What are catalysts?

A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a reaction, but is unchanged at the end of the reaction.

When Jane cooked up her plan and decided to make her move, I believe that she envisioned her life free of Larry. I would stop seeing him, bow down to my fear of the hubby’s retaliation. She was a catalyst setting a chain of events in motion. But things did not turn out as she planned. Just like a catalyst in a chemistry experiment, her life remained unchanged as a result.

Now that the secret was out, Larry and I were free to do what we wanted, when we wanted. We did not flaunt our relationship, it would have been disrespectful to our families. But we could hold hands in a movie or at dinner, like any other couple. In fact, we were spending more time together than ever, and most of the time we were at the apartment.

Since we did not have to hide any longer, Larry got his own drawer in the bathroom and bedroom. We went grocery shopping and made dinner together almost every night. We saw very of little of Jane, when she did come home she went straight to her room. She made no apologies for her behavior and so the rift between us became even larger.

I was too busy being happy…

I had not been for such a long time. Larry and I had been close for almost half a year, but with all the secrecy and stress I never felt like our relationship was something that would last. Now we could enjoy each other, and the time that we spent together, without worrying that it would all just fade away. We were so busy enjoying each other that we did not look beyond that.

There were things that we both needed to take care of, most importantly: I should have been looking for a divorce lawyer Larry needed to talk with Barb, and I needed to sit down with Jane to figure out our living arrangements. But we were too busy being happy, everything else was put on the back burner.

Bailing Larry out of jail…

We were both working at the Club on busy Saturday night, we clocked in early and began setting up for the night. Larry and I had slept in late and enjoyed a brunch buffet earlier in the day, as usual we had a great time. After I finished preparing my area I ventured to the upstairs bar to visit with Larry for a bit. But he was not behind the bar, which was odd. He always liked to have things set up “just so”, and spent quite a bit of time making sure things were the way that he liked them.

As I wandered back downstairs I looked around and did not see Larry anywhere, so I started asking around. I was told that the owner of the club had asked that Larry come chat with him in his office, I walked by, and could hear voices but the door was closed. Patrons were now lined up at the front door, the security was checking I.D.’s, the music was thumping…and the head bartender was in the office, behind closed doors with the Boss. Even stranger.

Making my way slowly to my station I saw the office door fly open and heard it slam up against the wall. Larry strode out of the office, the Boss directly behind him. The Boss was yelling and Larry stopped in his tracks and began to yell too. I was shoved out of the way as several security-men and bartenders raced passed me to surround Larry and the Boss. The yelling continued, both of their faces were red and their fists were balled at their sides.

I could not tell what they were arguing about, they got quieter and moved closer to each other, and became much more intense. The next thing I knew, Larry threw a punch and the Boss went down. Security grabbed Larry and I could not get through. Unbeknownst to me, the police had been called, Larry was placed in cuffs and loaded into the back seat of the cruiser.

The Boss approached me, blood streaming out his nose, and told me to go back to work, or be fired. There was nothing that I could do at that point, so I went to work with tears streaming down my face. Throughout the night I tried to find out what had happened, what started the confrontation? No one knew.

Although we all loved working at the Club, no one liked the Boss. He was a moody married man having an affair with one of the employees, everything that he did was secretive. When he showed up at the Club, a rare occurrence, we all stayed out of his way.

That night, as soon as we finished, a group of us put our money together and went to bail Larry out of jail. Imagine my surprise when the officer told us that someone had already posted his bail. That surprise grew when Larry walked out with Barb.

As I said…we were so busy being happy, everything else got put on the back burner.

My mind was racing as we all drove back to Larry’s house. What were Larry and the Boss arguing about? Why was Barb there to bail Larry out of jail? Why did he leave with her? And once we arrived things did not get much better. Larry and Barb were sitting in the living room, together on the couch. We all wanted an explanation. We expected one.

But Larry just looked at us, and thanked us for coming. Then he asked that we leave them alone.

I walked back to the car as confused as when I had left it. I went home to the apartment and waited all night for a phone call, one that never came.