girl would want it to be known that she was going out with the Ax Man; I was getting a bad reputation.

After talking on the phone over a dozen times, I asked Sandy out to dinner. It was long overdue and I was really looking foreword to seeing her. It was high time I got over my anger and needed to see if that old spark was still there.

"I'll pick you up at 6:30 for dinner and we can see where it goes from there," I told her fully hopping we'd end up back at my place.

I got more than a chilly reception from her parents when I went to pick her up. They were corgel but I felt the rift between us.

"Hey, it wasn't me who started this," I thought to myself, as we wasted no time leaving her house.

Dinner was going well until I noticed that Sandy wasn't wearing her engagement ring.

"Sandy, how come you're not wearing your ring?" I asked thinking that she'd just forgotten to put it on. I was wrong and from there it went down hill.

"I haven't worn it since the night you threw me out," she replied. "Are you saying that you still consider us engaged?"

"Of course I consider us still engaged," I said with my temperature rising.

"So you going out with other women is acceptable behavior for an engaged man, you're telling me?"

Can you say busted?

"Those were just casual dinners," I said trying to explain to Sandy but she wasn't buying it.

"Did you by chance dance with any of them, or give any of them a kiss goodnight?" she now cross-examined me. "I just want to know what your limits are for being engaged that's all," she said folding her arms on the table.

Someone must have seen me and told Sandy so there was no use lying about it.

"I guess I did danced a few songs and I'll admit I did give them a kiss goodnight, but it meant nothing," I said as I now remembered where I'd heard those exact words. "Besides, if you hadn't made a spectacle of yourself in the first place we'd still be together and I wouldn't have had any reason to go out with those women. I was digging myself a hole fast.

"I thought you just said that you still considered us still engaged and together. So you feel it's ok for an engaged person to date others, is that what you're saying? I just want to make sure I understand your definition of being engaged," she threw back at me.

"All right, I guess it does make me look like a hypocrite and I guess I can't have it both ways, but I didn't sleep with any of them if that's what you're implying."

"I'm not implying anything, I just want to see where we stand and it looks like I got my answer," she said throwing her napkin on the table and starring at me. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to go home now."

"Come on Sandy, we're having a nice night, we can get past all of this," I said trying to diffuse the situation. "I've forgiven you and now we can go back to where we were before this all started," I said reaching for her hand.

"You've forgiven me?" she now shouted,' jerking her hand away. "I admit I made a mistake and did something I shouldn't have, but did we talk about it like two adults? Hell no! You kicked my ass out, wouldn't take my calls or e-mails for what, to make me pay? You then proceed to go out with other women all the while telling me how I disrespected you. My friends saw you out with other women no less, how do you think that made me feel? And now Mr. High and Mighty is asking me why I'm not wearing my ring because all the while he was making me feel like shit, he was having the time of his life dating other women. On second thought, I'll catch a damn cab home, I don't want to put you out more than I already have," she said standing up and walking away.

"Sandy, wait a second," I yelled at her motioning to our waiter for the bill. Tossing money on the table I ran towards the door only to see Sandy getting into a cab and driving off.

"Shit," was about all I could say. This didn't go anything like I thought it would. I figured Sandy would be so thankful to be back together we'd end up back at my place and have makeup sex for the rest of the weekend. What do they say, men make plans and God laughs.

'**************

Sunday Sandy wouldn't answer her cell, and her parents said that she didn't want to talk to me when I called the house phone.

"Screw her, let her stew for a while, she'll come around," the alpha male in me reasoned.

'***********

I let work dictate my life for the next couple of weeks. I still tried to call Sandy at least every other day, but she wasn't taking my calls. I became even more of a prick than I'd been before. I was working at a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy when I told them that it would almost be better if they did a Chapter 11 than to try a dig out from the hole they were in.

"It's going to take you at least six years at a minimum to pay everyone off and that's if your sales hold up. You can do a Chapter 11, get new bank financing and end up paying your vendors back $.10 on the dollar. You'll come out of it in about ten to twelve months clean and without any debt. Hell it'll be like a fresh start."

"But all our vendors will hate us for sticking it to them," one of managers piped up. "We've had some of them for almost twenty years."

"Look, if you go belly up they get zippo and no future business. This way, they get something; write off the rest as a bad debt and stick you with cash in advance terms to make sure they get their money this time around. It's kind of a win win situation for all concerned," I told them. "It's business, nothing more. If you start to let your personal feelings get in the way, you're going to lose everything," That's when it hit me. I was treating my personal life like it was one of the businesses I was analyzing.

'*******************

"Sandy I need to talk to you," I said leaving her another message on her cell for the umpteenth time. "Please call when you get in, I don't care how late it is," I added.

How many messages has she left that I'd ignored for almost seven weeks? Even when I did take her calls I was a pompous ass, no wonder she went off on me. Well, I was out of town until Thursday night so there wasn't much I could do until then.

I raced from the airport to her house; I had to talk to her.

"I'm sorry Steve, Sandy is out with her friends tonight and I don't have a clue where," her father told me. "I'll let her know you stopped by," he said with a small smirk.

Well, I knew of three places she went after work, so I headed out again. I struck out on the first place but saw her car parked at the second. The parking lot was full so this time I paid for valet parking, I wasn't thinking about the house of our dreams this time.

The place was dark and crowed as usual. After about ten minutes of searching, and thinking I'd been wrong about her car, I saw her with a group of about ten people. They were drinking, laughing and having a grand old time it looked like. I made my way through the crowd and came up behind her.

"Sandy," I said once before saying it again, louder this time.

"Steve, what are you doing here?" she said turning around to face me.

"I need to talk to you," I said loud enough to be heard over the music.

"I've got nothing to say to you," she replied as the rest of the table started watching us. "So if you don't mind, I'm trying to have a good time with my friends," she said turning away from me and facing her friends who were still watching us.

I then made my first mistake; I grabbed her arm and asked her again to talk to me. The guy next to her and the one across the table both stood up.

"She said she doesn't want to talk to you," the one next to her said loudly pulling her away from me.

"Pretty boy, this doesn't concern you and unless you want your face modified I suggest you back off," I told him now getting in his face.

"I'm so fucking scared little man, why don't you leave the lady alone and you and me can take this outside."

"Stop it both of you," Sandy yelled at the both of us. "Steve I'll talk to you later just leave."

"You heard the lady asshole, leave before I make you leave myself," her friend said puffing up his chest.

I moved my upper body towards him and was about to reply when I was cold cocked. Who threw it or where it came from I hadn't a clue but I went down like a load of bricks.

I knew something was going on but until I came to I didn't know what. The bouncer had put something under my nose and I was coughing and spitting when I came to. It took me a few seconds for my mind to register where I was and what had happened while I heard him asking me if I was all right. Except for a bruised ego and a pounding head, I guessed I'd live. He helped me to my feet and then told me it would probably be best if I left.

After a couple of swallows of water, I was escorted out the front door. Outside stood Sandy and the group she'd come with. I guess everyone got kicked out. I handed the valet my ticket as the bouncer told him that there would be no charge.

"Steve," I heard my name being called but ignored it. I'd had about enough for one night as my car came and I got in. I heard my name one last time as I drove off.

'*******************

I was going to have one hell of a shiner I could see as I looked at the right side of my face in the mirror. The ice hurt like hell but it would keep the swelling down to a minimum, I hoped anyway. I hadn't been in a fight since high school but I guess this wasn't really a fight. I could only guess it was pretty boy who threw the punch but I couldn't be sure. Three Advil's, a Corona and an icepack, yup this had all the makings of a great night.

"Shit," I said looking at my phone seeing that it was Sandy calling. I turned it off, threw it on the couch next to me and decided at that moment to move on with my life. She'd screwed up than I did. I tried to resolve it but was now icing the results of my efforts.

'*****************

Friday was both good and bad. The good thing was that I'd scored big with the company I'd left yesterday. They gave me glowing reviews on what I'd accomplished. They didn't take my suggestion on the Chapter 11, but told my boss I was a keeper.

"They're going to implement about twenty five percent of your suggestions, but say that they just don't have it in them to stick their vendors with their debt," my boss told me. "Whether they implement five or ninety percent make no difference to me, I'm going to bill them the same. You get that shiner from one of their vendors," he said smiling.

"Nope, this was a gift from my ex-girl friend's new boyfriend," I said trying to sound upbeat.

"Well, take the rest of the day off and take care of that eye, it looks like hell," he told me. "Next weeks trip has been postponed for at least two weeks. Get caught up on your paperwork and I've lined up two short trips until then," he said waving at me as her walked down the hall to his office.

He didn't have to ask me twice.

I spent Friday afternoon sleeping. I got back to my place at about 10:00, had a glass of juice, closed my eyes and slept straight through until almost 7:00. This is going to screw up my nights sleep tonight was the first thing that came to my mind. I hoped my new Netflix movie was in the mailbox as I grabbed my key and headed downstairs.

Bills, nothing but bills and advertisements clogged my mailbox. "I thought everything was supposed to be going paperless," I said tossing ninety percent in the trash. I wasn't hungry but knew I'd have to eat something eventually so after seeing nothing in the refrigerator I headed out to who knows where.

As my cell rang I could see it was Sandy again.

"What?" I said answering the phone.

"Steve? Is that you?" she asked.

"Who else would be answering this phone?" I barked at her. "Sandy what the hell do you want?" I asked in a not too nice a tone.

"I just want to know how you are?"

"I look and feel like shit, what else do you want to know?" I said in a snotty voice.

"Can we talk sometime? Maybe this weekend?" she said with that pleading tone in her voice not letting my anger deter her.