JANUARY 1997: “He Won My Heart!” …

Home became the haven I didn’t really like to leave as I recovered from “what lied beneath” one of the most twisted mind fucks of my life. Eventually, I started feeling better and started working out again at a gym I’d been a member of for years. Lol! If only I’d have known that not going back to his gym in an attempt to eradicate myself of his presence would ultimately prove to be pointless. “Hoovery MacHooverson” would always be lingering in my atmosphere. But, hey … AT LEAST I TRIED!

It was my very first visit back to that haunt that I’d made eye contact with this very cute dirty blond. We flirted back and forth a lot and I enjoyed his quiet attention, but it was months before we ever really spoke one Saturday night at what I’d only thought was an empty gym. Little did I know, he’d been there, solo, too, watching me and waiting for his moment … then it happened! He’d walked up behind me, pulled the microphones from my ears, and our much-anticipated conversation began:

So, why aren’t you out with your boyfriend right now? It’s Saturday night! Why are you alone here?

An hour later, we were at dinner across the street, and soon thereafter an item. Kirk Mitchell Boone was a strikingly handsome Cajun boy from Haughton, Louisiana, with whom I had a lot in common. He was genuinely kind, treated me with respect, and always kept me laughing. With him, I felt a safety that I’d never really known, and although I was careful not to jump into something serious too quickly, by the end of that year I just knew he was the one.

He was everything John wasn’t. There wasn’t a manipulative, narcissistic, self-serving bone in his body, and he never once took me for granted. We were very happy and even my family loved him, but I had firmly decided I would not bring another man into Christian’s life unless I knew he’d be the last. I’d kept their contacts brief, which was something Mitch agreed with and respected. I was so happy, and things couldn’t have been better.

Even Christian’s dad seemed to have resigned himself to the fact that Mitch wasn’t going anywhere, and though He’d claimed to still love me, 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 …