They spoke about picking up his daughter April to stay with them for an extended period. Monica made a snide comment about April; Paul made a snide comment back.
In the next instant, using all the strength in her pitching arm, Monica tossed the glass goblet at Paul’s head. Paul threw his arms in front of his face as the goblet struck him. He ran to Monica and grabbed her.
“Don’t you ever do that again!” he roared.
Mid-sentence, Paul felt his thighs being kicked. He looked up and realized he had lifted Monica off her feet and up in the air. She kicked his thighs again as hard as she could. What the hell is happening to us? He thought. He reacted in panic and dropped her. Monica slammed to the ground and sprained her ankle. Paul feared his anger and what it made him do. He felt guilty about Monica’s spraining her ankle. He never knew whether Monica felt guilty about throwing the weighty glass at him. They never talked about the incident again.
Paul was determined, however, never to become angrily physical again. He tried to remain passive during the rest of their relationship and Monica mainly used the silent treatment when Paul angered her.
But perhaps the fight started bad habits. It was definitely battery and, yes, Monica started it. However, battery, according to New Mexico law, simply means a “rude or insolent” touching of another person. It doesn’t have to be a punch or a slap. A shove can be considered battery. Grabbing someone’s arm? That’s battery. Barring someone from leaving a room is battery. Whether or not Paul would admit it, he and Monica had committed battery against each other. On some level, because he knew the law so well, he also knew they had done so. Monica knew it, too.
By now they had stopped even trying to communicate, except for Monica’s heated declaration one night: “If you ever leave me, I’m going to destroy you and then I’m going to kill myself.”
Of course, he felt it was only her temper flaring. He didn’t believe her. But he grew more silent, more lonely.
Anita Harris and her friend were riding their horses along the property line separating Anita’s and the former governor Tom Bolack’s land when they saw Paul Dunn, his blue and white pickup truck parked nearby. Anita noted the Farmington Police badge on the dashboard inside the truck. Paul was chainsawing his way through a pile of wood.
“Are you a cop?” Anita asked, staring at the good-looking, muscular guy in front of her.
Paul nodded. “I’m a police officer, but I’m working part-time as a security officer for Mr. Bolack.”
Anita eyed the chain saw with a small, superstitious shiver, since it was All Hallows Eve. There’s something a little eerie here, Anita thought. But he’s awfully cute.
The women rode on, not introducing themselves. Paul did not offer his name, either.
Just before Anita got divorced, she met Paul again. She was riding near the river and had crossed over onto the former governor’s property. Paul motioned for her to stop.
“Mr. Bolack is having problems with vandalism and no one is allowed in this area,” he told her.
Unintimidated, Anita replied, “He’s given me permission to ride here.”
Paul looked at her as if he didn’t believe a word she said. What an impudent little snot! She thought. But she couldn’t help noticing once again what an attractive man he was. Boldly, she asked his name so she could complain to Bolack about him—at least, she would know the cutie’s identity.
Later, Anita asked her sister, Margaret, to ask her fireman husband, Andy, to find out about Paul Dunn.
A few days later, Andy told Margaret, “He said he’d clear a place for Anita to ride anytime, but the guy’s married with three children.”
Anita was disappointed. She didn’t know until much later the problems Paul and his wife were having or the unfulfilled needs Paul had.
At Christmas, Andy and Margaret threw their annual holiday party for city co-workers and friends. That night Anita saw Monica and Paul together. Anita noticed Monica’s possessiveness immediately.
“She was holding his arm. She watched him and she watched the other women at the party with a wary expression, like she was looking for something. It was clear: He was her property. There was no happiness in her face. You didn’t get the feeling you could go up to her and spend some time chitchatting, as people do at parties. She was closed off.”
Later at the Christmas party, Paul’s eyes met Anita’s from across the room and he remembered seeing the spunky woman when she rode her horse on former governor Tom Bolack’s vast San Juan County ranch land. Before they knew it, they were standing in front of the sparkling tree talking.
“Have you been riding lately?” Paul asked.
Anita nodded. “I still ride on Bolack’s land all the time.”
Paul desperately needed a friend to talk to at that point in his life. Though he was continuing to work the Bolack security job to supplement the income he made as a cop and Monica’s income as a court clerk, Monica spent his money and her own faster than they could make it. Besides the jobs, he was doing all the housework. Monica was queen over all she surveyed—except Paul’s soul, though he didn’t have the strength of spirit to realize that yet. It seemed nothing he did pleased Monica anymore. He felt completely inadequate, although he was doing more than everything he could to keep their marriage going.
Paul wasn’t thinking of beginning an affair with Anita Harris that night. He just felt grateful for a sympathetic ear.
Anita knew immediately she and Paul would click. It was a first impression combined with her belief and knowledge of auras. She had learned from a psychologist that when a person meets someone or something new, the brain asks three questions. What is it? Have I seen it before? Is it going to hurt or help me? Looking at it that way, Anita believed first impressions were vital to survival.
Soon after the party and away from Monica’s vigilant eyes, Paul and Anita met again on Bolack’s land and poured out the stories of their lives to each other. For Paul, there was finally someone to whom he could tell all the feelings he had kept concealed for so long. With her strawberry hair and ivory complexion, the compassionate Anita quickly became an ally. Paul had never really talked openly to a woman before. Although his body had experienced physical love many times, a spiritual connection had never completed the picture until Anita, with her earthy attractiveness, entered his life.
Anita felt money was a large part of Paul’s problems with Monica. They had separate checking accounts. He had no idea where Monica’s money went, but she had no qualms about spending his. The bills were all his responsibility. “He never said anything openly about resenting it, but I got the impression he felt it would be nice to have some support. Cops don’t make a lot of money,” Anita notes.
Paul and Anita never touched during those first weeks as their friendship grew. Finally, they discussed a relationship. Paul made it clear that if he got divorced, he would lose
