Meat and Potatoes coming up as promised! Mr. D had been living with me and the triplets for about three months. I was very happy and very much in love. My fairytale I had always dreamed of had started to come true. He was working and contributed to the household. He was very considerate. He even kept me company when I stayed up late working on cookie orders for customers sometimes. My family was so excited to see me happy again. The triplets and he hit it off well. He was good with them and they were excited that we had a stable life together. He even took time out of his schedule on Saturdays to go to their track meets. I generally worked every Saturday, so that was super nice for them. Life just really couldn’t be any better.

One weekend, we invited my son’s kids to come spend the weekend. They were about three and six at the time. They really seemed to like him. I was so thankful. The weekend was going well. Around one o’clock Saturday afternoon, Mr, D asked if he could borrow my car. He was going to run to Ark City, our hometown and go see some family he had not seen in awhile. He assured me he would be back in just a few hours. He hadn’t been in Kansas in several years and I had no reason to stop him. He went and the kids and I hung around the house.

Later in the evening I started getting concerned. It had been at least seven hours since I had heard from him. I started texting him but no response. I called him and it just went to voicemail. There was no communication at all. I texted him all night and no response. I called one of my friends and asked him to drive me to Ark City to find my car. At this moment, I was so angry. I was hurt. I was worried. By now it was midnight and I had no clue where he was. My friend talked me into waiting until morning. It was dark, we didn’t know where to look and we should just wait to see if he came home. I agreed. I did call some friends in Ark City and asked them to keep an eye out for my car. One friend and her husband even got out and went for a drive to see if they might find it. That was a dead end.

The next morning my friend Matt came over and picked me up. The triplets kept an eye on my grandkids while we headed to Ark City. When we got there, we just started driving around in the North end of town and would work our way south. We drove through trailer parks, apartment complexes and many neighborhoods. Nothing, no sign of him! It was quite frustrating. Then it hit me! I remember him telling me about this guy named Steve that lived on 8th. He told me back in the day, before he got clean, he and Steve hung out a lot. He assured me even though Steve meant a lot to him, he didn’t hang out with him because that was his old lifestyle. Steve was one of his friends from his days of cooking dope, and he would never go there again. He was clean, had a great life with me and I was all he would ever need!

We drove to Steve’s. I had no clue who Steve was or what he looked like but I was about to find out! Matt and I pulled into his drive. My car was not there. I was once again frustrated, but my gut told me to knock on the door. I got out of the car and I banged on it like I was the police. I didn’t stop banging until someone answered! This skinny, worn out old biker looking guy answered. My voice got very stern and fairly loud. “WHERE IS BEN?” (That’s what we will use as Mr. D’S first name for privacy purposes) He acted like he didn’t know a Ben and kept giving me the run around playing dumb. Finally, I had it. I said “You can tell me where the fuck Mr. D is with my car, or I’ll wait right here until the police get here. The car is stolen from me and I don’t have a problem waiting for them to come question you!” At this time, my demeanor was pretty calm. I surprised myself. At the slightest mention of me calling the cops, the bird began to sing. He informed me last he knew, he was over at a guys named Ronnie, about three block south of Daisy Mae’s restaurant. He even told me it was a little white house on the west side of the road! Sure was strange how his amnesia just disappeared in an instant. I told him, if I didn’t find him, I’d be back and back into the jeep we went!

We only had to drive about six blocks when we seen my car. I told Matt to lay on the horn, then get out in case Mr. D got violent. I realized, I didn’t really know this guy. I didn’t know if he was dangerous. I didn’t know if he was drunk, but I had a huge suspicion, he was probably high! As I walked up to the porch, Mr. D stepped outside. When I looked at his face, I felt mine begin to burn with anger! He asked me what I was doing there. Yes, he asked me that shit! What the fuck do you think I’m doing here? I didn’t say that though. I just very coldly told him to give me my car keys, my house key and my phone. He handed me my keys and just stared at me with his fully dilated pupils. I told him again, to give me my phone. He wanted to keep it, but that wasn’t happening. He handed it to me and I got in my car. I rolled down my window and began throwing out anything he had left in my car. I couldn’t care less what got broke, hell I wanted it all broke! I wanted it broke like my heart was.

Matt followed me home and got out to check on me. I sobbed like a baby. I could not believe the man who tore down the walls that carefully guarded my heart for so long, is the one who broke my heart. I was devastated. I managed to gather myself together after a bit. I went in, touched up my smeared make up and began getting ready to take the grandkids home. I told the tripletts to lock the door and to not let Mr. D into our house while I was gone. I remember, when I got to my sons to drop off the kids he asked where Mr.D was at. I told him that he was at a friends and I had to pick him up later. This was the beginning of the lies I told, to make my family believe everything was great! This was the very first of so many!

Here is the thing! You are not responsible for covering up the truth! It is not your responsibility to hide their dirty little secrets. You do not owe them that. Your family and your friends do not deserve to be lied to. Most of all, you will never get the results you want by forcing yourself to lie and make excuses for them. If you are new in a relationship and you have lied for them, stop. I can promise you it’s not going to get better. Relationships must be built on honesty. They are lying to you and to themselves. Lastly, stop telling yourself this was only a mess up and it won’t happen again. They love you and they promised it was just a mistake. That is BULLSHIT! They will tell you what you want to hear. They are master manipulators. They will not change because you love them. They must change for themselves. If you reap the benefits of their change, you are a lucky one. But….they are not going to do that for you, their parents or their kids. They must do it for themselves first.

Like I said earlier, I invested almost seven years. That means, I have a lot to write. Tonight however, it’s bedtime. Please leave a comment below. You can use a fake name if ya want. I’d just like to get your feedback. Can you relate to this post?