On January 1, 2013, when I arrived at my apartment–basically a room in the basement of a house–it reeked from cigarette smoke. I told the landlord I couldn’t live in a place that smelled like that, and it had not when I saw it previously. He asked if I could hold off moving for a few days until he determined why it smelled. I figured the carpet needed to be cleaned or replaced. It turned out that the couple renting the main part of the house were heavy smokers and decided that when it got cold, they would ignore the lease and smoke in the house. Since my area shared HVAC with them, we needed to figure out what to do. We eventually sealed the vent to my space, and the landlord gave me a space heater. After airing the place out, this worked well. I suspect the smokers also stopped smoking in the house.
During the two days the landlord worked on the cigarette smell situation, I stayed with Rita and the kids. Rita was working in the kitchen at a middle school and needed to be there very early. I was preparing the kids for and taking them to school in the mornings. It was easier for me to stay at the house to let the kids sleep until they needed to get ready, and if they were awake, Rita could get ready without being hassled.
On January 3, 2013, I was planning to stay at the apartment which had been “fixed.” While at the apartment, the police called and asked me to come back to the house. They told me Rita had been issued a Protection from Abuse order and said I had 15 minutes to get whatever I needed from the house. I was obviously completely shocked as I really didn’t know what a Protection from Abuse order was and didn’t understand how Rita could get an order protecting her from me when I’d never abused her (or anyone). There was obviously no physical evidence, and I couldn’t believe she would have claimed any other type of abuse, nor was I aware of any allegations she might have made. Not realizing the seriousness of it, I said I’d go back to the apartment. I had moved a few things but hardly had any clothes for the next few days.