Confessions of a “Kept” woman
Background:
First let me qualify the word “kept”. For all intents and purposes I’m not technically “kept”. We live in my house, I own my car and I do work part time. But things have taken a radical change in my relationship with my boyfriend / soon to be husband?? in the last few months, and it’s a bit unnerving.
A little about me:
I was just sticking my foot in the water after the death of my partner of eight years,18 months prior, and my girlfriends were pushing me to get back out there. I met my “sugar daddy” the old fashioned way — in a bar — and I have to admit it wasn’t love at first sight. He was nice, but kind of brash and a little older than me. He was celebrating a clean bill of health from his cancer doc and I was more than happy to toast his progress. Honestly, I was really lonely at the time. With only myself and my 19 year old daughter who had a job, school and active social life left at home, I spent most of my time alone with two cats. I slowly came to the conclusion that at 57 I was too young to throw in the towel and be content as the stereotypical “cat lady” and I had to admit I liked the attention and security of having a man in my life. At least that was my thinking at the time. I’ve always been very independent — even in my marriages — and have been self-employed for the last 15 years. I struggled to raise my kids with very little support from their fathers — and for the first time in a long time my finances were on the upswing. I had a little money in savings and my new business was finally starting to gain momentum. Then Covid hit. Surprisingly it didn’t affect my business all that much — at first.
A little about him:
As a recent cancer survivor and divorcee, he was already struggling a bit financially when Covid hit. With 40+ years in the Oil and Gas business he was used to financial ups and downs, but Covid was a different story. Oil went from more than $100 a barrel, to under $10 in a matter of weeks and no one was working or purchasing gas / oil or the equipment supporting that industry. Needless to say, he lost it all, as did many. And I mean All. My once big-baller boyfriend was now flat broke. His rigs were stacked out and worth pennies on the dollar. And for a guy who was used to purchasing the latest edition Rolex, spending spur of the moment weekends in Vegas or California betting on his own racehorses, this kind of broke was uncharted territory.
As for me, I’m good at being broke / poor and over the years I’ve turned “creative financing” into something of a science. I have a way of making things work. As most women know, when you have kids to feed and clothe and educate, you find a way and I’ve always somehow managed. So him being broke was not that big a thing to me, he did have a nice truck (sorry, Texas girl over here) and his finances were really not my business. It’s not like I was going to marry this guy — I just wanted some company. And when he would start going on about all the fancy things he did and bought for himself and assorted ex’s and kids, or the places they’d been, his horses, ranches, ect. I would inwardly roll my eyes. Boys like to brag — whatever — good for him. At times I actually wondered whether he was making it all up. I mean this guy lived in his RV, didn’t have any income to speak of and I was paying for most of our dinners out or cooking at home, which was starting to get on my nerves.
Fast forward two years and Bam! The broke oil man I met in the bar is now rolling in $$ once again. Contraire to popular belief, Biden has not — yet — killed the oil industry. Although there are still a lot of businesses struggling out there, my man never gave up. He would dial for dollars as they say, spending hours upon hours, which turned into days and countless months, until he made something happen. He never gave up — even at the bleakest of times. To say the least, I was impressed. What I first saw as a braggart, was indeed a millionaire oilman down on his luck, who would not give up and now is back on top of the money pile. And it’s a really big pile. Which is scary to a regular gal like me.
Which leads me to my dilemma. My once growing business has essentially tanked and I’m no longer interested in beating my head against the wall trying to make it work. For all intents and purposes I’ve only been somewhat employed for the last six months or so. He is now paying for everything and happily doing so because I was “there” for him when no other women has ever been. Apparently he was taken advantage of quite a lot — imagine that??? And yes, it’s nice and all that he appreciates what I did and wants to return the favor, but if I’m honest I was only partially invested in the relationship back then and knowing first hand what it is like to be broke and to struggle, I helped because I could — it was really just lucky timing for him. Now he’s paying me back with Louie Vuittons, trips to Vegas and California, paying all my bills and buying me stuff. But how long can this last?
This girl ain’t used to that. And in my world nothing comes free. I can’t help but feel the other shoe is about to drop. He’s going to turn out to be a serial killer right, but what girl can say no to a Louie?
Part two coming soon…
