One year plus one day later -

Yeah, he moved in. and yeah, we were doing great. Fell into a routine, a comfort zone, and it was great - for me.

He seemed to be doing great, as well. He retired from his job, but always seemed to have a project or a list of tasks (self-imposed, I should add) to do around the house. He was gardening, or re-finishing a deck, or a piece of furniture, or re-arranging his workshop.

Then, I started to notice that he spent more time on the computer - he was there when I left for work, and when I came home, and for a large part of the evening after dinner and before bed. And I heard from him fewer times in the day - where I used to get the "good morning" and mid-day "hope your day's going well" - before long there was no contact during the day.

And one normal Friday, I came home after work, and we decided to go to the eatery that had kind of become our "Friday dinner place" - weather was nice, so we were riding the bike. When I went to put my stuff in the "trunk", there was a note in his writing with an address and phone number. and I asked who it was. his first reaction was "?", and I repeated. "Oh, some guy I used to work with. He e-mailed me the other day."

FIRST CLUE: Guys don't send each other their addresses . . .