Sometimes “the end is in sight” at the outset.
So it was when he struck up a conversation with me at work. Six years older than me, he was different from any man I had known up to that point in my life. He was handsome, intriguing, charismatic . . . and, as my coworkers had to point out, flirting with me. He was someone I could never “take home to mother”. Besides, I was still pining for someone else.
We interacted casually for a few weeks, our conversations gradually becoming personal and revealing. I understood that he was recently divorced and had a three-year-old son.
I was naive, inexperienced and oblivious so a friend explained that he was pursuing me. I had never before been “chased”.
Eventually, my defenses worn down, I agreed to a date and the relationship progressed. I knew that it would, of necessity, end, but I didn’t know when so I told myself that, in the meantime, I could just relax and enjoy spending some time with him. We never talked about long-term commitment.
Once, we both had a day off work, so we decided to spend it at Disneyland. At that point, I believed he was staying with his sister while looking for a new apartment. We stopped by her place so he could change his clothes and, since it was a weekday, his sister was at work and we were alone there.
We had such fun at the park that day. Although I had been to Disneyland countless times, I had never spent time there with a boyfriend so it was an enchanting experience. We snuggled even closer on the Matterhorn than is required by the configuration of the bobsleds. He reached out and splashed water on me every chance he could until I was soaking wet which was fine because it was a really hot day — literally and metaphorically.
Summer waned and fall brought changes to our lives. I resumed my studies, he moved in with another sister who had a room since it was cheaper than renting his own place. We saw each other less frequently and there still was no talk of long-term commitment which was neither surprising nor objectionable.
One evening, I agreed to give him a ride to work. I no longer remember his explanation for not having his car that night.
What I do remember vividly is this: I went into the building with him for a few minutes to chat with our coworkers and was walking back to my car when I saw a strange woman approaching me. As she drew closer, I smiled and kept walking. I had never seen her in my life and had no idea that she had followed us there — and waited for me to exit the building so that she could confront me.
I was almost to my car when she stepped toward me. “Are you the woman who has been messing around with my husband?”
Since I would never have an affair with a married man, I laughed.
“Sorry, but I think you’ve got me confused with someone else,” I said casually, as I got into my car.
“I don’t think so,” was her reply. “Aren’t you Janie?”
Now she had my undivided attention.
“How on earth do you know my name?” I asked her, my brain racing to deflect the inescapable – and ugly – conclusions I was drawing from this newly-acquired evidence.
I knew, as I looked into that strange woman’s eyes, that the end of my relationship — the end that I always knew was inevitable — had come. But via a circuitous route I never, because of my naivete, could have imagined.
As we talked, I learned that the man I had been seeing was not, in fact, divorced at all. He had lied to me — which came as no surprise to her. I was horrified to realize that I was talking with the woman who was still very much, unfortunately for her, the wife of the man I had been seeing for a few months.
I had unwittingly been “the other woman.”
We began comparing notes — dates, times, locations. She emphatically insisted that I had been with him to their apartment on a weekday while she was at work and their son was in daycare. She swore that a neighbor saw us and described me to her.
When she told me the address, the extent of his deception reinforced that the end had arrived: The apartment he had described as his sister’s was actually the apartment where he lived with his wife and child. That’s why his clothing was there.
That charming, affectionate man, fully revealed as utterly lacking honor or integrity, had spent the day at Disneyland with me — while his wife was working and his son was in daycare – after taking me into their home.
Shock and disappointment quickly gave way to revulsion — and rage. I had been duped in a most skillful and reprehensible manner. It was small comfort to learn that I was not the first. Unfortunately for her, I would not be the last.
We decided to confront him, so we walked into the building together. When he saw us standing side by side, arms crossed, eyes blazing with anger, he stopped dead in his tracks.
He didn’t say a word. He just stared at us for a moment before putting his hands up the way a suspect does when cornered by the arresting officer. He shook his head repeatedly as he slowly backed up a few steps and then, still shaking his head, turned and walked out of the room.
After apologizing to his wife one last time, I got into my car and drove out of that parking lot — and into my future, forever changed. Wiser, more cautious, less willing to trust anyone.
That night marked the end of that brief relationship.
It also, in many tangible ways, marked the end of my innocence.
20 Comments
oh janie … this was so lovingly told.. you told us what it meant to you and how it effected you and never used him as a thrashing post… you told this so well so eloquently… not the greatest situation in the world to be in… but a learning experience none the less…
Thank you very much, Paisley!
An amazing short story, to be sure. The poignancy for me is in the woman’s realization that she had unwittingly been the cause of pain to an innocent other woman and child. How greed and self-centered cause so much harm! Beautifully written. I count this among my blessings today.
A riveting story and well told.
“Wiser, more cautious, less willing to trust anyone.” Isn’t that an extremely sad, not being able to trust.
Very well told story! Some men are so devious
Superbly told Janie.
Wow, Janie… that is horrible. I can imagine that you would have been so jaded and hurt because… *TMI alert*I had something like that happen to me too, while I was 18 and just joined the navy I finally decided to date a guy that had been pursuing me, even though he wasn’t really my type.After several dates and after we were *cough* intimate*cough* he freaked out and said that he was so disgusted… he had never cheated on his wife before. A WIFE I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT. My experience was not only because he had lied to me, but also because I was really stupid and didn’t follow my gut. On our first date I had seen that his wedding ring finger had a white tan line around it. I asked if he was married and he said no… that he liked to wear a ring on that finger sometimes while he was out so he didn’t get hit on.After that I was very cautious, and it was several months of getting to know my future husband before I would even DATE him, LOL!
What a story! I can’t believe he took you to his own apartment. I’ll tell ya one thing, that guy had guts. No moral code. No ethics, but definitely guts. It’s good you didn’t fall head over heels all at once and do something you’d later regret.
Clear straightforward prose tells a common story making for easy accessibility. I was hoping for a twist in the tale, given the title. Very well executed.
Hell’s fury right at him. Hopefully it was sustained to exact change in him too.
You could feel the character’s mortification here. Very good expression of that.
Wishing you a blessed Sunday!
Hi janie,
It would have been really hard for you to come out of this. It is such a bad feeling if someone dupes you like this. I feel such guys should be punished for playing with someone’s innocence.
That was…. so sad. So true. So sweet. Bittersweet. That “thing” and all other “things” are, I think, necessary to open our eyes to reality – that we are not in the state of utopia but in a state of fall.
You show such maturity by expressing your anger in a peaceful style. Being able to control your rage this way really makes you deserve the right man.
Thank you for your very kind words, Ian.
Have you ever tried to get a contract with Mills & Boon?
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sometimes it proves that our innocence
are gained from our life’s experiences…
glad you came out as a whole person
rather than a broken one…
GodBless!
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What a heart wrenching tale. I can happily clobber the fellow.
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