An Idiot I am!

Well I did and we did, both consenting to it, and probably the most amicable divorce in the history of our state based on what I've read in our major newspapers. Actually a lot happened that probably made it a lot weirder than what you would imagine, we never gave up on the sex, in fact the toybox got opened again, on numerous occasion's, we ate meals as a family and laughed and joked, cried as a family, we weren't in a hurry to end our lives together, we knew it was inevitable just weren't doing it at any great rate, funnily enough all three of us found we had no attachment to the house, it had served it's purpose and we had decided it would be too big for just one of us and it needed to be filled with the laughter of a family. Liz was making plans to buy a condo, We had the money to do that without selling the house and my plans were to maybe find a little cottage in one of the half dozen little satellite villages that surround a University Town, one by the name of Winchester Village intrigued me, the house was about what I needed and Leigh wanted to stay with her Mum during the week anyway. I still hadn't really done anything about it, when out of the blue a job offer came my way. It was from another University who did a roaring trade in the foreign student education sector and over the last five years enrollments had quadrupled. They were increasing staff and infrastructure to cope and senior english literature Lecturer's and Professor's who were looking to move were thin on the ground, two things though one was it was in Canada and second the University was located on the Pacific North West Coast.

Leigh's first reaction was “Cool.”

Liz's first reaction was “Oh, Hell.”

“Why Liz?”

“Mike, It's a shock, is what it is, just a shock.”

I made no definitive plans, it wasn't tomorrow, it was the new year and that was nine months away, however I thought I better start preparing so I hunted for a two bed flat and got rid of a lot of stuff I thought if I did move 2500 miles across country I wouldn't have to take with me. The next weirdest thing was that despite the fact we hadn't rushed we were both out of our house and it was sold in little over three months.

I'd not heard from Gin in that period although Leigh had said some time ago that she was dating. Well at the time I'd actually felt great for her, I'd said to Leigh that she was only thirty-eight she needed a man in her life and if Paul got a new Dad into the bargain well win – win, Leigh got on her high horse and told me I didn't know what I was talking about. Kids!

Anyway, My first Friday night in my new flat, I was actually writing again, the novel, drafts really but more than I'd done in a long while when my front door threatened to come through and invade my living room. Apprehensively I walked to it, but once I heard Leigh mumbling I opened it.

“DAD! FINALLY, what were you doing, I was banging for ages.”

“And a good evening to you too, Leigh, won't you come ....ah never mind.”

“I need a place to crash, I've had enough of her shit, stupid bitch's gone out on a date.”

“Leigh, please don't talk about you're Mum like that, and for the final time we are divorced, if she wants to date, well good on her, I'm surprised though she said she was gonna have a quiet night in.”

“Not Mum, she's curled up on kindle, no Ginia, She's gone on a date.”

“So Leigh funnily enough she's an adult too that doesn't live in Leigh-land either, so if she wants to date good on her. Besides she's been dating before and before you start again Leigh, us olden folk aren't getting any younger.”

“Well actually Dad, this is the first time she's dated since before her divorce.”

“Oh well, that's good.”

“No it's not, it's not good at all.”

“Oh I know I'm gonna regret this, Okay Leigh, shock me, why is it gonna not be good?”

“Because she told me, when I asked her why she was going out on a date tonight, she said that she's given up waiting, 'he's never coming back Leigh' and that's when I stormed out.”

“I'm missing something here Leigh aren't I?” My daughter started to look like a pressure cooker.

“MY FATHER IS AN IDIOT! It's you she's talking about, it's always been about you. She adores you, she told me, repeatedly, You are the only one that missed it, I even told you, but you've missed your chance now. IDIOT!!”