I met April early spring 2002. She came into my part time job with two of her three children, "Aaron", 7 and "Madison", 2. We talked for a while. About what, I do not recall. I was 24, financially stable. I worked the part time job because I wanted to make some extra cash to buy a few new toys. I had two loans, the mortgage and my student loans. I was happy, but lonely.

She came in several times after that. Several times we got on the subject of employment and her husband, "Doug", how he was emotionally and verbally abusive. He made her quit her job because he wanted to go to a football game and she needed to stay home to watch the children. Not call in sick, call up before her shift and quit.

And he was lousy in bed. "Minute Man" would be a compliment. 

On several occasions, she asked me to call her after my shift or chat with her. Most of the time I declined.

On one particular night, I gave in, what harm could possibly come from chatting with her?

Chatting quickly progressed from small talk to an indecent invitation. I put her off. Tempting, but I wasn't taking the bait.

Later, she stopped in again, I don't know why, but I gave in to temptation.
She was better than incredible, for hours. Eager to please in everyway, except for 69. She pulled herself off me. Some girls just don't like that, I guess.

I left in the morning, before her husband came home. 

April found a new job, this one requires a CDL. She took the classes and the test, and failed.
So she tried again. She passed. As a "special friend", I thought it would be good to celebrate, since her hubby couldn't care less. I bought a bottle of champaigne and brought over some glasses.

I left.

He came home, found something, I don't know what, maybe the cork. Either way, she got caught, he got mad, she got mad, she threw him out of the house.

A few hours later she took him back.

She had another fight with him. This one got mildly physical, the cops were called. They both got tickets for disorderly behavior or something like that. She needed some place to stay, she came to me. Asking could she spend the night, she had no where else to go. Being the generous type and feeling responsible, I of course said yes.

She said she'd try to straighten things out the next day. 

I replaced the clutch in my car today, what a dirty job.

April watched me and talked to me while I worked for most of the eight hours. She offered to help if she knew what to do. This is the first one I've done, so now's a bad time to give directions. She even ran me out to the auto parts store for a socket. No woman I've met before has that kind of attention span. This is pretty cool.

She's been in my house for five days now, I think I may have made a mistake. Several mistakes, quite frankly.

I'm supposed to go miniature golfing with April and her three kids.

Before I go, I stop and have a long chat over a few beers with a dear friend, Beth. I called my roomate, April was in the tub, that I'd be home a little late. I'm not looking for my friend to give me an answer, just to bounce ideas off of her. I don't come to a resolution.

When I get home April is mad as hell. My roomate lied to her and said I was working late, which wasn't true. I convince her to just go miniature golfing like we planned, after an hour or so of heated discussion.

Doug wasted no time hauling her into domestic relations to have a child support order arrangement set up.

The decision, April must pay $500 a month in child support, no small feat considering she only makes $700 a month and is now out of work until August. 

Things seem like they're settling down, she's still at my house, frequently, Doug will withhold the children from her, but other than that everything is ok.

We're laying in bed (I only have two in my house, one is my roomate's), she starts crying. I ask what's wrong. She says, "I'm going to kill myself". Which is one hell of a shock to me. She continues on, that she doesn't have her children, her family is not supportive of her decision to leave Doug. She hates her life, no one cares about her. I tell her I care about her. She says I don't , if I did, I'd tell her I love her, but I don't, so she's going to kill herself.

Thinking that this is one of those things that people say but don't mean, like "I'm going to kill him!", I dismiss it.

The next day, same thing, but this time she says it with much, much more desperation. This freaks me out, so of course I say "I love you".

You know, maybe this whole thing is meant to be. She's smart, good looking, she laughs at my jokes, we have a good time and generally get along really well. She works very hard, she's working at a convenience store and a full-time job in a nursing home to pay her child support "obligation". She dedicated to her children.

I may very well love this woman.

I've never been really good at sexual games, I recall asking a woman out who seemed quite flattered but she was engaged. Clearly I can't read signals women send.

So since everything else is working out, why not settle down? I own the house, the car is paid, the motorcycle is paid.

This just may be what I really needed. And it may be what she really needed a way out of her previous abusive relationship. 

April, my roomate and I went to a party at a friend of my roomate's house.

I do remember telling April that whenever she wanted to leave, that's ok, I'd go with.

April and I both drove over. I don't remember why. My roomate rode with April, as her boyfriend was supposed to be coming to meet her.

My roomate asked if she could borrow my car to get another friend, since her boyfriend wasn't there yet.  I said sure.

Things were going pretty well, then April said she wanted to go home, but I could stay if I wanted to. I said I'd stick around till my roomate came back with my car.

Well, my roomate didn't get back for another 45 minutes or so. I took my car and left. When I got home, April was mad. She thought that I was messing around with either someone at the party or my roomate.

Shortly after, my roomate came back to get something from the house. She assured April that I was not screwing around on her.

Things seemed to calm down after that.