When my husband filed for divorce, the children and I moved in with my parents. There was no way I could have coped on my own, because I had to work and look after the children. At that time the oldest was three years old and the youngest was two.
I took out a mortgage in a new house and started life from scratch. At first I just said hello to my neighbors, no friendship whatsoever.
And then we crossed paths with a man. He had a son. Sometimes I saw my neighbor in the company of a woman, so I was sure he was married. In spite of that, I really liked him. I just visually inspected him, but I wasn’t going to build a relationship with the “married guy”.
One day he helped me fix a faucet, and I offered him coffee. In the course of the conversation, I found out that that woman was the nanny, not the neighbor’s wife. He couldn’t find a good nanny, no luck for some reason. His wife died last year, and the man had no other helpers. That’s when I decided that I would marry my neighbor to me.
We communicated, called each other, and sometimes went for walks together with the kids. One day the neighbor came over when my parents were visiting.
– How do you do? Please take care of my son, because the kindergarten was closed for quarantine. I have to go on a business trip, and the nanny is sick.
– Yes, of course. No problem, – I replied.
The man gave me a whole bag of things, food, and “instructions” on how to handle his son. He said he would call, but I didn’t think he would call every half hour and demand a report from me. What I fed him, what I wore, how many walks I took…
When he came back for his son, he was indignant as to why my son was wearing a red shirt when the instructions said to put on a blue one. Instead of gratitude I heard a million censures. Before I left, the neighbor said:
– I’ll bring him tomorrow, too, okay?
I didn’t refuse him even when I was really busy. But one day I ended up in the hospital. The neighbor called and yelled at me for not answering the door. I explained that I was put in the hospital, and he just hung up.
After a while, he offered to baby-sit for my son, and I refused because I had to work. Since then the calls and meetings went to “nothing”. When we met at the entrance, we just said hello. I thought he was my man, but it turned out that he was just taking advantage of me. I hope that someday I will meet my man, who will replace the whole world for me.
