I will Save You

"Luke, that is a very generous offer. I don't want to take advantage of your hospitality, but since you are asking, I would love to stay there with Alia. For now, I would like to continue working here. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and I think it is good for Alia to spend some time with kids her own age. I would be happy to cook for us and clean, but I will need your help with some of that. I don't think I can do it all myself."

"How about I get a maid service to stop by once a week to help us with the cleaning. I don't want you spending all of your time cleaning when you should be spending it with Alia."

"Luke, I will only live here as long as it makes sense. If you start to get romantic with someone else, I would expect to move out and find our own place for Alia and me. Agreed?"

"That makes sense to me as well. I will be meeting with Megan for lunch on Monday once I have the divorce papers in hand. I will offer her the apartment and have the moving company move her out instead of moving you and Alia. I have never dealt with anything like this, so don't be afraid to call me out if I become difficult to live with. I don't want our living arrangement to suffer because I am being an ass."

"Agreed." Alyssa was smiling as she agreed to my last statement. I made a mental note to self check myself to make sure I wasn't causing her issues around the house.

I sent a text to Megan letting her know that I would be busy at work this weekend and would be home late on Saturday and Sunday. I would also need to be to work early on Sunday and Monday. I apologized that we wouldn't be able to spend much time together, but asked her to meet me for lunch on Monday so we could spend time together. She seemed to be okay with my request and I set our lunch date for 1:00 at a small café located near my office.

Monday morning, I contacted my lawyer to have him drop off the divorce documents by my office so I could present them to Megan at lunch. I contacted HR and they had all of the forms ready to release Jeremy from the company. If he went quietly, I would present him with a severance package; if not, we would fire him with no references nor provide any additional compensation. I didn't care which direction he chose as long as he was out of the company and away from me. I contacted the moving company and explained the change in plan and told them to wait to hear from me before deciding what was going to occur. Either they were going to move Megan into her new apartment or we wouldn't need their services. I would box up all of Megan's items and place them in the driveway for her to figure out what she was going to do with all of her stuff. Again, I didn't care as long as she was out of the house.

I arrived a few minutes early to my lunch meeting with Megan. I sat in the back of the café to be a little further away from other diners. No need to ruin their lunch if things went poorly. Megan arrived on time and looked good in a short dress. She really is a stunner, but my hate for her was starting to rise so all of her efforts getting ready were lost to me. Normally I would stand and pull out her chair as any gentleman would, but I wasn't feeling too hospitable at this moment. I could tell she was surprised as I just sat there as she sat herself at our table.

"Thanks for joining me for lunch, Megan. I thought it would be nice to see each other since we haven't spent much time together this weekend."

"This is a nice change. I missed you this weekend."

"Megan, let's cut the crap. I will remain as civil as I can, but we all know that you have been unfaithful to me." I slid the divorce documents over to Megan. "In the envelope, you will find my petition for divorce. This past Saturday, I received photos of you joining Jeremy in a hotel room. As we both know, our prenup outlines what happens when one of us cheats on the other. Since we haven't been married for over 5 years, you will be walking away with just about nothing except your cloths and personal belongings."

I could see the surprise on her face as I stated my intentions. Megan's face was flushed and her ears were turning red. These were always tell tale signs when Megan was upset.

"Luke, you can't do this! I love you, you have to believe me. Jeremy doesn't mean anything to me. Please baby, let's talk about this."

"Megan, that is a bunch of shit and you know it. You made a selfish decision to step outside of our marriage. Regardless of the reason, you did so of your own free will. No one forced you to make that decision. By your actions alone, you broke your wedding vows which has consequences. I am choosing to enforce our prenuptial agreement which outlines the settlement you receive based upon how long we have been married."

Megan was crying, but trying to keep in control since we were in a public forum. I relented a bit for her benefit.

"Megan, I will always think of you as family. You know that loyalty is of upmost importance to me. I can't stay married to someone who shows so much disrespect to what I hold as a core value in all of my dealings, either business or personal. I will always have love for you and if you ever need me, I will support you even though we will no longer be married. I have secured an apartment for you and prepaid the rent for the first 12 months. This should give you the ability to start over and the opportunity to determine how you will support yourself moving forward. Your car is yours. I will also provide for you some money to start your life over. As you know, all of this is unnecessary based upon the pre-nup, but I don't want to leave you destitute."

"I'm so sorry Luke. I never should have let this go so far. Jeremy most definitely pursued me, but I wasn't strong enough to push him away. Once it started, it was exciting. I guess I thought I would be able to keep the affair hidden."

"Live and learn is what I always say. You have to be prepared for the consequences in everything you do. I guess we both get to live with our decisions now. Good bye Megan."

With that I left some money on the table and walked out of the café. Now I needed to put my life back together.

I walked back into work and asked my assistant to have Jeremy come to my office. From my office, I contacted HR to let them know that I was set to let Jeremy go within the next 15 minutes and that they should secure his office and box up any of his belongings that we were okay with him taking with him today. As I hung up the phone, my assistant opened my office door and let Jeremy in.

"Have a seat Jeremy. I will get right to the point and let you know that I am relieving you of your position here at MKT. I appreciate all of your hard work, but it is time for us to part ways. I will give you the option of letting you resign and would be prepared to grant you a severance package or I can terminate your employment on our terms and ask you to leave. The choice is yours."

"Oh my god, I wasn't expecting this discussion today. Can I ask what brought this on? I know I have been late with a few of the reports, but I didn't think it was to the point you would fire me."

"That was a factor in my decision, but there are other issues that I am not prepared to discuss with you at this time. Suffice it to say, some of your decisions lately have really had an impact on my life."

I could see that Jeremy figured out what I was saying, but not saying. His face paled and he wouldn't hold my gaze. My eyes were drilling into him, but I remained as calm as could be expected. I let the silence linger as I waited for Jeremy to respond.

"Luke, I will review the terms of the severance and if it is a fair offer, I will voluntarily resign. I will clean out my personal belongings and will be gone by the end of the day. Thank you for allowing me to work here. I wish you nothing but the best in your future."

With that, Jeremy left my office. I would be lying if I said I hoped our paths crossed in the future. I try to find the best in all people, but seeing him sit in my office knowing that he and my wife were intimate was pushing my limits.

I decided that I had enough for today and left shortly after letting Jeremy go. I wanted nothing more than to sit quietly in my house and mourn the end of my marriage. As I walked in the door, Alyssa and Alia greeted me with a warm hug. Nothing was said; just a hug from someone who cared. I think even Alia grasped the moment as she leaned into the hug as well. Everything came crashing down on me and I started to cry. It took me a couple of minutes to compose myself enough to end the hug.

"Thanks, I needed that today. By far one of my worst days I have ever had."

"Anytime you need a hug, just let us girls know." Alyssa's smile was infectious.

"Luke, I don't want to burden you any further, but I have made a decision that I want to divorce Gabe. The longer I am away, the less it makes sense to continue to be married to him. Can you help me get the papers drawn up?"

"Sure, I'll call my buddy to see if we can get a group rate." I tried to lighten the mood with a little humor. I crossed the room and hugged Alyssa again. "I guess we can mourn our failed marriages together. I'm sorry for you as well. I am always there for you just as you are here for me. We'll get through this together."

"Thanks Luke. It's been your support that has allowed me to move on through my situation. I have to make the best decisions for Alia and staying with Gabe just doesn't make sense. I will ask for full custody and if Gabe wants to see Alia, it will have to be supervised. I don't want him drinking around her, but more importantly I can't put her in a situation that he would be able to abuse her too. I will offer him to give up his parental rights to avoid paying child support. Hopefully he takes that option, but I am willing to fight it out in court if necessary. I'm going to need your financial support to do that though, Luke. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way."

So that is how we proceeded. My divorce was pretty uneventful due to the pre-nup. Alyssa's was about the same. Gabe gave up his rights so that he didn't have to pay child support. I kept tabs on him and he wasn't fairing too well and his drinking was only getting worse. This seems like it would be the best for Alyssa and Alia to not have any more contact with him.

Our lives became more routine for the next couple of months. Alyssa was doing great at work, Alia was growing everyday and we were able to discuss our days every evening over dinner. I was still trying to get over my failed marriage, so dating was the furthest thing from my mind. I enjoyed my evenings where I would play with Alia while Alyssa was preparing dinner. That was fast becoming my favorite part of the day. We would take Alia for walks in the park or to the zoo if the weather was nice or just play in the back yard. I didn't realize how domesticated my life had become.

I was able to find a new CFO relatively quickly so my work life balance could come back to normal. Jill Fender came highly recommended and seemed to be fitting in nicely with her staff. She was in her mid to late 40's, married with 3 kids and made sure she was out of the office in time to have dinner ready for her crew. I appreciated that family was so important to her and made every effort to minimize any event that would impact her personal time away from the office. I did still have to travel for work and to review acquisition opportunities. That part of my life would never change and I enjoyed this part of my job. Everything was back to a new normal until I received a call from Megan.

2 months after my divorce was finalized, Megan called and asked if we could meet for lunch. This came out of the blue in my opinion, but I accepted just to hear what she needed to talk to me about. I arrived on time to a small restaurant about 15 minutes from my office. Megan was already seated and smiled as I walked towards the table.

"Hello Luke. Thanks for meeting me for lunch. It has been quite a while since we last saw each other."

"Hello Megan. Good to see you as well. I have to say I was quite surprised to hear from you and even more surprised with the invitation to lunch."

"Well, you said that you would always treat me like family, so I thought it has been long enough that we could at least talk as friends. Don't you agree?"

"As long as it is just as friends, I have no issues sitting down with you over lunch. Just so long as it is just as friends. Nothing more, okay?"

"That's all I want. I know I messed up our marriage and I wanted you to know that I accept full responsibility for my mistakes. You were the best husband a girl could ever ask for. I'm just sorry I didn't realize that at the time."

"So what's on your mind that you wanted to meet today?"

"Well, I am still involved with many charities and we have an auction that I would like for you to be a part of. We are auctioning off dates with eligible bachelors in our area. I would like for you to be one of the "items" we auction off this year. If you are seeing someone, I fully understand if you would like to decline my offer, but if you are single, I think you would be a great candidate for the charity auction. What do you think?"

"Wow, I don't know what to say. I am flattered that you think that I would even get someone to bid on me, but this isn't really my style. Yes, I am single, but I like to keep things a bit more private on the relationship front. I'm not sure I would be a great 'item' to be bid upon."

"Oh, stop the modesty line. You are a great candidate. You are very good looking; you have kept yourself in shape and you are so very polite when dealing with everyone. It's not like you are going to marry them. You just have to take them out on a date that you would plan and pay for. You can get as romantic or platonic as you want it to be to keep in your comfort zone. I would hope that you could plan something nice for the date. Get creative."

"Can I think about it and let you know?"

"I need to know by Monday of next week. The auction is in 3 weeks. I will need to know your plans for the date so we can add it to the auctioneer's script."

We talked for the rest of lunch and I gave her a quick hug as I left to head back to the office.

When I was home later that night, I had a chance to sit and talk to Alyssa once Alia was in bed.

"Megan asked me to lunch today and had an interesting proposal for me. She wants me to be a part of an auction for charity. It is for a good cause, but part of me feels there could be other reasons for her request. I wanted to run this by you for your opinion."

"Okay, but is this something you want to do?"

"It could be fun. I would have to create a date scenario and then while I am on stage, the audience would be bidding on that date with me. It could be humiliating if no one bids on me, so I will have to come up with something pretty good for a date. It could also really build my confidence if the bidding takes off. It could be fun and the goal is to get more funds for charity."

"What's the charity?"

"The money goes for abused wives and children, so this is a cause that I can really get behind."

"I think you should do it. If you would like, I will go with you and if the bidding is slow, I can juice it up a bit. I doubt that happens, but it might get the competitive nature flowing for some of the women. I can help you with the date ideas too if you would like my assistance."

"I have a great idea for a date that I was reserving for an anniversary for Megan and me. I could make this work great for this date while making it plutonic for the winner. The more I think about it, the more I think I will do it, but only if you come with me. Let's get a sitter for Alia and we can get dressed up and go out for the night. You in?"

"Sounds like fun. I haven't been out for quite some time. I will even get a nice dress for the occasion."

"I think that would be nice. I'll tell Megan I will do it."

I sent a quick note to Megan that I would be happy to be a part of the auction. I still had the sneaky hunch that Megan was up to something, but this was for a good cause and something that I saw first had with Alyssa and her father and husband. I put together my plans for the date and made sure my tux was clean for the evening.

On the evening of the auction, I was surprised how excited I was for the event. I was floored when Alyssa walked down the stairs in her new dress. She looked amazing. Alyssa had been able to add some healthy weight back on once she was out of her abusive relationship and had some money to eat properly. The extra weight filled her out in all the right places. The black dress was elegant, but not overly sexy. She filled out the shape perfectly. Her breasts were pushed up a little to accentuate the size and fullness. The waistline showed off her slim profile and displayed her heart shaped butt. She will turn some heads when we walk into the event tonight. I felt proud to have her on my arm for the event.

We arrived just after the event started. I had about an hour to mingle before I had to go backstage for the auction. Megan greeted me and seemed a bit surprised to see Alyssa, but quickly covered her initial reaction with a smile.

"Great to see you Luke and I see you brought Alyssa. Thanks for coming and being a part of the auction."

"Happy to do it. If you don't mind, I would like to announce my date personally while I am on stage. Is that possible?"

"Yes, I think that can be arranged. Come to the front of the stage and I will give you the microphone. Once you have announced your date, hand the microphone to the auctioneer. She will manage the bidding. You are last to go, so make this good. We want to finish strong."

"Oh, so no pressure on me? Hopefully some of these ladies saved some money for the end."

"You look great Luke. There will be money left for you. Thanks again for doing this. I need to make my rounds and get this started. Remember to go backstage in about an hour."

"I will be there."

Megan walked off and Alyssa pulled me aside.

"I think she has plans on bidding for your date. Are you ready for that?"

"You think so. I hadn't thought that as a possibility, but I knew she was up to something. She was surprised to see you with me tonight as well. I can only hope someone else outbids her. I would prefer to not go on this date if it is with her."

"I could be wrong, but the way she looked at you made me feel that she is planning on trying to get back in your good graces by bidding on your date. You would also be trapped with honoring the date so you wouldn't be able to turn her down. It is a really good plan if you look at it from her perspective."

"God, I hope that doesn't happen. Your right, I would still honor the date even if it was with her. Nothing would happen, but the date I planned would be wasted on her. Well, let's hope someone else is feeling charitable. Wish me luck."

"Good luck Luke. I hope you get your wish that someone else wins the auction."

I went backstage to await my turn. The auction seemed to be going pretty well. There were 15 gentlemen that were a part of the event. The dates were pretty normal; dinner, dancing with some other functions kicked in. Not too creative, but nice dates for this type of event. The auction bidding ranged from a low of $500 to a high of $2000. Good money for the charity. I was up next and I had a few jitters going as I walked on stage. Megan announced my name and then handed me the microphone to explain my date.

"Good evening to all in attendance. I want to thank Megan for asking me to assist in her auction. Be generous as the money is going to a good cause. For my date, it will actually be for two days. I will pick up the winner at their home early in the afternoon. We will drive for 2 hours to a quiet resort in upper Pennsylvania. I have rented a 2-bedroom cabin where we will have a chef created dinner served within the resorts dining room. It will be a private chef's tasting menu, so come hungry. After dinner, we will retire to the cabin where we will sit by a bonfire to watch the stars over wine and dessert. In the morning, I have the resort delivering a brunch menu of mimosas, freshly baked croissants, and fruit. After breakfast, we will drive back to your home where I will drop you off so you can continue your weekend. All this will go to the highest bidder, so be generous."