What Did I Do that was Wrong? 03

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It was eleven weeks after their "kiss and make up" session in my office, when Mark had so optimistically tried to say goodbye to me, that it all hit the fan. He and Leanne were scheduled for a joint session at 8:30 am on a Tuesday, but Leanne didn't arrive until nearly 9:00. She'd clearly been crying and looked very upset; and she was alone.

"Mark's gone, Tom—he left last night without telling me!"

I got her to sit down and tried to calm her a little, asking her to tell me everything that had happened. For several minutes she cried too hard to be very coherent; but finally she was calm enough to talk about it.

"Everything was fine the last few days—at least I thought so. And last night was really special! We watched TV in the living room for a little while and then started fooling around, teasing and giggling. And then Mark picked me up in his arms and carried me off to the bedroom.

"And we made love, and it was wonderful—just fantastic. We took our time and really pleased each other, and when we finally got to the ... to intercourse, it got very fast and hard and intense. I came several times, and the last time the two of us came together. It was just tremendous!

"Afterwards we just lay there, cuddling, with me telling him how marvelous he was, and we drifted off to sleep. I felt really content, and really close to him." She sniffled some more.

"And then this morning he was gone! And a bunch of clothes were gone from his part of the closet, and when I looked I found that two of our suitcases were missing."

"And he didn't say anything in particular last night, or leave you a note or anything?" I asked.

Her eyes welled up again, and she said, "he left these on the dining room table".

She dropped two things into my palm. One was a folded sheet of paper, on which Tom had written, "Sorry, I just can't handle this anymore". The other was his wedding ring.