Notes On A Scandal

9 p.m. John Doe

The note was short and sweet, a reminder for my impending get together with an old friend. I set it on the counter so that it wouldn’t slip my mind. I didn’t think much of it at the time, especially as I scrambled to make a work meeting in time. I grabbed my laptop, put the puppy in the crate and left for the day.

I had no idea how that note would come back to haunt me.

I never made the 9 p.m. rendezvous. The lunch meeting rolled into a dinner meeting which rolled into happy hour. I rescheduled for the weekend. After a long day and a few drinks,  the last thing I wanted to do was to drive back to my house which was an hour away. I was more apt to sleep in my car. Lucky for me, I was able to stay with a very-married friend and his wife in their spare bedroom. Once again, I thought nothing of it.

My mom graciously agreed to stay with the kids and get them off to school. What I failed to realize was that J-Fed would come by to pick up the puppy and see my gentle reminder sitting on the counter. Ironically, there was a check for him that had come in the mail, something that must have slipped through the forward address line at the post office. He didn’t see that check, but he damn sure caught the name on the paper.

You see, when J-Fed and I had first started dating almost 10 years ago, he had dumped me after a short period of time and shacked up with another woman. In the interim, I found someone to keep me company. As luck would have it, we reconnected after all these years. While J-Fed can’t remember when to pay his health insurance or when to put gas in his car, he most certainly remembered who John Doe was.

Apparently, all of the stars were aligned. You see, when he came to return the puppy the next morning, he quickly realized that I had never made it home that night. And in true J-Fed fashion, he was determined to make me pay.