12 Sheldon Quits
Rudi set the phone back in its cradle and looked at Sheldon, leaning long and lanky against the door frame. “You want to talk to me. I want to talk to you. If we stay here, it´s a waste of time. Let´s go across the street. We can talk there.”
The two men left the building, stepping into the sunshine and crossing the street. Rudy said, “Want something to drink? I´m hungry.” They went into one of the up-scale sandwich stores along Pearl Street and emerged with containers of drinks, packages of sandwiches. Beneath one of the trees, they sat on a bench as they unwrapped their lunches, idly watching the passersby.
“Okay,” Rudy said, inspecting the filling of his sandwich. “What´s the beef? You say you´ve got to quit. What the hell does that mean? Aren´t we treating you right? Seems to me you´ve gotten a pretty good break here.”
“Well, now don´t get defensive, Rudy,” Sheldon countered. “I only said I´m thinking about it. I haven´t done anything – no resumes out or anything. But I kind of think I need to get away from Boulder.”
“Didn´t mean to come down on you, you know.” Rudy answered, offering his open package of chips. “It´s just, I like you, like your work. I´d really hate to lose you, and really don´t want your talent going to the competition. Aren´t too many people who take charge the way you do.”
“Guess that´s a talent that cuts both ways,” Sheldon replied. “Sometimes I think I´m too aggressive for my own good.” He pulled the top off his drink cup, drank deeply, then stuffed the straw and cap into the bag.
“Not around my department, you´re not. You seem to be able to take charge without getting people up tight. That´s a real talent.”
“Thanks, Rudy. No, it´s not work that´s the trouble, anyway. I´m in a spot personally and I just wonder if I ought to go looking for another town to live in.”
“Want to talk about it? I know you´re married, is that where the trouble is? You looking at a divorce, or what?”
Sheldon munched on his sandwich for a moment, considering a response. When he had his mouth clear, he turned to Rudy. “I don´t talk about my personal life at the office, you know, not beyond the usual small talk. But I need to talk to someone and I know I can trust you. My wife wants a divorce.”
Rudy lowered his voice, turned on the bench to face Sheldon more directly. “I was afraid of that. Seems like that´s one of the things that makes my life as a manager a constant confusion. People are great until they get married – actually, even after. It´s just that marital problems are the biggest cause of personnel problems. Now, don´t get me wrong. You know I´m married myself, and happily so. What´s the trouble?”
Sheldon looked at Rudy, then looked at the pavement between his feet. “She wants a divorce because she says I´m too sexually aggressive. I don´t know what to do. I thought I was a pretty normal guy, but she says...”
Rudy interrupted. “Look. Maybe I´m not the guy to talk to. Have you seen anyone about this?”
“Yes, I´ve talked to my doctor, I´ve seen a psychologist off and on for months. They tell me I´m really okay. But she says I´m always after her, too demanding, always wanting sex. It´s got me all screwed up.”
“Shel, I don´t want to get into the middle of this, but how often do you two, uh, you know. How often do you do it?”
“Well, we used to make love – right after we got married – about every day, and that was great. And I guess it´s pretty normal.”
“Was that enough for you? Had you been lovers before you were married?”
“Yeah, we used to sleep together several times a week; then we got married and we did it every night. But last year – we´ve been married two years – she started making excuses, didn´t seem to want it as much as before. Well, that was okay with me, I mean, we still got it on four or five times a week. Was it enough? I guess I really liked it best when we did it every night, but...”
“Yeah, I know, sometimes you get out of phase. One wants it; one doesn´t. Normal enough.”
“Yeah. Well, just after Christmas she said she wanted a divorce because I´m too aggressive – that´s her word – and she doesn´t want sex more than once a week or so. That´s really got me climbing the walls.”
“After Christmas, huh? You´ve been dealing with this for six months? No wonder you´re going nuts. You getting any on the side?”
“No. I couldn´t do that. It´s not my thing. But I am kinda jumpy. Nervous. Once it´s settled, I can start looking around, I guess – if I want to. It´ll be a while, but at least I´ll be able to head for something more normal.”
“Okay, so that´s your problem, the divorce. Why do you want to quit your job? Need to get away from your ex-wife-to-be? Is that all?” Rudy finished his sandwich, wiped his hands on a towelette from the bag.
“Heather´s going back East. No, it´s not that I need or even want to leave town. I just thought, well, maybe a fresh start. Take my mind off things.” Sheldon unwrapped a brownie, took a bite from it. His eyes followed a co-ed walking along the pavement.
Rudy watched her, too. “There´s plenty of women here in town who´d be interested in a guy like you. But I don´t suppose you´re really ready to get involved right away, after that. I guess you mean you need a challenge to keep your mind off your empty bed for a while. Is that it?”
“Yeah. I´m not crazy enough to think I can´t get laid if I want to. If it´s one-night stands you want that´s not usually a problem. But it´s not really what I want. I need to think about myself and what this all means, if anything. And I need something to keep me busy enough that I´ll be able to sleep nights – alone, if I have to.”
“You leave that to me, Sheldon. I´ve got a project that´ll keep you jumping for the next six months to a year. It´s still not decided, because we weren´t sure we could find someone who would really put in the effort it needs. But – who´s your deputy? Can they take over from you?”
“Margaret´s my deputy. She can handle it, she´s good; I would have recommended her for my job anyway. You need to see if she´s interested, though.”
“Well, it´ll be a week or so before this all jells, anyway. But the decision is made; we´ve just been fussing about personnel and timing. When are you two actually breaking up?”
“Heather´s leaving at the end of the month. We haven´t decided what to do with the house. Guess I´ll sell it and we´ll split the profit – that´s what we´ve been talking about. Soon as we make a decision, we can get the judgment and it´ll be over.”
“She making it difficult for you?”
“No, really, she´s not, thank God. She just seems to want to get me out of her life. As far as I know there´s nobody else. At least I could understand that.”
“Well, look. I can promise you a new, challenging job managing a major project – we´re going to be putting up a new building. Probably be some extra money. You spend the time you need to get things in order as far as the divorce is concerned, because once this gets started, you won´t have the time to do much else. What do you say?”
“Thanks, Rudy. If it´s what you say, I´ll go for it. I´ve got friends here – you´re one of them – and I know I want to stay here. When can you give me more detail?”
“Right away. I´ll turn off the phone for a while and brief you. Can´t talk about that out here. Funny isn´t it? We can talk about your sex life in public, but not business.”
They stuffed their empty bags in a waste basket and started back across the street toward the office.
.oOo.
“Sexually aggressive, is he?” Melanie said when Rudy had finished telling her about his conversation with Sheldon. They were sitting on the sofa wearing their skimpy robes. “Did he say what she means by that?”
“Not really. Seems like he just wants more screwing than she does. I asked him if she was saying that he forced her or made her do things she didn´t like. He said ‘no´ but you never know about those things.”
“True. Funny how you never really know someone until you get their clothes off. Even then. Umm, is it important for you to know?”
“Know what? You mean, if he´s a rapist or something? Not really, I guess. If he gets in trouble with the law, then I´ll worry about it. Why?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking. I could try him out, you know? See just how aggressive he is... You´re nice and hard. Want to get aggressive with me?”
Rudy threw himself onto her, “Think you´d really like to do that? Do I get to watch?”
“Sure. I´d love to try a sandwich; never have. You up for that? Can we get away with it?”
“Probably. But you´ve never met him. How do you know...”
“I don´t. Maybe he´ll turn me off. Just wondering what you think about it.” They moved and thrust at each other for a moment.
“Tell you what.” Melanie said.
“What?” Rudy said, his hips moving urgently against her thrusts.
“Ahh... Yes. Oh. Tell you what. Bring him to Wednesday. And don´t stop.”