Joanne Sterns

This is actually a Romance, you may not think it is from the beginning but I needed to set the tone and history as vividly as I could. The woman does get the man in the end so it's a Romance.

*****

Like most people I believed, truly believed I had the best marriage. Beth and I grew up across the street from each other, we walked to school and then high school together, hell even the kids in high school didn't bother asking Beth out, to all of them she was my girlfriend. As we grew up and hormones took over and our bodies bulked in all the right places we suddenly knew the difference between men and women.

It was prom night we decided to do the deed; it was all heavy petting before then. I won't say it was fireworks over the roof of the motel that night but we became closer in more ways than one. That evening I found out what love was and as I lay next to her in the motel room that evening I was looking directly at the girl I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

We both went to the local college and I got my degree in computers while Beth wanted to be a school teacher, so with my degree in my hand I walked into McKenna Industries. After a year I went down on one knee and everyone in the room simply looked at each other and said. "About time." Within two years of working for McKenna's my first promotion and bonus gave us the wedding she always wanted.

Hell I was a guy; all we have to do is make sure we turn up on time. We were the typical middle class couple. Beth enjoyed her job and after the first year of working at our old school we talked about children, finally deciding that we wanted to give ourselves a year or two before we went down the family path.

McKenna's had a golf group that met every Saturday, I got dragged along and found that I loved and hated the sport all at the same time. Beth and some of her old school friends played cards on a Tuesday evening, rotating between each others house. Us guys just got out of the way and left them to it, or I would find something that kept me at work that evening.

The golf club had the occasional dance and we both made sure we attended; we even cranked up the barbecue over the summer evenings and dragged our neighbors over, yes we were the typical middle class couple enjoying life until we wanted to settle down and have children.

Being familiar with your partner can also be your downfall. Yes I had noticed the odd mood swing from Beth and they never had anything to do with the time of the month, but I knew that when she chose to share with me then we could work it out just like we had worked everything else out in our lives. However my dad once told me to live up to the code of every successful politician 'trust but verify'.

*******

The card game was at ours that night; I had stuff at the office I needed to finish anyway so I stayed over. I had been watching this same webpage for the last twenty minutes, nothing on it had changed other than the fact it was telling me my marriage was now well and truly in the toilet and my darling wife had her hand firmly on the handle ready to flush it.

Beth was waiting for me when I got home, and so was one of her school friends. Karen was almost as old a friend as Beth and I, Beth seemed to bond with her real quick when we started high school and although Karen stayed on the periphery of our group she was still included.

They got tighter as we went through high school and when college started they may as well have been joined at the hip. Once we all graduated Karen seemed to disappear almost over night. She had only been back a year and once again both girls seemed to connect again.

"Honey we need to talk."

Words that have instilled fear into many men, it is usually about now that you notice the minefield that surrounds you.

"That's fine Beth we can do that when Karen goes home."

I was pissed that she wanted to have a 'honey we need to talk' in front of one of her friends. Beth pushed a glass of wine across the table towards me; if this talk warranted a glass of wine then it must be one heck of a conversation we were going to have. Karen made the mistake of using her foot to push a chair out from under the table for me to sit on.

Karen being here now looked like she was here for moral support since the anxiety levels in Beth started to rise. I still refused to sit and that bothered them both, it seems their rehearsed talk wasn't going to plan. Beth finally took a sip of her drink and continued.

"Honey you know I love you right?"

It was then I saw Karen smirk and that sinking feeling started all over again. I had heard the rumors back in college, when Karen left I just assumed they were said by her, for what reason I never figured. Now I was standing across from the reason. The thing Beth seemed to have forgot was my past, dad had divorced mom because she cheated on him.

She up and left leaving dad to raise my brother and me. Danny and I watched dad harden day by day until he simply lived to raise us, women were a luxury we knew he seldom indulged in, other than to fill a need. I never heard what she said next my mind had already figured out what she was going to say and had skipped past that.

I understood my father right about then. It was then my own reasoning came to pass, how could I fight what she was building up to, Karen and Beth had been friends in more ways than just one. Was I blindsided? Not totally, even I had noticed the slow decline in our sex life, what made me smile to myself was the sadness of it all.

How could I fight for her, guy to guy slugging it out, yes I could do that. But when your about to be told by your wife that your lover was sat at the table and it wasn't you then you realize real quick that not only your marriage is toast but there is no way to fight for it. Did I care? Up to that point I did, now I knew I was in a war I had no chance of winning.

"Honey did you hear what I just said?"

"Not really Beth."

This time they both looked at me, not believing what I had just said. They watched as my hand went into my pocket and pulled out a card, I tossed it onto the table. By the time they had looked up again I was pulling two suitcases out of the closet.

"That's the lawyer you need to call when you want to divorce me, since you took all the money out our account this afternoon do you expect me to pay for the divorce."

"Honey it's not what you think."

I never did hear the rest of it. I was already in my car and pulling away from the house. Dad got drunk once, only the once and I took advantage of that time. I asked him how he knew mom cheated on him, he told me that they had a great sex life and suddenly even with both of us children in the house it started to decline.

Dad may have only worked in a warehouse but that never made him stupid, since cell phones were for rich folk back then it was only a case of patching wires into the house phone and a recorder. It took him a week to find out who it was and how often. The who was his cousin and the how often meant dad got sloppy seconds more times than he ever wanted it.

The one thing my dad wanted to keep away from us was trust issues. He said when you love you love totally and to hell with the people telling you to get a room, hold hands often and hug as many times as you can get away with. The only time that should take a hit was when your good lady got to the time of the month and if they came to that real hard then be even more understanding.

I had learned Beth's cycle within six months of knowing she was on it, every diary I ever had I placed a red mark on those day, occasionally I was a day out but not that often. When Karen came back Beth's cycle went to shit and I couldn't understand why, so being a nosy son of a bitch I went snooping. When I asked my dad why he didn't fight for mom he looked at me and said.

"Son what's to fight for, we stood in front of the minister and told him and our friends that we would be true to each other, I never heard her say me and my cousin. The day she put out for him meant we could never get back what we had, she knew what she was doing and what she stood to lose."

Over the course of the two years that Karen had come back and the red dots in my diary were no longer adding up, I had started to get all my ducks in a row. My bonuses at McKenna Industries got smaller since over half that money now went into another account. By year two I almost had as much in that account as we had in our joint one, just keeping an eye on my diary and Beth meant I knew things were getting to a point.

The one thing that bothered me was moving, but what could I do. Once they both went public the finger pointing would start and the 'wasn't he man enough' comments would come out. There wasn't a chance in hell of me correcting that mistake, as for Beth, she knew what she was doing and who was I to stand in her way. I still loved the dumb bitch but it seemed my gender wasn't the love she needed.

Many times my dad told Danny and me to learn from his mistakes. When dad died and we sat down and talked, neither Danny nor I could figure what mistakes he had made. He stood up to a cheating wife and said no. At least in my case children were still a thing of fantasy, we both wished he had married again but it wasn't meant to be. Mom messed with his head and even I will admit that Beth had messed with mine.

Beth would get on with her life even if I was still in our town. So I figured I may as well get on with my life in another one and leave her to it, and when the divorce was final then I would go looking for more stability in my life.

*******

I slept in a hotel that night I needed to, because it had internet access. By midnight I had done most of the more tedious stuff and hoped her Teacher salary was enough for the apartment, still I'm sure Karen would pitch in since I had changed everything to Beth's name.

When I turned up at work I went straight to my boss and then onto personnel, by the time I had got everything settled with them I was in my office by ten. Jenny handed me a dozen or so slips all with Beth's name on.

"Whatever you did last night sure got you a pissed wife, she's been calling since before eight."

The smile left her lips as she watched me drop all the un-read slips into the trash can next to her desk and went into my office. Her face was a real picture when I came out ten minutes later carrying a box.

"Jenny it's been fun and you're a great lady. I'm sure one day you're going to make some man real happy when you say yes to him."

With that I walked out of my office, dropped my box in the trunk of the car and handed my pass to security when he opened the gate to let me out. I loved this town, why shouldn't I, this was where I was raised, but it was time to say good bye. Maybe when hell had an off day and froze over I may come back but somehow I doubted it.

For the first three months I kept in touch with my lawyer. I'm sure he just stuck his reply on a tape so he didn't have to keep repeating himself. Beth had exhausted all the places we had frequented as a couple and some places I used to hang alone, once she figured I wasn't around she told my lawyer that a divorce wasn't happening unless I sat down with her.

After those three months I thanked my lawyer and sent him his final check. For a while I wandered from state to state, other than the confrontation and getting the hell out of Dodge not making any real plans but enjoying myself, why wouldn't I, this country was big enough that I figured I would never see it all in my lifetime.

I turned my hand to free lance for awhile, that was great fun and added a heck of a lot of funds to my account. But I had started to make a name for myself and a reputation in my field of expertise would have been one way Beth could have tracked me down if she had a mind too. One of my thoughts where to continue traveling, but I'm one of those guys who needs roots.

I had to settle down, start over and just get on with life, heck I had seen some great sights and had some even better moments since I had been on the road but a man or at least this man needed someone to share them with.

*******

The local radio station told me about the accident a few miles ahead, it seemed that others had heard it and ducked off the freeway at the next exit. For the first couple of miles it followed next to the Freeway and then it came to a fork, one took me under the Freeway the other had a sign on it saying 'Cascade'. I figured that would be a good a place as any for something to eat.

If ever I had a weakness it has to be apple pie, the diner at Cascade had the most amazing pie I've ever tasted. I'm not sure anyone would class apple pie as a sign, but being on the road as long as I had been tended to leave me with to much cynicism and at my age that's not a good place to be. The realtor's office was three shops down from the diner, with my coffee in hand I stood face to face with Jason Banners.

I told him what I was looking for and after scratching his head for a moment, he went looking and came back with two possibilities by the end of the day I had seen the first and had an appointment to see the second at ten the next morning. Jason pointed me in the direction of Macy's boarding house, a sweet old lady that just had to know your life history so that she could tell it to the world or her part of it anyway.

Having encountered people like these over the last eighteen months, they could spot a tragedy a country mile away. You could of course try and deflect them, sadly telling folks like this to mind their own business was in these folks eyes an admission that you were hiding something and when has the town gossip ever let the truth get in the way of a good lie.

To me it meant that I opened file A in my head and gave them the heavily edited version of my life history, that got me a hug from her and a few words of support while at the same time you could clearly see the wheels turning in her head over who she was going to tell first.

At ten the next morning I was being shown around the place that had me smiling as I was being told the potential, an hour later Jason Banners and I started the paperwork and my small business as a computer repair shop with accommodation over the top of the shop started my new life. Within three months I didn't have a name anymore I was always known around town as 'that tech guy' I smiled and waved and for the first time since I pulled my suitcases out of the closet, I felt at home again.

*******

I was outback when the bell went off, a young girl I had never seen before stood in the middle of the shop her eyes wandered across every inch of it while her mouth hung open. I watched until her gaze finally settled on me and she quickly took a step back and gave a yelp in surprise.

"Mr. I want a job."

She stood close to four feet, the blonde hair hung down her back. She looked real cute in the summer dress and the sandals. At best I would put her age at seven I was about to say no when the door opened and an older version of the girl came in.

"Sorry, I forgot to lock the car; I see Becky didn't waste any time."

The woman came over, her hand outstretched.

"My names Joanne Sterns, I'm new in town and I'm looking for work."

It was something about her eyes, a desperation maybe I'm not totally sure. We shook and talked although she did most of it. Divorced because of his cheating, he made her life hell until her cousin told her to get her ass out and come to Cascade, she had been staying with her cousin for the last week while they got settled and now she needed a job.

"Who's your cousin?"

"Jason Banners."

I nodded, looked at the little girl who hadn't moved from the spot I had seen her in from the start.

"What can you do?"

The smile got bigger and I got the feeling I was saying more to her than some of the folks had around here so far. Strange thing about small towns, you're an outsider until you have lived and died here, although she had an edge over me. Jason was her cousin.

She had done secretarial work, some accounting and phone answering at her last place when I asked her about her computer skills she smiled even more and as she told me of her experience, an idea I've had nestled in the back of my head started to nudge itself forward.

"Ma'am I repair computers but I want to branch out a little and give classes. If you want the job is yours, you take the bookings and I will set up a desk over in that corner for you to take your lessons."

I swear if the counter wasn't between us she would have hugged me. We talked wages and hours, with the little girl in mind I set her hours to school hours that way she would be able to drop off and pick her up on the way home. Since today was Thursday she could start Monday if she wished, I would use the weekend to set up a computer for her classes.

Jason came by on Friday and thanked me for looking out for his cousin. I shrugged and told him that we all had to start somewhere and since he was the one that found me the perfect shop for my business, it also seemed obvious that Jason had pointed Joanne in my direction. That man could sell snow to an Eskimo but he would be useless at poker.

Over the Saturday flyers started to appear all over town announcing computer classes for beginners, I phoned Jason and told him I was impressed with Joanne's initiative and that she was to tell me how much she had spent on the flyers so I could reimburse her. It seems she was in his shop when I phoned so she told him; I walked over and gave her the money back.

Monday morning Joanne turned up with a little box in her hand, she placed it on the counter and smiled. When I looked inside there sat a piece of apple pie from the diner.

"Is this the equivalent of an apple for the teacher?"

The phone rang right about then so I didn't get an answer. Joanne grabbed the receiver and her phone manner clicked in as she started to take bookings for the computer courses. I left the phone to her for the rest of the day, she alternated between the phone and sorting course work for people from stuff she found on the internet. I thought I was going to have to open the door and kick her ass out or she would have been late picking up her daughter at the end of the day.

I still kept in touch with my brother but only via e-mail. He wasn't stupid, he knew why I bolted and why I was still out there so we kept the conversation strictly on him, his family and me. I still used my old skills and for now they supplemented the shops income since I now had Joanne working for me.

Over the next six months Joanne's courses increased in popularity and she was becoming accepted in town. She even dated some as well, it did get to the point were I could put my old skills to rest once again and keep my head down. The shop was doing ok, and maybe to some that wasn't enough, to me that was all I ever wanted and sometimes had to reign in Joanne when she came in with some new idea.

"Why do you live like a hermit, after work the townsfolk barely see you."

"I'm a private person."

Perhaps that was my warning shot to Joanne, she ignored it and continued anyway.

"Pick a day, any day and I can tell you what you do from the time you get up until the time you go to bed."

"I suppose it would be pointless telling you to mind your own business?"

"Totally, so what do you have planned for Sunday?"

"You just told me that you know what I do on any given day so you know that by now."

She smiled, this easy banter between us sort of crept up on us. It's almost like I was talking to one of my old buddies only without the swearing.

"Well Sunday you will have to sacrifice your laundry day, because you're joining Becky and me for a picnic."

"And if I refuse?"

"That's fine, I will have to tell a seven year old what a heartless boss I have and how he doesn't want to be seen with said seven year old. Plus of course how his laundry is more important than a picnic with said seven year old."