"What did he do?"
"He called about a million times, but I refused to pick up or call back. Finally he came to the door, so I threw his ring at him and told him to go play with the blonde. And that I never wanted to see him again. For once, he did what he was told."
She paused for a moment. "Think I was too harsh?"
"How long ago did this happen?" He glanced at her, no smile.
"About two months ago."
"So you haven't totally recovered yet."
"I guess not. But you know what? You are the first person I've told about this. Susan doesn't even know. I just told her things weren't working out and we were going our separate ways. Then she tells me she never really liked Rick."
"Feel better?"
"Surprisingly, yes. You make a good listener."
"Not all men are rats, Melanie. There are some good ones out there. Look at me, for instance." This time he had a big smile and his dimple was showing. Cute!
As he spoke, he turned off the highway onto a side road, traveled a short distance and then turned into a laneway with a locked gate.
"Passenger opens the gate, Mel. Out you go." and he handed her a padlock key.
"Aye, aye, Sir!" She quickly unlocked the gate, held it open while he drove through, then locked it behind her and got back into the truck.
"Why the locked gate?"
"My trout. Poachers like to help themselves."
"Are you going to keep it locked once you take up residence?"
"No. Too much of a nuisance. I'm designing the driveway so the house is hidden from the road, and hopefully no one will know whether I'm in or out. I'm fortunate because I'm able to work from home a great deal of the time. I'll just visit our head office and building sites now and then."
"Lucky guy. I'd love to have a job like that. Will you be able to get high speed internet out here?"
"Not a problem. There's a tower nearby. I'll just need to add a receiver and router and I'll have my wireless hookup. The county made it a priority that everyone who wanted high speed would have access to it, fortunately for me."
By now they had followed a short, but winding laneway through the pines to a small open meadow that sloped down to the lake below, water sparkling in the sunlight.