Tipping Point Ch. 02

"I had homework, so we decided not to bother. We'll try again next week," Jilly offered.

"Yeah ... with a roll of paper towels," Tommy stated emphatically.

"Well, just don't do anything silly. I forgot to mention that my lawyer has asked me to put the divorce on hold until we've had some time to think about it. She's moving ahead with going after F & C in the meantime. That will start when I'm finished next week."

"You think maybe you and Mom will get back together again?" Tommy asked.

"I don't think so, son, but you never know. I'll just play if by ear for now. There's no rush."

We arrived at the Forester house and I followed my son and Jilly up the front steps and into her home. Maureen was the first to greet me and gave me a brief hug of welcome. Dick arrived seconds later and we shook hands heartily. Although we didn't see each other very often, I liked both of them and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

"Good to see you again, Stan. I'm glad you could make it. I hope you like meatloaf ... it's a traditional winter meal in this house," Maureen said.

"I love meatloaf. Even more, I really appreciate a home-cooked meal. I've seen too many restaurants in the past months. Thank you for inviting me."

The meal was delicious and there was nothing left on the plate when I was done. I declined a second helping, although I was tempted. There was still a lemon meringue pie to come.

The kids adjourned to the family room to watch some TV, leaving the parents on their own. As we relaxed over coffee in the living room, Maureen was the first to broach the subject.

"I'm very sorry to hear about you and Sylvia, Stan. That must be very hard on you right now."

"Actually, it hasn't really hit me yet. I've told Tommy that I'm holding off on filing the divorce papers on the advice of my lawyer. She thinks I should let things cool down for a bit. In the meantime, I'm pretty absorbed in wrapping up my work at Faraday and Crosse. Another week and I'll be done."

"That's a huge life change, Stan," Dick chimed in. "Have you decided what you are going to do yet?"

"Not really. I've been giving some thought to going out on my own. I know a number of guys like me who hire themselves out to do my kind of service work. Every one of them says they wish they'd done it sooner. If I can make a go of it, that would be the most attractive option. In the meantime, I've got enough to see me through, so I'm not going to worry about it."

"Good for you, Stan." Dick was genuinely supportive, and Maureen was nodding her agreement.

When Tommy and I left to go back to the motel, it was almost eleven o'clock. I was getting sleepy, but the coffee had probably kept me going longer than I might normally have. That and the pleasant conversation I enjoyed with the Foresters.

"Tomorrow, I want to look at some apartments, Tommy. Are you up for that?"

"Yeah ... sure. Can I invite Jilly? She's interested, too."

"Sure, as long as she realizes we're looking for a bachelor pad and not a homemaker's nest," I laughed.

It struck me that I'd been laughing quite a bit more lately. Perhaps it was the tension of all the changes in my life, but I felt it was more the relief and lack of pressure I was feeling. There was no doubt I was grateful for Tommy's presence. He was someone to talk to and share my thoughts with. He understood what I was going through. Hell, he was going through it too.

By ten Saturday morning, we were on the road in my car. I had brought along my digital camera to take pictures and help remind me of the various places. Tommy was navigator, and Jilly provided commentary on what the neighborhoods looked like. Not all of the comments were complimentary.

"You're not seriously thinking of a place here, are you?" she asked as we pulled up to the curb in front of an eight unit, two storey building.

"Well, we've got to start somewhere, and we need a basis of comparison. Tell you what, Jilly, I brought a pad and clipboard with me. You can be the official note-taker as we go through these places. We'll note the price, and deficiencies, and general feeling about the place. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," she said brightly.

By four-thirty that afternoon we had seen six rentals in three different parts of the city suburbs. Inner city prices were too rich for my blood, and those that weren't were not in any neighborhood I'd want to live near. We had narrowed down the six to two possibles, but nothing jumped out at us as the one to choose. We still had tomorrow, so I wasn't discouraged.

That night, I thanked Jilly for her help by taking her and Tommy to dinner at a nice restaurant in the west side. I'd been there once before with Sylvia, but it was years ago. When I looked it up in the guide, it was still rated very highly, and we were rewarded with a very fine meal. Back-to-back pleasant evenings had been a rarity for me, but this was one of the better ones.

Jilly is a very attractive blonde-haired girl, about five foot six, with blue eyes and a nice figure. She wasn't a beauty queen or a runway model, she just looked nice, and clean, and very "girl-next-door." My son was an inch taller than me at five-eleven, with a stockier build. He didn't look like a computer nerd with his sandy blond hair, gray-blue eyes, and regular features. He had inherited the best features from both Sylvia and me. He always looked sharp and dressed well. He was a son to be proud of.

Me? I'm average height, average build, thinning brown hair, regular features, and like Tommy, a compulsive neatnik. It was part of my lifestyle. It was how I lived and worked.

Sylvia was almost my height, with a good-looking figure that drew me to her right away. I don't think she weighed five pounds more today than when I first dated her as a senior in high school. She wasn't beautiful, but she was attractive. She had nice, bright teeth that she showed when she smiled, which was often back then. She also had very good posture, and that added to her attractiveness.

We dated for over a year before we had sex, but it was worth the wait. We discovered we both liked it and wanted to experience all of it, and over the early years, we did. We were married almost a year to the day from our graduation. We were both nineteen, and I had a good job with an established company, Faraday & Crosse. I was being trained as a service technician, and I took to it like a duck to water. Within a year I was qualified for field work, and received a healthy raise.

We got married and, eighteen months later, Tommy was born. His proper name is Thomas William Copely, but almost from the beginning he was Tommy. He's been a good student since grade school; serious about his studies and always striving for good marks. On the other hand, he had lots of friends, and played the usual sports in school. He wasn't an athlete, but he was athletic, and that attracted the girls, particularly one Jillian Forester. They'd been dating and going steady since their junior year.

For the first two years, both of them attended Cincinnati U., Tommy majoring in computer science, while Jilly majored in marketing. Both of them were doing well, and that's why it was such a shock when Tommy announced he wasn't going back for his third year. He had already taken a job at Bits & Bytes, a well known computer outlet and service center in our area. It wasn't until recently that he revealed his plan to enroll in South Ohio Tech's Cincinnati-based mature student program. He could work and attend school at the same time.

I thought he and Jilly were going to bust up over his decision, but he must have convinced her that it was the right thing for him. Within a couple of weeks, they were back together, acting as if nothing had happened. It took me a good deal longer to understand his thinking, but then I had other things on my mind.

We set out again on Sunday morning to look at apartments, and just before two o'clock we found what we were looking for. It was a two bedroom unit with a small den and living room, a proper kitchen with eating area, one-and-a-half bathrooms, plus some storage. The parking was open, but covered. It was in a good neighborhood and, although it was a bit more money than I had been planning on, I decided it was the best we were likely to find. Jilly and Tommy agreed, and we signed the lease with occupancy the first of December, only two weeks away.

I was thinking about all that furniture that we had stored in the garage that Sylvia didn't want to let go of, and decided I would talk to her about it. It would almost furnish the apartment, with only a couple of items left to find; a sofa and a TV. All the appliances, including a microwave were supplied. A coffee maker, toaster, and mixer were stored in the cupboards, all clean and in working order.

I wasn't looking forward to talking to Sylvia about the furniture, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money if I could get what I needed for free. I sucked it up and called her Sunday evening.

"So ... if you take the furniture, it means you aren't coming back, doesn't it?" She had agreed, but was obviously upset by the implication.

"I can't tell you what will happen in the future, Sylvia. I don't know myself. I just thought it would make sense to use that furniture rather than have it sit in the garage collecting dust. If things change, it's not like it would be gone forever."

"I haven't seen the divorce papers, Stan. Are you really going to go through with it?"

I sighed. I might be making a mistake, but I decided to tell her the truth. "I've put the divorce on hold. My lawyer talked me into it. I'm going to deal with Faraday and Crosse first. Then I need to find a new job. Then, maybe I can concentrate on the rest of my life."

"Does that mean there's some hope for us?" I could hear the pleading in her voice.

"I don't know, I really don't know. The only thing I can tell you is that I will never go back to where we were. Those days are gone, and I'm not the same guy any more."

"I guess I'll just have to hope then, won't I?"

"Yeah ... I guess."

Tommy arranged to borrow a panel van for the weekend we intended to move. The only thing we had of substance was the furniture. Everything else was just the clothes and things we had at the motel. It would be a quick and simple move.

*

As always, my thanks to ErikThread and DaveT for their editing and technical skills. Any errors are mine alone.