I'm proud of myself!

For just a teensy bit of self~control.

Since I live alone and work seven days' a week during the sugar harvesting, my housekeeping gets a little lax to put it mildly. Mind you, during the summer when I'm not working, like this past summer, my house was spotless... Just cleaned the place for something to do. I even dusted the ceiling fans, not once but twice this past summer.

Anyway...

Now that I'm basically dead tired most of the time, I've hired a woman to come and clean my place twice a month. She's a peach, reasonable and does a great job. She meets me at the door on my way out, I pay her and come home to a spotless house.

It's worth $50 every two weeks.

So two weeks ago she greets me as I'm heading out and says:

"Tommy, you shouldn't live alone. You need a woman in your life..."

"Well, I kinda like it this way right now... " Sez I.

"But Tommy, Have I got a woman for you!" Sez she with a big grin.

Ok. I'll bite. I'll at least talk to her.

So she gives me the woman's phone number. I call her up a few days later after my shift and we talk. She seems nice... Intelligent... I don't have to explain any of my jokes. That's a good sign.

We talk a few more times and one night I get this call right after I walk in the door.

"Hey Tommy... It's K***. I know we were planning to meet for lunch next week, but I'm in town and was wondering if I could stop by..."

Well, my alert level was already up... Red flags were just starting to appear. Needing to talk to me morning, noon and night... Not having a job right then... (She told me she drove a truck the first time we talked, but later she told me she "sorta" got laid off...)

Against my better judgment, (something I'm not known to possess a great deal of...) I said sure, come on over and we'll have a few beers...

This she did, and to be honest, we did have a good time talking... And in the process, she drank all of my beer. She started to get that look...

You know the look guys...

"Tommy, I think I'm in no condition to drive... Do you think I could stay the night?" She asks coyly...

"Yeah, the cops around here have been pretty bad. You can spend the night." Sez I.

I saw the look of anticipation in her eyes...

I got up from the couch, excused myself, and went to make up the bed in the spare bedroom. I showed her where the towels were if she wanted to take a shower, said goodnight and went to my own room.

The look on her face was classic...

It's not that I didn't find her attractive, I did... It was just a culmination of things... Not having a job, Very interested in how much I made... The leachy feeling and vibes I was getting off of her...

I'm just not ready.

We'd only talked a week or so and already I was feeling stifled... Calling all the time...

I've had that already. I don't need it now.

In the morning I got up and she had left earlier. She did take a shower and left the wet towel on the floor. But she did brew me a fresh pot of coffee and did my dishes.

I haven't heard from her in a week.

I'm so proud of myself!

Disclaimer: If this had been as much as three years ago, the outcome would have far different! And I wouldn't be writing about it!

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden