Yesterday was one of those days when the stars align. So, I took some legal advice and decided, right, that’s it, I cannot take any more delay (its now been 5 months since I asked him to leave). I wrote a notice to quit. Basically it says you have to leave by 1st May, and I also offered cash even though legally he is entitled to diddly squat.
So, I said, we need to talk (again). Not being a stupid man, he clicks its one of ‘those’ conversations and proceeds to have another meltdown, goes up the shed and spends the next few hours on the phone to his counsellor…or so I thought. It turns out that at the same time, his work has laid him off for 3 weeks with a 50% redundancy threat and so he was also talking to them. I had no idea that this was going on at the same time.
So, I finally get him to talk, I ask if he has changed his view, has his counsellor helped that etc. He comes back with exactly the same, ‘I will change, it will be great, give me a chance’, and I thought, I am not standing for this again, and handed him the notice to quit….that finally got his attention, and he told me about the job…His list of loss is quite distressing if you look at it on the surface. He is losing his partner, home, job, kids and cats. It must be fucking awful. but…like before, I had to scream at him to get him to agree to talk to a lawyer. I don’t want to scream at him, I had to scream at him to get him to even acknowledge that this was serious, I had to scream at him to ring the counsellor. I have had to do this to get him to do anything, it is tiring, and it makes me into a nasty person. It is one of the reasons I have had enough.
Sara's Narcissus and Other Stories 