Her lawyer agreed with almost everything but added a clause for spousal maintenance of $10,000 a year for the non-requesting spouse. I agreed to that ...nd she got the ring backWe were married; and I switched jobs to head repairer and troubleshooter in the company until the purchase opportunity came up. That was after we had been married for about 6 years. I worked hard and while I am not a great romantic nor a ‘culture vulture’, I bought flowers for her ‘just because’ and took her to concerts. But he was serious and now he was suggesting that this every afternoon would be a good time . A few hours later Selena found herself driving towards Rutledge which was about 20 miles from Red Creek and a much larger town. Selena was relieve that Oscar hadn’t suggested meeting closer because she wasn’t sure she wanted to be seen riding in a car with him.. She shouldn’t have worried. When she met Oscar in the parking lot in front of Kroger he opened her door and indicated she should slide over. The booze had nothing to do with it.’ I asked him about Mary and he told me that he hasn’t seen her since the wedding but she would be at his house building the following week. He explained that the foundation was already laid and the framing would be done in one day because of all the help. He did say that Shawn was one of the main carpenters. He hoped to move into his new house within the month. It was a week later and after the house building that I finally called Mary since she hadn’t. ‘Let me guess, book reviews?’ ‘Nope. I just really fucking hate Barbara Walters.’ At least it was possible that Charis might be sassy, that would be nice. I sat down on the couch to stare at the TV and pretend that the news program came on again. It seemed like it would be fun to put another club into the set when they discussed my book. My fantasy came to nothing, and thirty seconds after taking a seat, I was asleep. ***** I woke up some time later, who the hell cares when. I didn’t feel.