Riley's Bar Ch. 01

"Are you sure about this" I asked.

"Yes."

"Okay" I said and went back to washing the car.

She stood there looking at me with a stunned look on her face. It was obvious that she hadn't expected things to go that way. I think she expected me to say something like:

"Whoa babe. No need for that. Things aren't that bad and we can work it out."

Then she would get me to join the Witnesses with her as a condition of our staying together. I ignored her and kept working on the car and eventually she turned and went back into the house.

As I toweled down the car I thought on what had just happened. I loved Elaine, but I wasn't dumb. She had been brain-washed by her cult and that left us no chance. She was now a member of a group whose basic creed was "our way or the highway" and I would never accept "their way." Our only hope was for her to put the Jehovah's Witnesses behind her and it was clear that she wasn't going to do that.

I finished the car and then went into the house and got two writing tablets and two pens and went into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I called for Elaine and when she came into the kitchen I pointed at the chair opposite me and told her to sit. I pushed one of the pens and one of the pads of paper over to her and told her to start making a list of what she wanted out of the house.

"Why?"

"Because we are splitting up and that means dividing up what we have. Things like going through our albums and deciding who keeps what. You don't like Bluegrass so there is no problem there and I don't care for Barry Manilow so there is no problem there either, but we need to go through the rest. You have already shown your feelings where the encyclopedias are concerned so I'll take them. I'm taking my recliner and all of my hunting, fishing and camping gear. You need to make your list and I'll make mine and then we will compare. Where there are things we both want we will negotiate.

"Two things to keep in mind. You want this divorce so you take care of it. The second thing is that I can't afford to maintain two separate places right now so unless you move out we will have to share this place. You slept in the guest bedroom last night so you can stay there for now. And on that subject since you hit me with this divorce crap you are released from having to take care of your wifely duties tonight.

"Why are you being so mean?"

"I'm not being mean. You want out of the relationship so I'm letting you out, but I am not going to get up and walk away leaving you with everything. This is a no-fault divorce state so everything we have will be split fifty-fifty. So let us get busy and decide who gets what. Better we do it than let the courts do it.

"You will need to start looking for a job and a place to stay. As long as we are still in this house I'll pay the rent and utilities and once we are living separate I'll pay you six hundred a month separate maintenance until you remarry. Agreed?"

She shook her head and said, "I guess, but I didn't expect it to be like this."

"What did you expect? You want out and I won't try to keep you in a relationship you don't want to be in. So it is over except for the housekeeping and paperwork."

Except that it wasn't, but it was two weeks before I found it out.

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When I went to work Monday it was with a new attitude. There was no paperwork in the system yet, but as far as I was concerned Elaine and I were no longer a couple and that meant I could check out some of the ladies at Riley's without feeling guilty.

That night I stuck around and danced with a couple of the girls that usually joined the group at the tables we pushed together. One of them, Leslie, asked what was the occasion that had gotten me to finally stick around. I told her that my wife had asked for a divorce over the weekend and I no longer felt the need to hurry home.

"You don't seem too broken up about it and even if you were the girls here will do their best to cheer you up."

And they did. I started stopping after work every night and a lot of the women would actually be dragging me off my chair and onto the dance floor. It was obvious to me that I could have scored a dozen times if I would have put forth the effort, but I wasn't quite ready for that yet. I still had some old fashioned values and while Elaine and I were no longer a couple we were still married.

All that thinking went out the window two weeks after Elaine told me that she wanted a divorce. A man walked up to me as I was leaving work one night and asked me if I was Robert McKeean and when I said I was he handed me an envelope and said:

"You have been served."

It didn't come as a surprise. I put the envelope in my pocket and headed for Riley's. As I was dancing with Leslie I said:

"It's official now. I was served with divorce papers today."

"Does that mean I can take you home with me tonight?"

"Not tonight sweetie, but the day is coming if you are still interested when it gets here."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm still married until the divorce is final and until the day it is final I will behave myself."

When I got home that night there were several cars in the drive and I figured that Elaine was having another one of her meetings. When I went to open the door I found that it was locked. I took out my key but it wouldn't fit in the lock. I went to the front door and found the same thing. "What the fuck!" I thought as I knocked on the door. After three hard knockings Elaine opened the door.

"Rob? What are you doing here?"

"I live here Elaine."

"No you don't. Not anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I was told you got the papers today."

"Yeah. So?"

"Didn't you read them?"

I pulled the envelope out of my pocket, opened it and found that along with the divorce papers there was a restraining order barring me from coming with two hundred feet of Elaine or the house. I was stunned and then I started to get pissed.

"All right Elaine, I guess you stuck it to me good. Just let me in to get my clothes and I'll get out of here."

"No Rob. My lawyer said that I couldn't let you in unless you arranged it with him so he could have someone from the court here when you take your things out."

"Come on Elaine. Cut the bullshit and let me get my stuff."

A guy walked up behind here and put his hand on her shoulder and they way he did it spoke volumes about how well they knew each other. Why hadn't I figured that out?

"No Rob, and if you don't leave right now and get two hundred feet away I'm going to call the police. If you try to push your way in I have a roomful of people who heard me tell you to go away."

"All right Elaine. It didn't have to be this way. Just remember that you were the one that fucked things up for yourself."

I turned and went back to my car and went looking for a motel. Once checked into the motel I got out the divorce papers and read them. Elaine got to stay in the house and I was ordered to maintain it and to pay her one thousand a month temporary maintenance pending the final decisions of the court. I shook my head at that. Fat chance!

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The next day I called into work and told them I would be out for the day to take care of some pressing personal business. I was parked down the street when Elaine left the house to take her mother to the doctor. Her mother had an irregular heart beat and was on blood thinners to prevent blood clots and she had to go in every week and have her blood checked to see if her medicine dosage needed to be adjusted up or down. She didn't drive so Elaine had to take her in.

As soon as Elaine was gone I went to the house. There was a basement window that had a broken lock and I had never fixed it. I crawled through it into the house and gathered up everything that I wanted and loaded it into my truck. Since the utilities were all in my name I used the phone to call the gas, electric and phone companies and cancelled service. Then I called the insurance man and cancelled my renter's insurance and the insurance on Elaine's car.

I drove over to the landlord's house and told him that I wouldn't be keeping the house after the end of the month. He wasn't happy with the short notice, but he cheered up a bit when I told him he could keep the security deposit in lieu of notice.

My next stop was the bank and I closed out the checking and savings accounts. They were in my name only so Elaine couldn't withdraw anything, but I didn't know if her attorney could somehow freeze the accounts or not, but I wasn't going to chance it. There were no credit cards to stop since I didn't believe in running up credit card debt and so I dealt in cash. Elaine didn't work and I handled all of our finances. I gave Elaine a weekly allowance to handle groceries and give her some spending money, but all that had just come to a screeching halt. In short, I stopped paying for anything where Elaine was concerned and fuck a bunch of court orders.

I had all that done by noon and I spent the rest of the day finding an apartment and then hitting a Goodwill to pick up some furniture. Then I hit the Wal-Mart Super Store for sheets, blankets, pots and pans and groceries.

The next day I was not surprised when I got a call from Elaine telling me that the electricity had been turned off.

"Why tell me Elaine? I don't live there anymore."

"I called the electric company and they told me that you cancelled the service."

"Yes I did. Since I don't live there anymore I'm not going to pay the bill."

"You have to take care of those things Rob. My lawyer says the court gave me temporary use of the family domicile and you have to maintain it."

"I don't care what the divorce papers say Elaine. If I don't live there I don't pay. Best you get out and find a job Elaine (she wasn't working with Shelly anymore – both of them had been laid off) instead of walking around knocking on doors and handing out your cult's literature."

"You are going to get in trouble Rob."

"What are they going to do Elaine? Stick me in jail? That just means that I'll lose my job and no job means no money and no money means that I won't be sending you the six hundred bucks a month I agreed to give you."

"The court says you have to send me a thousand."

"Maybe so, but I only agreed to six hundred that day we sat at the kitchen table and that is all I am going to send. Get a job Elaine. You are going to need one. You have a few more surprises coming your way."

"What do you mean Rob? What did you do?"

"Goodbye Elaine."

I hung up and my cell phone rang almost immediately and I saw it was from Elaine so I just let it ring.

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That night at Riley's I asked Leslie if she was still interested and she asked me what had happened to the "I'm still married" bit. I explained what had happened and that as far as I was concerned I was released. She grabbed her purse and said:

"Let me leave first. Wait about five minutes and then meet me in the Safeway parking lot and then you can follow me home."

I pulled into the Safeway lot and she flashed her lights and pulled out and I followed her to her apartment. As soon as we were inside she started stripping and led me to her bedroom. She pulled the covers down, got on the bed and looked up at me.

"No foreplay baby, let's get right to it."

I came rather quickly and apologized. I told her that it had been a while since I'd had regular sex and she told me not to worry because she was sure that I wasn't done for the night. She went down on me and got me serviceable again and the second time lasted a good deal longer and I was pleased that I was able to give her an orgasm. Then I surprised her and went down on her and after a couple of minutes of my working on her clit she pushed me away and swung into a sixty-nine with me. This led to another erection and then she applied the cure for the problem and I was able to give her one more orgasm.

As I laid there next to her staring up at the ceiling and trying to catch my breath Leslie asked:

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"They aren't very gentlemanly."

"Okay, a nickel then."

"I've been stopping at Riley's for a couple of months now and I've never seen you go out to the parking lot or leave with anybody. All of a sudden you invite me to come home with you. Since I'm no Robert Redford or Brad Pitt I have to wonder about that."

"No big secret there. I'm just a bit picky about who I hook up with. You might not be a Redford or a Pitt, but you ain't all that bad."

"Picky? What made you pick me?"

"You have been coming into the bar for months now and you have never had anything to do with any of the girls who are there."

"So?"

"Let me give you an example. You know Sherry?"

"She's the redhead, right?"

"Yes and have you noticed what she does?"

"No, not really. I haven't paid all that much attention."

"Shelly, at one time or another, has left the bar with everyone of the guys from Woodbine except you. The same can be said about Alice, Mary and Becky. That means that those four have shared at least eight guys between them and those eight guys are not at Riley's every night. Where are they and who are they with on the nights they are not at Riley's? Have you ever heard that when you have sex with someone you are having sex with everyone they have ever had sex with? And you are exposed to everything that they have been exposed to? I'm not the least bit interested in a bunch of promiscuous men. But I'm still a horny female with her juices flowing and along comes untouched, unsullied you. A man who flat out tells me that he won't have sex while he is till married. It is as simple as that."

"Can I take that to mean as long as I stay away from Alice, Mary, Becky and Sherry we can do this again sometime?"

"Oh yes indeed honey and speaking of again" she said as she reached for my cock, "How are we doing here?"

We did fine one more time and then I headed for my apartment. Before I left Leslie's place she told me that she didn't ever want to leave the bar with me because she didn't want anyone to think she was like Sherry and the other girls. We would always leave separately and then meet up and that is what we did the next two nights.

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On Thursday I got a call from Gerald Montrose's secretary and she informed me that he would like to see me when it was convenient. I asked her who Montrose was and found out that he was the lawyer handling Elaine's divorce. I told the women that it wouldn't ever be convenient and I said goodbye and hung up.

Twenty minutes later she called me again and asked me to please hold for Mr. Montrose. I told her that no way was I going to hold for him and I was just ready to hang up when he came on the line. He cut right to the chase.

"Normally I wouldn't do this. I'd just file the necessary paperwork to bring you into court, but Mrs. McKeean doesn't want to see you go to jail for contempt so I'm trying to handle this the easy way. The court orders contained in the divorce paperwork require you to maintain the principal residence pending the final court decision on your divorce. That means that you need to get the utilities turned back on. If you get that done today I will tear up the paperwork I've prepared for the court. In addition we will just forget about you breaking in and removing property while Mrs. McKeean was out."

"Forget it. I'll tell you the same thing I told Elaine. I'm not paying for someplace where I'm not living. I had everything worked out fine with Elaine and the divorce would have been painless for both of us if she had just stuck with the agreement we made. She didn't so fuck her. And I have no idea what you are talking about when you say that I broke in. I have it on good authority that Elaine gave bags of stuff to Goodwill on the day after I had the utilities turned off and I know damned well that it was my clothing and personal items in those bags. Go ahead and bring it up in front of the judge and let's see what he has to say about it."

"Then you leave me no choice. I'll file the papers with the court this afternoon."

"You do that, but while you are doing that think of this. I'm not paying and all they can do is find me in contempt of court and lock me up. That means I'll lose my job and no job means no money. I knew going in when I told Elaine to handle the divorce I would end up paying for it, but again – no job, no money. Think of that while you are walking into the courthouse."

I hung up on him and got back to work.

Friday was the last day of the month and I got another call and this time it was from a crying Elaine.

"What did you do Rob? Mr. Barker was just here. He was surprised I'm still here."

"I told you that I'm not paying for a place where I'm not living."

"He says I have to get out since he has already rented the house to someone else. What am I going to do?"

"Not my problem Elaine. Go ask those assholes in your cult that told you that you needed to divorce me and don't forget that it was your choice to break the agreement we made. You know, the one where I said I would take care of the rent and utilities as long as we lived in the house together?"

I hung up on her and I was smiling when I did it.

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Monday I went to work and told my boss that I needed to speak with him. I told him what was going on and what I was going to do.

"I don't know when they will come for me, but I thought I should give you advanced notice so you can start looking for someone to replace me."

"You really going to sit in jail rather than do what they want?"

"Absolutely."

"I wish I would have had your balls when I went through my divorce. What I can do for you is promise you a job when it is all over with. Good luck."

That night I told Leslie what was likely to happen and she told me not to worry, that she would bring me a cake with a hacksaw blade inside of it.

It was eleven days before a man caught me coming out of work and served me with papers ordering me to appear in court. The appearance date was ten days away and I tossed the papers in the trash and ignored them. Meanwhile I heard (from Shelly) that Elaine had moved in with two other single Jehovah's Witnesses. Elaine called me half a dozen times, but I hung up as soon as I heard her voice.

Nineteen days after the court date that I didn't bother to show up for a deputy sheriff showed up at work with a bench warrant for my arrest on a charge of "failure to appear."

To shorten things a little when the judge asked me while I failed to appear I told him that we had been real busy at work and I had forgotten about it. He knew it was bullshit, but he moved on and asked me why I had failed to follow the courts orders. I told him of my verbal agreement with Elaine and that I had no intention of doing anything other that what I had agreed to with her. He told me that my verbal agreement had no legal standing, but that court orders had the full weight of the law behind them. He then ordered me to provide housing for Elaine and pay her the court ordered temporary maintenance including the arrearage. I told him no. I would not do anything other than what I had previously agreed to with Elaine which of course was now impossible since she had broken that agreement. He found me "in contempt of court and gave me fifteen days.

At the end of fifteen days I was brought back in front of him and I told him no again and got another fifteen days. After that I went back in front of him every fifteen days and got another fifteen. At the end of one hundred and forty-two days I was released. I was let loose because the divorce was final and there was a new set of court orders and I was told I'd better pay attention to them or I would be back. I just smiled and said:

"Save me a good cell."

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