There was a lot of texting on that day in 2008.......though Liz McCusker would later attempt to rewrite history. But not only do I have the original texts from Steve still on my phone, but also some photographs that someone gave to my then-attorney.
Let's get two things straight first:
1. Steve and I did not, on September 30, 2008, have ANY kind of sexual or romantic relationship, because neither of wished to have that kind of relationship with the other. I do believe we each considered the other to be a close friend. [Otherwise, why was he texting me?]
2. Steve made it clearer than clear that he did NOT wish to move back in with Liz to maintain the marriage, in spite of my encouraging him to do so. He told Matt Gilligan and me that he was moving back (and intended to live in the basement) purely for financial reasons....we later learned that he had not, since July 1st, made any payments on the house Liz was living in, and thus had received a Notice of Foreclosure on September 16.
1. Steve and I did not, on September 30, 2008, have ANY kind of sexual or romantic relationship, because neither of wished to have that kind of relationship with the other. I do believe we each considered the other to be a close friend. [Otherwise, why was he texting me?]
2. Steve made it clearer than clear that he did NOT wish to move back in with Liz to maintain the marriage, in spite of my encouraging him to do so. He told Matt Gilligan and me that he was moving back (and intended to live in the basement) purely for financial reasons....we later learned that he had not, since July 1st, made any payments on the house Liz was living in, and thus had received a Notice of Foreclosure on September 16.
Here are our first texts that day:
Me: We still on for dinner?
Steve: I'm not going to be any good for anything at the end of today. Already tired from moving.
Me: Sorry not to help, but I'm too old to help people move. Haven't you ever seen that Seinfeld episode about helping friends move?
Steve: I've got help. Liz would probably kill u anyway if u helped.
Me: ?????
Steve: Because she's fucking crazy.
What a lovely sentiment about the wife he was rejoining. But if I had a nickel for every time in the past 25 years Steve has talked about Liz being "crazy"----and then giving me the evidence to prove it (such as her self-cutting behaviour, which only manifested itself when Steve would leave, according to Steve), and especially her threats of violence against others), I'd be pretty damn rich.
Later that day:
Steve: U there?
Me: Sort of. Pretty busy.
Steve: Meet tomorrow?
Me: No.
Steve: Not even lunch?
Me: No, I told you I have to get ready to go to Paris .
Steve: When back?
Me: Not sure.
Steve: u are going to leave ur house and everything?
Me: Yes
Steve; Can u talk while u are away?
Me: Not sure.
Steve: i wish i can see u before u go. Love u. Important to me to see u. [editorial note: I believe he meant "love" in a platonic way]
Me: I'd hoped to get together beforehand but I really need to leave can't put it off got flight on private jet
I was in fact going to France for medical treatment, and would not return for 5 months. (And when I left, I had no idea if I'd be returning-----other than in a box).
During that 5 months, he moved out of the basement (quelle surprise, since the basement didn't have a bathroom or a kitchen). This has somehow metamorphosed into The New McCusker Story: That he moved back on September 30, 2008 in order to get back together with his wife.
So why did he say something ENTIRELY different both to me.......AND TO HIS BEST FRIEND, MATT.....on September 30, 2008? The day he was actually moving, and so would have a straight story, not one given today by "creative memory" (or Liz's constant barrages that he told me about?)
Steve: I'm not going to be any good for anything at the end of today. Already tired from moving.
Me: Sorry not to help, but I'm too old to help people move. Haven't you ever seen that Seinfeld episode about helping friends move?
Steve: I've got help. Liz would probably kill u anyway if u helped.
Me: ?????
Steve: Because she's fucking crazy.
What a lovely sentiment about the wife he was rejoining. But if I had a nickel for every time in the past 25 years Steve has talked about Liz being "crazy"----and then giving me the evidence to prove it (such as her self-cutting behaviour, which only manifested itself when Steve would leave, according to Steve), and especially her threats of violence against others), I'd be pretty damn rich.
Later that day:
Steve: U there?
Me: Sort of. Pretty busy.
Steve: Meet tomorrow?
Me: No.
Steve: Not even lunch?
Me: No, I told you I have to get ready to go to Paris .
Steve: When back?
Me: Not sure.
Steve: u are going to leave ur house and everything?
Me: Yes
Steve; Can u talk while u are away?
Me: Not sure.
Steve: i wish i can see u before u go. Love u. Important to me to see u. [editorial note: I believe he meant "love" in a platonic way]
Me: I'd hoped to get together beforehand but I really need to leave can't put it off got flight on private jet
I was in fact going to France for medical treatment, and would not return for 5 months. (And when I left, I had no idea if I'd be returning-----other than in a box).
During that 5 months, he moved out of the basement (quelle surprise, since the basement didn't have a bathroom or a kitchen). This has somehow metamorphosed into The New McCusker Story: That he moved back on September 30, 2008 in order to get back together with his wife.
So why did he say something ENTIRELY different both to me.......AND TO HIS BEST FRIEND, MATT.....on September 30, 2008? The day he was actually moving, and so would have a straight story, not one given today by "creative memory" (or Liz's constant barrages that he told me about?)
If anything can be said to bug me about the McCuskers, it's the lack of truthfulness. It's my opinion that Steve lies a LOT, since he managed to cover up a long-term affair for 11 years from EVERYONE, including his wife. By "Everyone" I mean, according to what Steve himself told me, everyone except Matt Gilligan, in whom he confided. He definitely lied to me---I still have his emails in which he talks about not being able to "get into a complicated affair because of Liz's mental illness"....and of course at the time he was IN a complicated affair.
The affair was so complicated in fact, that he involved his son, who was 16 or 17 at the time. I can't recall the woman's name; I know her first name was Lynda, but can't recall her last name.....Mann, perhaps? He showed me her picture. He talked about her beautiful dimpled smile. Later, she showed up at my house!!!!!
And that's another thing-----Steve was so, so so in love with her that he believed she could do no wrong. But Lynda apparently found me to be some kind of threat (I definitely wasn't). She left a semi-threatening note on my terrace, but was caught by my security camera. Even upon seeing the note----clearly in her handwriting----Steve denied it could have been Lynda, the love of his life (He said to me, "I think the handwriting is a little too slanted").
So I took it to the police, who didn't find the handwriting "too slanted" at all, and that was the end of my problems with Lynda.
According to Steve's son, Lynda had some substance abuse issues. In putting together things like the timing of Steve's moving out on Liz, it's my opinion that Lynda at that point had pretty much given Steve an ultimatum: Was he going to stay forever with Liz, or be with her [Lynda]?
Right around the time he left Liz, he bought Lynda a sapphire and diamond ring (weirdly, a miniature-version of a sapphire and diamond ring I myself always wear; a ring that has great personal meaning to me). But Steve and I have often talked about the fact that he has difficulty "pulling the trigger" on things, as he and I have phrased it. By this we've meant that he just can't quite make a change. He has said that he finds it SO much easier to just go along with....whatever. It's my opinion that's why it works with him and Liz------he LIKES the fact that she tells him what to do so he doesn't have to think too much, and definitely has someone to blame it on when things go amiss......and Liz has certainly led him into some poor, poor choices over the last few years....particularly surrounding his dealings with me and the money that he owes.
It is Liz who turned a $23,500 debt to me into a $120,000 debt----solely by her own actions, beginning with her idiotic claim that I was harassing her. It is that false claim that set everything else in motion.
I have a great deal of difficulty understanding Liz's thinking-process. Where other people add 2 and 2 and get 4, Liz seems to get something like 13.......or more usually, a "conclusion" that isn't even a number.
So anyway, as I try to put things together based upon what I was told by various McCuskers, I do think that Lynda finally got sick of the situation (he would NOT allow her to live with him----probably because of his son, who couldn't stand Lynda). Lynda started seeing someone else, and was definitely abusing drugs, according to Steve's son. This did not stop Steve from awakening his son at 2:00 a.m. and having the son drive Steve to Lynda's dwelling, which I think was a mobile home. Apparently Steve had to have the son drive him there at that ungodly hour, because Steve had been drinking.
So the poor kid is out there in the car while all hell is breaking loose at Lynda's in the middle of the night. Great parenting! I think Lynda may have had another man there, not sure. One thing is for sure, it was not a good situation.
The affair was so complicated in fact, that he involved his son, who was 16 or 17 at the time. I can't recall the woman's name; I know her first name was Lynda, but can't recall her last name.....Mann, perhaps? He showed me her picture. He talked about her beautiful dimpled smile. Later, she showed up at my house!!!!!
And that's another thing-----Steve was so, so so in love with her that he believed she could do no wrong. But Lynda apparently found me to be some kind of threat (I definitely wasn't). She left a semi-threatening note on my terrace, but was caught by my security camera. Even upon seeing the note----clearly in her handwriting----Steve denied it could have been Lynda, the love of his life (He said to me, "I think the handwriting is a little too slanted").
So I took it to the police, who didn't find the handwriting "too slanted" at all, and that was the end of my problems with Lynda.
According to Steve's son, Lynda had some substance abuse issues. In putting together things like the timing of Steve's moving out on Liz, it's my opinion that Lynda at that point had pretty much given Steve an ultimatum: Was he going to stay forever with Liz, or be with her [Lynda]?
Right around the time he left Liz, he bought Lynda a sapphire and diamond ring (weirdly, a miniature-version of a sapphire and diamond ring I myself always wear; a ring that has great personal meaning to me). But Steve and I have often talked about the fact that he has difficulty "pulling the trigger" on things, as he and I have phrased it. By this we've meant that he just can't quite make a change. He has said that he finds it SO much easier to just go along with....whatever. It's my opinion that's why it works with him and Liz------he LIKES the fact that she tells him what to do so he doesn't have to think too much, and definitely has someone to blame it on when things go amiss......and Liz has certainly led him into some poor, poor choices over the last few years....particularly surrounding his dealings with me and the money that he owes.
It is Liz who turned a $23,500 debt to me into a $120,000 debt----solely by her own actions, beginning with her idiotic claim that I was harassing her. It is that false claim that set everything else in motion.
I have a great deal of difficulty understanding Liz's thinking-process. Where other people add 2 and 2 and get 4, Liz seems to get something like 13.......or more usually, a "conclusion" that isn't even a number.
So anyway, as I try to put things together based upon what I was told by various McCuskers, I do think that Lynda finally got sick of the situation (he would NOT allow her to live with him----probably because of his son, who couldn't stand Lynda). Lynda started seeing someone else, and was definitely abusing drugs, according to Steve's son. This did not stop Steve from awakening his son at 2:00 a.m. and having the son drive Steve to Lynda's dwelling, which I think was a mobile home. Apparently Steve had to have the son drive him there at that ungodly hour, because Steve had been drinking.
So the poor kid is out there in the car while all hell is breaking loose at Lynda's in the middle of the night. Great parenting! I think Lynda may have had another man there, not sure. One thing is for sure, it was not a good situation.
How sad that is for Liz. I offered to forgive their large debt. I offered to give back the South Portland house she wants. She could "have it all".
IF I had a friendship with Steve (and even Liz for that matter) we could do a work-out and END their payments. Instead, if my relationship with them is only professional, then I will treat them with cold professionalism.