Before you judge me and think of me as an animal,
give me a chance and hear me out.
I walked into the house I called my home.
But
it didn’t feel like it anymore.
It was pitch dark in there
except for some light coming from the kitchen.
I walked over to find my wife sitting at the kitchen table
with a bottle of beer
with the labels all scratched off
and scattered around the bottle.
She couldn’t even look at me.
I stood there for a few minutes just staring at her,
my high school sweetheart,
my soulmate,
the mother of my child,
my first love and only love
and said to her,
“I want a divorce.”
“Hello?
Hey Sis.
No, I didn’t go to the Halloween party.
I know, it was the party of the century.
I just got off my shift at McDonald's
and I’m utterly exhausted.
What friends?
Uff
Do I have to?
Ok ok, I’ll come meet your friends,
but if I want to leave,
you have to let me, okay?
Ok.
Bye.
I rang the doorbell waiting for Kelly to open the door.
I’ve been standing all day,
I can’t wait to get a beer and just sit.
She opened the door and flung herself at me
giving me a big hug.
“I’m so excited to see you!”
She said.
I smiled and I walked away.
She’s always been such a sweetheart,
that’s why I can never say no to her.
“Ok follow me,”
she said with a knowing smile.
In her living room were two girls in costume.
I didn’t think anything of it
until I got closer.
Just as I was about to step into the living room
I saw her.
She completely took my breath away.
There she was on the loveseat,
the most beautiful pimp
I had ever seen.
Her sister was in another chair dressed as a prostitute.
My heart was beating faster than a racehorse.
It was - as cliche as it sounds -
it was love at first sight.
But
then I suddenly became VERY aware of the fact
that I just got off my shift
and must have smelled like stale french fries.
Smart enough to know
that stale french fries are not exactly sexy,
I decided to quickly go freshen up
before I sitting down.
When I got back,
I went to sit besides the pimp.
The whole time I was there I was blushing
and I didn’t speak a word to her.
I honestly,
didn't know what to say.
Out of the whole two hours,
the only thing I said to her was...
"could you pass the ashtray?"
Yeah, ok.
Flirting was not my strongest asset…
But
time went by
- 2 hours to be exact
and they had to leave.
The prostitute said,
"well it's getting passed this one's bedtime."
I could see the anger and embarrassment in the pimp's eyes
after her sister said that.
She gave her a look that could kill.
They proceeded to get up and leave.
My mind was racing of something to say
before this beautiful woman walks out of my life.
After she was out the door,
I managed to yell
"What's your name?"
Yeah,
we sat there for 2 hours
and I didn’t even ask her name.
She smiled shyly and responded
"Mari...Leane"
she started to give me a name
then stuttered to say Leane.
That was it.
I didn't see her again.
Three months later I got a call when I was at work from Kelly.
“What's up? I’m working.”
She giggled but didn’t say anything.
“Kells, I’m working, what’s up?”
“I got her number!
I got Leane’s number!!”
My eyes opened wide
and I almost dropped the mop.
“I’m gonna text it to you, call her now!”
Kelly said.
I smiled from ear to ear and hung up the phone staring at it
waiting for the telephone number to appear.
And when it did,
I immediately called her.
We set up our first date on that call
which actually was on my 18th birthday.
After we started dating,
we were always inseparable.
Even though she lived 30 minutes away,
I didn't care,
I would go see her any chance I could get.
What made this love story even more romantic
was that we were each other's first.
I knew I wanted to give all of myself to her and she felt the same way.
Everything was always perfect.
We were the happiest we could ever be.
It was like a fairytale story come true.
One year after that,
I sent her a website I had built for her.
On it was our favorite picture of us sitting together
and there was a speech bubble
coming out of my mouth that asks her
"Will you marry me?"
She was so so happy
and said yes.
I was on cloud nine.
One year after that,
our daughter was born.
I have to tell you,
that was absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me.
And then 5 months later,
I finally married her,
the girl of my dreams.
Now, as much as we want it to be
and as much as I had believed mine was,
life definitely isn’t a fairytale.
Years went by and we were a happy little family
but about 10 years after our happily ever after,
we hit a rough patch.
A really rough patch.
10 years was a long time and after a while,
marriage takes its toll on you.
We were fighting on a daily basis.
After a while, I started to have doubts.
The love we had just didn't feel like it was there anymore
so I started to doubt
if I even still wanted to be in this relationship anymore.
Things were really tough.
Now, my wife isn't a typical woman,
I don't say that to be insulting,
but she just doesn't get mad at normal things that other women do.
Way back when we first started dating she said to me
"I'm giving you a get out of jail free card,
a hall pass if you will.”
She said,
“if you are ever feeling any doubt,
you can use it to make sure being with me is what you truly want.”
In the 10 years we were together,
it never once crossed my mind to use it…
Until we had our rough patch.
One day, I decided I would take her up on her offer,
to see if
“being with her was what I truly wanted”
We had just finished cleaning up the apartment
and we were getting ready for bed.
She was reading when I said,
“I need to talk to you.”
She closed her book
and looked at me.
“Remember the get out of jail free card you offered me years ago?”
I asked her.
She pressed her lips together and said,
“uh huh.”
“Well,
I would like to take you up on that offer.
Of course, I will tell you with whom I will use it with,
where I will be and when it will be,
I don’t want to hide anything from you, I respect you so much.”
She paused and pressed her lips together again
and managed to pull together a forced smile and said,
“Ok,
I understand.”
I met this girl on Tinder and when we agreed to meet up,
I told my wife
everything I promised her I would.
She was an emotional wreck
but she did her best to hide it from me
and didn’t once try to hold me back.
When that day came,
I think it was one of the toughest thing she ever had to go through.
I drove an hour to meet this girl
and yeah we had a fun weekend.
Up until that point,
I had only been with my wife
so it was exciting to be with someone different.
I’m not gonna lie,
I did feel a slight connection with this girl.
Nothing like when I first met my wife
but there was definitely something there.
We had such a great time
that when I compared what I was feeling towards her,
to what my marriage had come to be,
I thought for sure,
my marriage must have fizzled out
and was at its end.
I thought maybe it was time for a new relationship.
So,
when I got back home to see my wife
sitting there waiting for me,
I had to tell her.
I told my wife I wanted a divorce and naturally, she was heartbroken
and even though you may think I’m a monster,
I did sympathize with her.
I was in my new relationship
expecting it to be the way my relationship with my wife started
but the more I was away from her
the more empty I felt.
Even through all the hard times we had
(and there were some very hard times)
I still felt love for her.
In fact, I missed her like crazy.
After spending time with this new woman
and seeing her immaturity come out,
I realized more and more what I had given up.
I kept thinking about how good I had it with my wife.
The couple of years that led to our rough patch
was pretty tough.
They were pretty bad.
I mean I wasn't good to my wife,
she wasn't good to me,
but after leaving her and being with this other woman
all I was thinking about was my amazing wife.
I wasn't thinking about this other woman at all.
One day, I was thinking about the first time I met my wife
and how my heart was racing
and all the feelings and emotions came rushing back.
I knew,
at that point
that I had made a huge mistake,
my wife is all I ever wanted.
Now,
all this happened over the course of 3 months.
I went back to her
but it was those 3 months that saved our marriage.
If I wouldn't have done this,
my wife and I
probably would still be bitter towards each other,
things would have just gotten worse
and we would probably most likely be divorced.
It made us both realize what we had
and reminded us the feelings we had for one another.
I asked her to have me back
and we agreed to go to marriage counseling.
Ok,
it didn't work
because the counselor was super religious and we are atheist
however it didn't stop us from fighting for our marriage.
We would talk about our feelings to each other
and eventually, things got better
and we got through it.
And now we are HAPPILY married.
Yes.
HAPPILY MARRIED.
Even my wife will tell you
that this whole thing saved our marriage.
That it was the best thing to happen to the both of us.
Believe me.
Our marriage
wouldn't have survived otherwise.