Lemons 03 Stroke of Genius Read Online Free PDF

approve of this at all. I’ll go get the kids, we can hang out at your house. They spend too much time with Jamie anyway, and if we have to go to Vegas, I need to spend time with them.”
    “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the only reason. Fine, I give up. I have to go and get ready.”
    “I don’t-‘
    “Quit being such a baby. It’s a date. My first in a long, long time. Now knock it off. Ya know what would do you some good?”
    “You not going on a date?”
    “Nooo, why don’t you try going on a few dates?”
    “Um, because I’m married.”
    “Babe, you’re not married. It’s coming up on two years since Marianne died. I know you had a rough time with it, hell, so did I? But it’s almost Christmas time again.”
    “Yeah, well Christmas sucks.”
    “LAST Christmas sucked, Archie. I know it was hard on you, but you have to move on.”
    “I don’t have to do anything. Just go on your date.”
    The truth was, last Christmas was the worst day of my life. It was my first without my wife and the entire week leading up to it I spent huddled in the corner of my bedroom sobbing like a child. In fact, the couple of months after Christmas, I was a complete wreck. I was completely disheveled, rude, obnoxious, and rather stinky. Elise saved me, as usual, and pulled me from the brink of self-destruction. And now she was going on a date.
    Dislike.
    ***
    I met Elise at her house about an hour later after running home and grabbing Wrecker and giving her enough time to pick up the kids. While Elise was out on her date, the kids and I ordered pizza and watched an old, uber-cheesy Sci-Fi movie on Netflix called Robot Monster.
    Although I wasn’t supposed to, I let the kids stay up way past their bedtime until their mom returned from her…date.
    Yeah, maybe I had my own selfish reasoning behind it, but whatever. Shut up.
    When she finally arrived home, she was happy to see the kids awake, but irritated with me at the same time for letting them stay up.
    Women.
    “So,” I said, “how was it?”
    “It was nice,” she answered. “He’s a really sweet guy.”
    “Yeah, wow, great, super. I’m outta here.” I walked over to the kids and gave them each a fist bump and told them I loved them. I told Elise I would see her tomorrow at the office after I was done with the bank. She said fine, (with a little attitude, I must say) and I made my way out the door, down the driveway and to my car, Wrecker by my side.
    When I returned home, after opening the front door, I threw my keys across the room. The start of a frustration-induced temper tantrum. Of course, the keys hit a picture frame, sending it crashing to the ground.
    I yelled the dreaded F word and several variations of it then moped my fat ass over to the sofa, taking a seat.
    I couldn’t ignore the mess, though. I stood up and cleaned all the glass fragments from the carpet, then took everything to the trashcan outside. The whole time I was cleaning I kept repeating “He’s a really sweet guy” in a wonderful, wide array of varying mocking tones.
    My emotions began to confuse me again when I retook my seat. I cried myself to sleep.
    6.
    I found myself in a dark basement. The sour, dank smell was giving me a headache. I looked around the room for an exit but couldn’t find one. I walked around the perimeter looking for any escape, to which there was none. My claustrophobia was beginning to kick in and I felt sweat droplets forming above my eyebrows. My breathing got heavy, my mouth got dry. I couldn’t swallow and the air filling my lungs was getting hard to obtain. The lights cut out leaving me trapped in total darkness. I heard gunshots as mussel flashes momentarily illuminated the room. I hear my wife’s voice from somewhere outside.
    “It’s time,” she tells me. “Archie, it’s time.”
    The room grew quiet again.
    I began to panic. I was turning around looking for any way out. I needed to find her. A buzzing sound filled the room. White noise in a black