Home became my haven after John, and I didn’t really get out much. Once I was feeling better, I started working out again at a different gym I’d been a member of for years. It was my first visit back when I made eye contact with this very cute dirty blond. We flirted back and forth, and I really enjoyed his quiet attention, but it was quite some months before we spoke.

It was a Saturday night, about 7:30, and the gym was all but empty. Unbeknownst that he was there, he walked up behind me, pulled the microphones from my ears and the much-anticipated conversation began:

So, why aren’t you out with your boyfriend right now? It’s a Saturday night?

An hour later we were at dinner and soon thereafter an item.

Kirk Mitchell Boone was a strikingly handsome French Cajun boy from Haughton, Louisiana with whom I had a lot in common. He was genuinely kind, treated me with respect, and always had me laughing. With Mitch I felt a total safety that I had truly never felt before, and although I was careful, things progressed quickly and by the end of that year I was sure he was “the one”.

He was everything John wasn’t. There wasn’t a manipulative, narcissistic, self-serving bone in his body where his love for me was concerned, and he never once took me for granted. We were very happy and my family liked him well. By this time, however, I had firmly decided I would not bring another man into Christian’s life unless I knew that he was going to be the last. For that reason, their contacts were brief, which was something Mitch very much respected. I was so happy, and things couldn’t have been better.

Even Christian’s dad had finally resigned himself to the fact that Mitch wasn’t going anywhere, and although He still loved me, he was willing to set me free because He could see that I was truly happy. In the two years Mitch and I were together, though, the two of them had never met in person and had only ever spoken on the phone a few times when He would call the house. That was about to change.

ODD ONE

Odd one, you’re never alone. I’m here and I will reflect you. Both of us basically unattached to anything or anyone unless we’re pretending. You live your life in your head. Some call it imagination. I’d rather focus instead on anything except what I’m feeling, what I’m feeling. Odd one. Aye, it’s gonna be okay. Aye, we’re gonna laugh at this one day. Odd one, I wish I was you. You’re never concerned with acceptance. We are all desperately seeking out and fitting in with anyone who will accept us. But not you, odd one. Aye, it’s gonna be okay. Aye, we’re gonna laugh at this one day. Don’t let someone tell you you’re no one. Don’t let someone tell you you’re no one. Odd one. {Sick Puppies}

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