What Goes Around

He was doing very well, work wise. Usually, his employer had employed a transfer to Alaska as a punishment posting and this had led to a lot of resentments from both sides, for a number of reasons.

When the local staff realized that Kevin had actually volunteered for his move to Alaska, much of their resentment vanished, and when he let slip the why behind his move, the rest of the resentment went the same way.

He was shocked at the state of the offices. According to the budget returns, everything should have been hunky-dory and on a par with other branches nationwide, but the evidence of his own eyes told him otherwise. Office furniture was old and mismatched, the carpets were elderly and stained, the desktop computers were old and out-of-date, using Windows 8 rather than 11, laptops were antiquated and there was even one laptop held together with tape.

The situation in the server room was, if anything, slightly worse. The server was old and spent so much of its time updating that it was a miracle it was still operational.

Kevin knew that the offices had been approved funds to cover all the above problems. His first thought was that his predecessor had stolen the funds. However, the truth when it was revealed, was truly weird. She had diverted millions of dollars of funding into a, technically speaking, moribund bank account. Bizarrely, she just left it there.

Of course, his discovery resulted in him being an even more enhanced hero of the office status with Anchorage, because they were getting upgraded at last. Back at the HQ in Dallas, because they realized the stupidity of using a particular branch for punishment beatings, as it were, they formed the conclusion that the previous manager, who had been sent to Alaska as a punishment, had resented the local staff so much that she had decided to mess with them for the hell of it.

His former boss back in Dallas had not only arranged for Kevin to stay at the Marriott Hotel whilst he looked for an apartment or a house to buy or rent, she'd even sprung some money for moving expenses, too, which he appreciated.

He'd spotted a nice apartment building on the same street as the Downtown Marriott, and he quickly got it fixed up to his liking.

He liked the menu at the Marriott, and not wanting to sit staring at the TV in his apartment every evening, he had made it a habit of going into the hotel after work most evenings to rewind and enjoy some drinks and a meal.

As he sat there this one particular early evening, wondering about eating, or drinking more beer and then eating, an attractive woman of about his own age came into the otherwise empty bar and looked round, hesitantly.

"Hi," Kevin said. "It's empty so far this evening. Care to join me for a drink?"

She smiled and came over to him. "Yeah, thanks. Alone in my hotel room, or alone in the bar. Neither prospect seemed good, so yeah, let's be two lonely people together, huh?"

They both laughed and ordered drinks, which Kevin insisted on putting on his company expense account.

They talked, drank and then talked and drank some more. At that point, Kevin realized that if didn't eat he'd feel ill, so he invited his new companion to join him for a meal in the hotel's Great Room restaurant which, fortunately, was where they had been drinking that evening.

Over their meal, they talked about themselves and why they were both in Anchorage, Alaska.

Her name was Sarah Cross, and she was taking up a teaching job at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, having moved from Southern California.

When she explained why she had moved, he had snorted and she immediately flared up at him. He put his hands up defensively. "No, Sarah. I'm not laughing at you; I was laughing with you. You found out your husband was having an affair with another man and I found out that my wife was having an affair with another woman. In fact, she divorced me so she could marry her."

She apologized for flaring up at him, and they both agreed that they were better off without their errant former spouses. "Shitty thing for your stepdaughter to do, though. Do you think she might regret what she did?"

Kevin shrugged. "I'm not sure if it matters. I never knew that she didn't think of me as being her dad. But, still, you live and learn.

"What about your ex-husband? Do you think there's a chance of him regretting what he did and trying to woo you back?"

She shook her head. "No. And I wouldn't want him back, anyway. We met at a party at the University of California, Los Angeles. He had come from Australia with his male assistant to teach mine engineering, I was lecturing in health sciences there, and he really pursued me hard. I fell for his Australian accent, his rugged, manly good looks. He swept me off my feet, and within six months, we were married.

"I later found that the whole thing was a sham. He only wanted me to ease him becoming a US citizen. One day I was taking a day off and I was supposed to go on a shopping trip with my best friend. When I got to her apartment, she was obviously too ill to go shopping as she was suffering with what she called 'the mother, father and child of migraines,' so she asked me to leave so she could sleep it off.

"I called Barry, my husband, to ask him if we could go out for the day, but I didn't receive a reply. I went home, only to be confronted by the sight of my husband being fucked by his assistant. I screamed and he and his bloody assistant had the nerve to attack me!

"Obviously, the two idiots hadn't realized that the laws in the USA about self-defense were different than in Australia, so they were shocked when I used my high-powered pepper spray on them. As they squawked and squealed, pawing at their eyes, I pulled my concealed handgun out of my purse and called the cops on them."

"What happened then?" asked Kevin.

"While he was in jail, I got a restraining order on them both and saw a lawyer about a divorce. He steered me right, telling me to go for an annulment on the grounds that he'd married me under false pretenses, rather than going for a divorce."

"What happened to them?" asked Kevin.

"They both made a no contest plea to the assault charges, and it came to light that the assistant had traveled to the USA on a forged passport, so the university fired them and the State Department revoked their visas and sent them back down under. Best place for the little fuckers!"

Kevin gave out a sigh, and said, "Shit, Sarah! That makes my situation paler than pale in comparison! I'm presuming you are divorced, or whatever the correct terminology is?"

She nodded, adding, "I really felt like I needed a fresh start, so here I am."

On his recommendation, Sarah decided to rent an apartment in the same building as Kevin, because the apartments were of a high quality and the building was reasonably near to their workplaces.

Eventually, they began to date, became serious, and after 18 months they married. As a romantic, gesture they got married at the Downtown Marriott where they had first met.

Colleagues from the university and Kevin's workplace were there, and they insisted on the barwoman from their first meeting being in charge of the bar at their reception.

They bought a nice house that had been recently built and designed to withstand the coldness of the Alaskan winters (So cold their pet dog had to wear special booties in the winter. THAT kind of cold!).

They had two children, a boy and a girl, and the two became a family of four. All was good in Alaska.

Down south, things were not all that good. They were pretty shitty, to be perfectly honest.

Sandra returned from work and her heart did a flip flop when she saw her wife, Tina, and her daughter sitting together on the sofa in the living room. It obviously wasn't the same sofa that she and Tina had sat on when they confronted her then husband, Kevin, as that had long ago been sent to a goodwill store.

"What's happening, guys?" she asked. She was struggling because she already had a good idea. Or a bad idea. Whatever.

Tina looked sad, whilst Melody looked defiant. "Sandra, you know that I love you, but I have fallen in love with Melody. Melody has fallen in love with me, you and I will divorce and Melody and I are going to get married."

Sandra exploded in rage. No! No!" she screamed. "You can't! That's just wrong! You can't marry her! She's your daughter! She's just a child! A little girl!"

Tina shook her head. "Melody isn't my daughter; she's your daughter. And she's not a little girl, she's a mature woman of 26."

Melody was looking bored, almost. She was largely unmoved when her mother broke down and began to sob.

Tina went to her and hugged her. "Look, I'm sorry, honey. This is the last thing I wanted or expected, but it does happen."

Sandra managed to speak, though her voice was choked with emotion. "Fuck. Now I understand how Kevin must have felt. I don't even know what he's doing. Is he still in Alaska? Is he living with someone? Or is he alone and lonely? Is he still alive, even?"

Tina kissed her cheek. "Yeah, even now I sometimes think of Kevin. He was my friend and I still miss him, at times."

Melody sat there as if this wasn't her problem, as if she didn't have anything to do with the situation. It was at this juncture when Sandra and Tina both began to wonder if there might be something wrong with Melody.

But by that time it was way too late and nobody of any importance gave a fuck about Sandra, Tina or Melody.

At that moment in time, Kevin was 4,000 miles away, sitting in the Great Room Bar of the Downtown Marriott. He was slowly drinking a local beer. It was 6PM, and for some reason, the bar was still empty save for himself and the bartender. It was still the same bartender. She clearly loved her work.

Kevin received a text message "Hi, honey! Sorry we're running a few minutes late. Mary, my assistant, just could not stop playing with the kids!

"The kids and I will be with you in a very little while. If you're still sat at the bar, grab the menu and order for all of us, please. Surprise us!"

"Will do," he replied, and grinned. He took a menu to the table they'd booked and began looking at the various options. Yeah, he'd surprise them. As Kevin had learned the hard way many years before, some surprises just weren't all that welcome. Choosing wisely from the wine list and the various food sections, he found himself with a broad smile.

His life wasn't just good. It was fucking excellent!