Well, like I said, Tom must have been paying more attention than I thought. He must have noticed that new dress I bought to wear to the book club meeting and the new hairstyle I got the last time he was out of town. And I’d lost a few pounds too. I was actually looking pretty hot, if I do say so myself! I was also getting to the point where I could barely stand to be in the same room with him. So, when he was home, I stuck pretty close to the bedroom and left him to his ballgames in the den.

Last week, I decided that when Tom got home I was going to tell him that I thought we should break up. I didn’t want to spend anymore time with someone who didn’t appreciate me. Especially when I knew that there were other men out there who would. I made this decision on Tuesday night and Tom was due home Wednesday night. And since I knew he wouldn’t miss me anyway, I decided to go ahead and go to my Wednesday night book club meeting. Better to have a little fun than spend my night grabbing dinner and a brew for someone who didn’t even care if I was there or not.

Tom got home before I did. He figured I’d go ahead and go to the meeting and you should have seen the roomful of romantic surprises he had waiting for me when I got there! When I first walked through the door there was a little red heart-shaped bottle on the floor. “Now what the heck is this”, I thought. Inside the bottle was the most romantic little poem – that Tom wrote all by himself! For me!

When I looked up from the note, I noticed rose petals scattered on the floor, going all the way down the hall to the bedroom. And I couldn’t help myself. I had the biggest grin on my face as I followed that romantic trail to the bedroom.

When I opened the door, there were candles everywhere. And roses! I’d never seen so many roses in one room! He had even placed a tray of chocolate covered strawberries on the dresser with a bottle of champagne chilling in the ice bucket! I had no idea this man could be this romantic! Why, I peeped into the bathroom as I walked by the door and there was even a roll of toilet paper with little red hearts! When I saw that, I knew that if my husband could go to the trouble of finding something as silly as romantic toilet paper, that he must really love me and appreciate me after all!

I had been thinking about leaving my husband for quite some time. Our relationship had been going downhill fast over the past couple of months and he must have sensed it. In fact, I know he did. Because he did something so unexpected….Well…let me tell you how my husband prevented our break up by leaving me a series of Romantic Surprises!

About 6 months ago, Tom started a new job that kept him away from home a few nights a week. In the beginning I was fine with it. In fact, I kind of enjoyed having a night to myself every now and then. For girl stuff. You know. I did my nails and watched chic flicks. Read a romance novel every now and then. And it was nice not having to cook dinner on those nights or pick up his socks or get him a beer while he sat there in the recliner watching his ball games.

After the first month, though, I began to get a little bored sitting at home alone all the time. So I joined a book club at the library. Just for something to do. And there was this really nice man there. Now, I know what you’re thinking and NO! I didn’t! But he was so nice and considerate. He carried my books in for me and held the doors, helped me juggle the coffee and finger sandwiches we had at every meeting. And he honestly seemed to WANT to hear my opinion of the books we read. He was sincerely interested in ME!

All of this attention only seemed to magnify some of the shortcomings I was beginning to notice about Tom. We rarely held any kind of a real conversation anymore. And it seemed that I was always doing something for him. Fixing his dinner, doing his laundry, getting him a beer every time someone scored a stupid touchdown. It seemed like he was gone now, more than he was home. And when he was there, he didn’t even seem to notice that I was taking care of everything since he started that new job. I did all the housework and paid all the bills, I kept the budget and even took care of the lawn!

To be continued….