Paul left for the Dominican republic today& now we're all sad.
But I suppose the sadness should be explained,
So I'll start from the very beginning.
August 23, 2009 I moved to Portland, followed by Marshall a few short days later.
Our decision to move here was very sudden, after only 3 months in our brand new, super fantastic one bedroom apartment on Capitol Hill. (All wood floors, dishwasher, and washer/drier within walking distance from my job at Sazerac. Beautiful really. Very Clean.)
Mark and Adam (who is affectionately known as "Miller" by everyone else in our house) came to visit us from Portland towards the end of July. They noted that they had an extra room in there house and we should move in with them. Marshall and my response was sort of a half laugh, like "Oh wouldn't that be great, all the Nebraskan's back together..." Their response was a serious sort of "No, really. You should" Marshall and I thought on it for a minute, and decided that there is still plenty of time for us to totally screw up our lives, so why not?! After a lot of phone calls on my part asking "Are you guys really, really sure you want us to move in with you? I don't want to intrude.." And Marshall telling me to stop being so annoying about it (In a much more polite manner, as Marshall is, really quite a polite sort of fellow) We did it. We quit our jobs, and everything, I mean EVERYTHING fell into place beautifully... really. The main reason for my deciding to move was because Mark and I were to open a coffee shop. I was essentially running the show as I am the only one who is well versed in coffee culture. I bought books on running your own business, coffee stand etc. I read articles online, and visited many sites and really had the business plan nailed down. Sadly, life seldom works the way we plan. (Or is it sadly? I'm still not really sure. I am certain fate has something else in store for me, I only hope it's just as good.) So anyhow, I forgot to mention the two others living in the house Erin and Paul. They were the other couple. They were together for the last five years and we all kind of assumed that they would get married. Or at least that was my assumption, which was drastically incorrect.
Marshall and I moved here and were having the time of our lives for the last [nearly] month, getting ready to open our coffee shop in two weeks, both of us working and spending all of our time at home, with our 4 fantastic roommates and 3 cats, when everything changed.
The first bomb dropped about a week ago. Erin and Paul had broken up. Erin was going to move out and Marshall and I were going to get the master bedroom, which was sort of cool, but not really. We were all a little bummed out, but not really. Then the second bomb dropped,
Not five days after Paul and Erin broke up after 5 years together, Mark told Paul that he and Erin were together and there was nothing he could do about it.
I wish I could properly explain how we all viewed Mark prior to this moment, but unless you knew the guy my words would not do our misguided views justice. To sum it up I saw Mark as an upstanding vision of morality. Wrong again. Now plenty of people start interjecting at this point, "But he's only human!", "People make mistakes, why can't you just forgive him?". This is where even more back story is needed. Paul considered Mark to be his brother, his best friend and the only person in the world that no matter what, he could count on. Maybe all these years of friendship and helping one another made Mark think Paul owed him something, why not the woman he loved?
I'll tell you why not! Because it is simply something that you just do not do. You just don't. And the way they went about it was all wrong too! A whole new story for you...
Adam and I spent the evening playing cards, as we often do. Drinking beers as we often do. We had both run out of cigarettes and decided it was time to go for a walk to the store to grab some. As we were leaving, Mark and Paul were in the living room having what looked to us like a serious talk, and Mark asked if they could "Get some air"... So we left assuming the talk was over finances and continued on our merry way. Well, when we returned from the store, we found an extremely distraught Paul pacing the house, very, very angrily. What you should understand about Paul is that he does not get angry, sad upset, overly excited or really even excited at all, and he told us. "Well, I guess This needs to get out in the open, Mark and Erin are together, and I'm leaving for the Dominican Republic." Paul had to tell us. Not Mark, certainly not that weak, desperate bitch Erin (who might I add was sleeping soundly with Mark as Paul dropped this bomb). Cowards. Absolute cowards. Paul was in the worst state either of us had ever seen him in. (Marshall was asleep for this whole thing, so he was spared the shock until morning) Adam and I sat up with Paul, talking while he relived every moment, asking us over and over what he did to deserve this, recounting everything he had done in the relationship he saw as wrong. You can't console someone who just found out that his best friend, his brother has been sleeping with his girlfriend for god knows how long. You simply can not. So we started looking up plane tickets and that morning, as I was finally falling asleep, Paul said, "I'm going up to Mount Hood until I can get a plane the fuck away from here." I promised Paul that I could no longer live in the house with, who we now refer to as "The Snake and The Slut" and needless to say not going into business with "The Snake". That was my dream too. Opening my own coffee shop, which of course is still in the cards, but now the opportunity as I had seen it is gone. Our sole investor ("The Snake's" dad) is obviously not going to be investing 50some-thousand dollars in me alone, so here we are back to square one.
Life sort of sucks, but as I kept on telling Paul,
"This, is an opportunity for growth. Use it."
