Watch Out!

Honestly? All Jim wanted was a little piece, quiet, and maybe a bag of cheese Ruffles and a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's it. And his shrewish wife, Kathy? She didn't GET him. His quirks, his sense of humour, his insecurities. Well, Kathy got the latter, he'd admit, and amplified them to her advantage whenever she wanted to wheedle him into her trap. Jim hated the drudgery of unloving married life. Hated her. Kathy was the queen bitch of Magnolia Street. He wished he had seen it coming on that long-ago June 25th...but in those days he thought with the wrong head.

Then at the subway station one cold morning, he met Peggy, the love of his life. Lighthearted, sweet, and kind, she was nothing like his shrew back home greedily leafing through the Spiegel catalogues, circling three kinds of pleated twill trousers which she would inevitably coerce him into buying for her just to shut her the hell up.
No, Peggy loved him. And he loved Peggy. Sweet, kind Peggy.
She wrote him this beautiful letter and handed it to him with a sparkling new watch, the watch he had dreamt about for years. A Hamilton watch. Not the Rolex that Kathy pestered him to wear to impress the neighbours at the neverending fêtes in 344 Magnolia Street...but a straightforward, honest, loyal watch.

He would never be able to wear it home, but he kept it close to his heart - the one place where Kathy had never touched him.