Dear Mary

For LL in the UK

I guess I could write a letter to 'Dear Mary' avoiding the more obvious name, but I won't. I will just write below.

No doubt you have had reason, over the years and shortly after we parted, to ponder why we didn't stay friends. I thought it would have been obvious to you. You even said 'we can still be friends'. As the obvious didn't occur to you at the time, I will spell it out for you.

If we had just parted and there had been none of your going behind my back with other men, then yes, it would have been good to stay friends. But you broke my trust and went with other men, while you were still with me. That quite simply is why we couldn't stay friends. I don't think your moral compass is that good or, indeed, reliable.

I still, to this day, recall what you said shortly after we parted. It was along the lines of, why did you always make the wrong decisions. Well, you sure did, didn't you! Despite all your rather shallow comments about your life on social media, I am guessing it isn't what you really wanted out of life. It was more a case of having to settle for what you chose. Another wrong decision, as you said, back then.

I'm told, and have seen, the weight you have put on since I knew you. Sad, considering the care you took to keep trim. No doubt that is down to the influence and habits of your man, who is a joke physically.

Then there is your life. One of perpetual weekdays and similar weekends spent north of where you are normally. Vacations? Largely repetitive, visiting the same old places. Where is your spirit of adventure?

Through your actions you sacrificed a life so far removed from the one you now enjoy(?), that there is no comparison.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm now at my home near Concord NH. I often refer to it as the ranch, but the ranch is actually some distance from the house.

I guess you have no real idea of the life you missed out on. This place is large and I mean large. I don't rattle around in it that much as I either have family here, friends or....a friend....or two. My helicopter is based nearby, so I can be off anywhere within reasonable distance. including my place on Nantucket.

I wrote the above the other day and am now on Nantucket island where I am spending the weekend with a lovely female friend. We won't do too much, just relax potter around the town, cook dinner together and generally chill.

Incidentally, book #21 is on the stocks. I'm working it now. Another thriller.

Your guy's attempts were pretty poor - poor English and poor grammar and that is just for starters. I bet you would rather be over here than enduring weekends of being a soccer 'widow'. Not the 'life' you envisaged for yourself is it. But, as they say, you make your bed and you have to lie in it. You needn't have but that was down to you, your behaviour and poor judgment.

Ciao