I met my second husband, Bill, at the small rundown apartment complex I lived in with David before he left. Reeling from my husband’s desertion, still coming to terms with it, I hung out with the manager’s son, whom everyone knew as Doc. He introduced me to Bill and, not facing the fact of David’s controlling tendencies, I accepted the friendship, and then the interest, of another man. The night we met, we only drank a few beers and talked for a few hours, where I learned he, too, was divorced but had four children from the eight year marriage. He admitted he’d enjoy having sex with me but I shied off at that point. He walked me the short distance to my door and didn’t even try to kiss me goodnight, a perfect gentleman. Over night, I changed my mind.

During our last civil conversation, David told me to ‘have some fun’ if I could even find a man interested in me as a woman. No longer sad, but getting angry, I followed his sarcastic suggestion. I waited all day for Bill to come home from work. When I spotted his motorcycle parked at his door, I stepped outside, encountering Doc. We both knocked on doors and windows but received no answer so we walked the short distance across the main street of Sierra Vista to the Sorry Gulch saloon for a few drinks. I went to bed alone that night.

The next morning, Saturday, I found Bill tinkering with his motorcycle and chatted with him. He took me for a fun ride to Tucson where we walked through Reid Park holding hands, talking, and to the Swap Meet, the movies, etc. Night fell and we headed back to Sierra Vista, stopping at the I-10/I-92 intersection, which back then was empty except for a lone street lamp in a patch of dirt. We shared that first kiss and then, back in Sierra Vista, had a few drinks in a hotel lounge and then took a six pack of beer back to his apartment. I stayed the night and we weren’t just talking. That first time was more retaliation against David and his parting comment than anything else. The rest was mutual interest, man to woman, between Bill and I. It was a weekend fling as I took the bus back to my home in Texas and stayed there for two months waiting for David to do the divorce, which he never did. I had to come back to Arizona and do it myself.