The Neighbor

The ink was still drying on the divorce papers, when I knew I needed a change. It had been a long hard year, and I had never been so happy to sign something in all my life to gain my freedom. It is next to impossible in a small Kentucky town to not accidentally run into someone that we both knew. Then there was having those small conversations with me having to say oh no, we are divorced now, the looks when I was caught kissing someone other than my ex husband or heaven forbid, actually running into the asshole himself. I was so fed up with the fact that every front porch Sally knew my business, or felt the need to let me know just exactly how I should behave, and don’t get me started on why I was the cause of the whole earth shattering end of my marriage of 15 years. If they only knew the half of things that happened behind closed doors, or the real reason why I finally said enough was enough, and left Stephon.

Thankfully my parents had passed away and didn’t have to witness the behavior on his part the past 3 years, or during the whole separation and divorce. My dad would have flown off the handle, or more than likely, I would have become a widow long before an ex-wife. The thought of that big burly gruff man in a jail cell would have been torture to his little princess. After a long tearful phone call one night with my best friend, my mind was made up. I needed a clean break and out of this small town. I packed up what I couldn’t live without, and closed the door on my apartment that I had called home since I left Stephon. I decided to move to and get my own place, and just start over. I needed to get out of small town, usa. I knew with my job, I could start over anywhere, and was extremely lucky it was completely portable being that I actually worked from home. Our main headquarters was set up out of the triangle in North Carolina, and I never needed to be in an actual office, but I had always wanted to be closer to the beach so, off I went and didn’t stop until I hit big city limits and lights. The warm industrial glow of downtown called me in like a siren’s song, and I thought this was what I needed to restart things fresh and new.

The new neighborhood was quiet, and most of the neighbors were older couples who seemed to be quiet and kept to themselves, except for the one behind me. Our yards connected, and on rare occasions I would see him out there and about, and politely we would wave a hello, but hadn’t really talked. I was trying to figure him out. He was nicely built, looked like he was a professional or something in the way he carried himself, attractive, and didn’t seem to be attached to anyone. A couple of times I considered starting up a conversation first but decided against it. The only disadvantage to living in a big city, was Jax, my beast of a shiba inu, couldn’t get all his mischievous energy out cooped up in the house or a smaller back yard. It wasn’t like in the small town where I could go on long walks with him to just clear my head. Here was just a backyard that wasn’t fenced in yet, and just our little community, but a lot of streets with cars, and dangers of a wild dog to just be loose so he stayed in the house a bit more than he was used to.

I had been tossing Jax’s toy back and forth trying to run out his endless bounds of energy that only my crazy dog seems to have, and normally he is extremely well behaved, and follows all my commands until a wild throw tossed it into my neighbor’s yard and he went flying after it. “SHIT!!!! JAX siéntate!! AHORA Pendejo!!! ” I screamed out as I saw it all happen in slow motion. My neighbor had just stepped out, and the toy almost slapped him. and there is my hellish beast in his yard..... My mind raced, great now he is going to meet me looking horrible, and probably think I am trying to cause trouble with my dog, or think I am sending him to attack. UGH!! This is not how I had pictured any of this.

Jax totally forgot about his toy and barrelled towards him as soon as he spotted him, and practically jumped up to greet him. His front paws hitting him in the chest. “I am soooooo, so Sorry! Jax, NO!!! Down. Damn dog” I said as I was approaching, face distorted and shaking my head. Trying to hide more into my baseball hat to hide my face. Jeez, a worn baggy alumni t-shirt and jeans and barefoot? He is going to think I am the biggest bum. At least my toes are painted, I thought.

I was expecting an angry face to be meeting me, but I saw the softest grin, and heard him chuckle. “Hello there neighbor.” The grin went from a small one to a devilish one once I got there. Damn he has beautiful eyes, I thought, and look at that smile. Shit, I hope he doesn’t notice me grinning. I quickly reached down and picked up the toy off the yard.

“I am so sorry, Jax normally is so well behaved and he’s such a spaz. and he’s excited to see anyone, and I promise he won’t bite or anything bad.” I blurted out. Of course, when I am nervous sometimes I just can’t shut up.