I was a 23 year old home from school for the holidays staying with my divorced mother. We had a good relationship and she pretty much let me come and go as I wanted as long as I didn’t do anything that created more work or caused any problems. She was dating a guy and spent a lot of time out of the house either at work or with him. Just after Christmas a week or so before I was to head back to school, she told me she was having one of her old friends come and visit for 10 days. She told me her friend, whose name was Carrie and whom I had never met, would be staying in the guest bedroom next to mine. She wouldn’t be any trouble as she had just gone through a divorce herself and was looking for some quiet time away from all the bad memories. I didn’t think much of it other than that it was nice that my mother would be able to have some time to spend with a good friend. Nothing left me prepared for what would happen the following week.

Carrie showed up late Sunday night and was a total surprise. She was in her mid to late 30’s and gorgeous! As I was introduced my very first thought was “What kind of nut would let a woman like this go?” She was about 5’8”, blonde, blue eyes, tanned ‒ and for what I could see under her winter coat, very well put together. My second thought was that Carrie must have some kind of problem or the guy wouldn’t have let her go. I mentally reminded myself to “enjoy the view but watch myself.” I wasn’t much for dealing with female head-cases. I’d seen a couple of them in college and knew enough to stay out of their way ‒ no matter how hot they seemed to be. Besides, this was my mother’s friend. I never gave it another thought ‒ at least for a couple of days.

The second night Carrie was there, my mother had gone out on a date and I spent most of the early evening watching TV. Carrie had joined me on the couch and eventually we started to converse. It turned out her husband, who had been her high school boyfriend had been involved with another woman and despite Carrie’s forgiveness and efforts to save the marriage, he had been a real jerk. I felt bad for her. Obviously she was a great woman and had deserved better. I thought she was close to tears but she seemed to compose herself. She asked about my life ‒ whether I had a girlfriend, what I was studying, what I wanted to do after college ‒ all the normal stuff. I found myself growing to like her very much although I had no thoughts about any kind of a relationship at the time. Though I was enjoying our conversation I excused myself and went to bed about 11:00.