Bad Luck

Ammond was the first boyfriend I remember my mom having after my parents divorced. She wanted to have the house painted, and he came recommended by her coworker. They were having an intimate relationship before the living room was done. By the time he was finished with the bedrooms, he had firmly planted himself in our lives. We all loved him. He was younger than my mom, probably around 40, and he was a cowboy from some small town in Texas. He was patient with us kids, even though we were obnoxious. My mom was happy around him, but I don't think he lived up to her ideal of what a man was supposed to be (she's always had a pipe-dream of being a trophy wife). He moved back to Texas to be with his two young boys, and we never heard from him again. I still remember the sound of his voice, and his southern drawl...I was fascinated with it.

She met Bob through some singles function at our temple...or someone from our temple set them up, I don't know. He had two kids that were younger than us, and that was the first time I ever experienced what being a big sister would have been like. Bob was incredibly uptight...the definition of anal retentive. He was an avid runner, and my mother became one, too. She and I would wake up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday, and meet Bob at one 5k or another. We'd all run together in the beginning of the race, then I'd fall behind and meet them after. He bought her a nice pair of running shoes for her birthday one year. I can't remember why they broke up. I think he didn't want to get married or something. I was never very fond of him anyway, and I didn't like how controlling he was towards my mother.

I don't remember where she met Phil, but on their first date they were held up at gun point in the parking lot where they had just eaten dinner. He told my mom he was wealthy, and not long after that first date, they were engaged. She would gaze at the giant diamond ring he had given her all the time. I remember how often she would Windex it and, being a mouthy teen at that point, how often I would make fun of her for it. None of us liked him, and we didn't hide that fact. She didn't want him to know that she smoked weed with us, but when he walked into our bedroom and we were smoking out of a three foot bong, she knew she couldn't scold us for fear of us revealing her secret. He said that once they were married, we would all move to a big house in Scottsdale, Arizona...but before that could happen, she found out that he had spent what little money he actually had on that diamond ring, and was now flat broke. To her credit, she gave him the ring back. As much as I didn't like him, I felt bad that my mother didn't get what she so badly wanted.

Fabella was her personal trainer at the gym by her work. He was black and insanely muscular. He still lived with his mother, but my mom lived with her mother, too. They dated for almost a year before she told him a very personal secret about herself, one that took a lot of courage to tell him...he dumped her for it.

She's been with John for quite a while now, maybe two years. He was her boss at the real estate company she worked at. He's tall and painfully thin, with dark circles under his eyes...yet he's attractive in a weird way. They go on trips to vineyards together, and she brought him to my grandma's birthday party this year. I don't think he has any plans to marry her though, but I don't think she has any plans on ending things with him...or the energy to date someone new.