This was not the way things were supposed to go. I had no plans of Junior wearing down my defenses like he did. Even still, I put up a struggle, and my resistance, though futile, was slowly giving way to full compliance. Junior was a new side of the coin from previous suitors. Anything he could do right, he did, and if I had any questions, they were met with his ability to respond in a sufficient way. So, why were my instincts yet telling me "something's not right here"? R, you can't hold this man accountable for previous men's indiscretions. My mind was playing tricks on me, and I needed to stop acting like he's "one of them".
I still held my gym time sacred, but started skipping it more and more in option of spending time with Junior. He and I became a regular. He loved being seen in public with me (always made a point of having some sort of contact with my body while we'd be out..like holding my hand, or having his hand on my back), and after a little while of us being together all the time, he even asked me officially to be his girlfriend. I was thrilled by this, because as much as I hated to admit it, I had grown to really like him. But, something just wouldn't let me commit, so on his asking, I gave him the response of "things are going good like they are now..why change it?" It had been a while since Daniel and I had broken up, and I'd long dismissed him from my thoughts, I'd all but given Jones the boot, and in my eyes, this was no "rebound" situation. I was emotionally cleared of feelings for any other man, but I still tried hard to hold on to what little bit of the protective wall I had built, just in case. I'd find myself looking forward to every visit with Junior. He took care of me, emotionally and physically. The sex was astronomical, and if I could have bagged and sold it, I would have. Nothing was amiss between us.
When I'd spend the night, Junior would always leave money on the nightstand for me to get breakfast and put gas in my truck, this was common practice, when he'd go to work. I had told him several times that it wasn't necessary for him to do that, because in a way it made me feel like a prostitute, to which he said that he had no intentions of making me feel that way, but that it was his way of making sure I was taken care of, because I was taking care of him. Everything he did for me was his way of doing that. I couldn't argue with that. One day, when I woke up, as usual I turned over to find the money on the nightstand. I left it there until I was dressed and ready to leave, but when I went to pick it up, one of the bills fell behind the nightstand. When I went to retrieve it, I noticed the hotel phone was unplugged from the jack. Hmm. I took a second to think about it, but didn't make a big issue, thinking maybe it had been unplugged for a while, because come to think of it, his hotel phone never rang when I was there. Then again, neither did his cell phone. Oh, well. I plugged the phone in, and left.
Things continued as normal, and all was seeming right in my world again, finally. I had accepted a job at another company with a better work environment and making more money, gotten a new SUV, and had, who I thought, was my dream man. Junior and I had discussed marriage, having kids (said he didn't want anymore since his son was grown, but he'd think about it), and me relocating to his hometown. I couldn't believe I had passed him up for his co-worker Dave previously, and kicked myself for it. This man really cares for and about me, I thought. I'd even gotten to the point where I'd stopped dealing with other guys [Daniel, Jones, and a few others (that were insignificant to mention) were texting/calling me], and was set to be happy with Junior.
One day, I was at the hotel room, and Junior told me that the next day his company was sending him to another town's work site to speed up the production, but he'd be back in a week. I didn't think anything of it, because that was typical of his company to do. That next morning, I awoke to the usual money, and was going to call my job to let them know I'd be a few minutes late. When I picked up the hotel phone receiver, it was dead. Instinctively, I checked the plug. It was unplugged again. By now, I realized that this wasn't an accidental unplugging, but Junior must've been unplugging it when I was coming over. I thought it strange, but figured that was his way of saying that he didn't want us to be disturbed while I was there, because he had mentioned that his co-workers liked to bother him alot. I dismissed the thought of it, plugged the phone back in, called my job, left a little "I'll miss you" note for him, and left.
I didn't hear from Junior in the time that he said he was going to be gone (he said he had poor reception out there), but about a week later, he called for me to come over, and things resumed as normal. The phone incident had been kind of wearing on my mind, so I casually asked him about it, to which he replied, as I thought, that he didn't want his co-workers calling and bothering us while we were spending time together. I even took the opportunity to ask about his cell phone, because I'd never heard it ring either. He replied that he wasn't expecting any calls, so he turned it off when we'd be together. Logical explanations, so I left it at that. One night, Junior was in the shower, and I heard a faint buzzing sound coming from his nightstand. I had been laying on the bed watching TV, so I hit the mute button trying to figure out what the noise was. When I realized it was coming from out of his nightstand, I opened the drawer, and saw that his phone was ringing on vibrate. The picture ID had a woman on it, naked, with her legs spread wide, had one of her breasts in her mouth, and the name for the caller said "honey bunny". What the fuck was this?? He forgot to turn his phone off. I checked the hotel phone, too, and sure enough, it was unplugged. The phone vibrated 3 different times, as if "honey bunny" was urgently trying to get in touch with him. I quickly put two-and-two together, and knew it was more than just the co-workers he didn't want calling while I was there. Right at about that time, I heard the water turn off, so I closed the drawer, turned the volume back up, and layed back like I was before he got in the shower. When he came out of the bathroom, he layed his wet body on my back, kissing on me, and I dryly said "your cell phone was ringing". He halted, and slowly got off of me. I didn't want to let him know that I'd seen who was calling, so I just layed there, mad as hell, because I wanted an explanation as to who this "honey bunny" was. He finished drying off, quietly, while I starred at the TV screen, too mad to pay attention to what was on. He put on some clothes and asked if I wanted to go get something to eat. I really didn't, but I agreed to. I noticed he never took his phone out of the drawer, so when we went out to get in my vehicle, it didn't surprise me that he told me he forgot his wallet, and he'd be right back.
He was gone for a little while, longer than to just be getting his wallet, and when he came back out, I couldn't hold it anymore.
Me: So, did you find out who that was calling your phone?
Him: Yeah, it was just a friend of mine that takes care of my mother. She said my mother wanted her to call
Me: Ah, so is everything okay?
Him: Yeah. My mother just worries sometimes, and I hadn't talked to her in a couple of days, so that's all
Likely story, but it sounded reasonable. I knew his mother was elderly, but I was yet wondering what the picture ID and name were about. I left it alone, but the little nagging in my head about it just wouldn't go away. That night at dinner, Junior asked me again to be his girlfriend. I'd considered it from the last time he'd asked me, but this "honey bunny" thing with the naked lady left a sour taste in my mouth. I again told him that we are doing great as we are, and I don't want him to feel pressured by putting a label on what we had. Good one, R. He seemed to buy that explanation, and things proceeded between us as usual.
He didn't let himself get caught with his phone on after that, but I'd also reopened my options for dating, because no matter how I tried to rationalize it, there was something more with "honey bunny" than he was being honest about, and it just wasn't settling right with me. One day, I just asked him straight out if he was married. He gave me the story that he'd given before, that he'd been divorced from his son's mother for x amount of years. He never out rightly answered my question, and I guess he thought I'd leave it at that. I didn't want to get into it with him, so for the time, I left it there.
Made perfect opportunity for "Caleb" to enter the scene. I was at work one day, and Caleb had walked in. I was stocking shelves when he came to the aisle that I was on. I greeted him, he smiled and greeted me back. Caleb was gorgeous. A little taller than me, slender, clean shaved, had the most gorgeous green eyes, and no ring on his finger. He asked me about a product he was looking for, and I took the opportunity to probe as to if it was for his wife (we're supposed to ask questions to make sure the customer gets the best product for their needs), he responded that he was single, but he'd been told it was the best thing to use. Lovely. I helped him find everything he needed, and even recommended a few things to him, and when he went to check out, he smiled at me, and gave me a nice "see ya later". I was pretty good friends with a couple of the girls that worked there (I totally went against my "non-fraternization with subordinates" rule with them), and they'd noticed how I'd helped him in more than just my standard "help a customer" way. They gave me playful grief about it. What surprised me was a few minutes later, one of them came back to the stockroom where I was, and handed me a piece of scratch paper that said "Caleb" on it with his phone number. I thought it was a joke, but she told me that he'd come back in and asked her to give that to me. Haha. So, the instantaneous attraction wasn't just on my part. On my break, I text the number just to make sure the girls weren't playing a trick on me, and when he responded "Glad you text. What time do you get off so I can call you?", I knew it was really his number. I told him what time I got off that day, and he rang my phone 2 minutes after I'd clocked out. He lived in a suburb town about 30 minutes away, but he invited me out to dinner that evening. I had already told Junior that I'd be over to the hotel when I got off work, but my plans had just changed.
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