DISCLAIMER:
These stories are inspired by Felicia’s colorful 2017. If the reader prefers, the short stories/blogs or parts of it may be regarded as fiction. But as Ernest Hemingway said, there is always the chance that fiction may throw some light on what has been regarded as fact.
I’m hoping you have read some of past blogs already. Otherwise, you may be lost in this one. For a little background, I suggest to read blog entry, "The One When I Spent My First Weekend in Hartford."

As much as I hate to admit it, this immediately brought me back to that painful day in November 2017, when Lili “trapped” me in her office.
Remember “The One When I Spent My 1st Weekend in Connecticut…” when I said Lili showed me pictures of her and John? Well,
one of the pictures was a selfie of her with John wearing a Black Panther costume at
a Halloween party in Springfield!
On October 31st, 2017, the night of that Halloween
party, just right after I dismissed my class at Loyola University, my phone
rang. It was my doctor. He called me and told me the results of my tests
(Spoiler Alert- Future Blog). I felt
another Erica Barry (Diane Keaton's character sobbing in “Something’s Gotta Give” ) coming, so I went
back to my classroom. My heart was
pounding so fast, it felt like I just
drank 4 shots of Espresso! First, the man I thought was my soulmate cheated on
me… big time. Then, I lost my job. Then, I had an anteroseptal infarct (aka mild heart attack). Then, my daughter Samantha left for College. Then I had to call Sammy and her brother Brian to let them know that our 18-year-old Maggie passed away! It couldn’t get any worse.
It’s November 2nd, 2017. I was in Lili’s
office. While Lili was listening to her phone, trying to find another recording
of John to have me listen to, I was thinking, “What is wrong with this woman?”
You see, just yesterday, before I actually met her, we spoke on the phone. She
sounded friendly and was empathetic when I shared some news with her that I
thought she should know woman-to-woman. She said she felt betrayed and did not
know that John and I were together last Valentines weekend with our children (…yeah,
right). Long story short, she said her relationship with John was a mess. She
said John always told her that he had not communicated with me in a long time,
and that our relationship had been over for more than a year.
Now that she knows that he also had been lying to her, she had more reason to
leave him. She even apologized to me- “I did not know you were still together when John pursued me. I’m just sorry, you were not spared all
this pain. ” She is sorry about my pain and yet, she kept playing recordings of John, trying to find the ones with the most hurtful words. An apology from a woman who decided on the day we meet, to wear the Tiffany
jewelry I left in my drawer in John’s bedroom .
- Back in January 2017, when John
and I were “on a break”, I finally convinced John to send or bring me all my
things. He did, but the Tiffany jewelry he gave me in 2014 was not there. I did
not bother asking. After all, the “I love you’s” never stopped, and we went on
a ski trip the following month. Little
did I know, that someone was already using my drawer. Spoiler Alert: Future
Blog:” The One With the Two Drawers.”
During that phone call, Lili said she will help me
confront John at his high-powered job. She will set up the whole thing and make
sure I get to John’s office. She made it sound like she was doing it for me, for
her…for all women. She said she was upset, and that she was leaving him for
good. I did not care about her agenda, let alone her “feeling betrayed” act. I
just wanted to confront John, and I had no way of doing it unless someone
invited me… which she did! Her plan sounded so good, like Cameron Diaz’ and
Leslie Mann’s characters in “The Other Woman” kind of good… except I did not
trust her, not one bit, but I took the opportunity anyway. Don’t judge me just yet. We all have our moments of weakness, and mine was really
bad. Long story short (details on future blog), I made it to the 12th
floor of John’s office building.
Back
to The Black Panther…
Lili showed me the Black Panther photo after she flashed
me pictures of her and John at Martha’s Vineyard, during a family vacation. One,
I remember so vividly since John and I, with our children Samantha, Nadine,
Brian and David walked that same quaint street three years ago. While pointing
to her phone screen, Lili said, “See
those bags? John took me shopping and paid for all these.” This was followed by
another selfie. This time, John was holding the camera phone. They were at a
beach. He was seated next to Lili, who was laying on the sand in her bluish
green two-piece bikini. She shook her head sideways, as if she was disappointed,
but then said, “We had sex on the beach.” As if the pictures, or just seeing her were
not excruciating enough. Who knew that an already broken heart could still pound
against your chest wall so hard and so fast like it was the strongest muscle in your body. She continued scrolling through her phone, looking for another
photo to show me. But then I said, “Enough, you don’t have to show me. I get
it. You don’t have to convince me. I have many pictures with him too. He is all
yours.” To this, Lili responded, “Oh, no. I told you, I’m going to leave him. I’m just showing
you that this is what he does with women. It’s his modus operandi.” I raised my
left eyebrow a bit and said “ I don’t know what your intentions are, but I’m
just here to give John a piece of my mind, and give this paper to him. I don’t
care if you two stay together. I am however thankful you are letting me do
this.” Lili, still trying to convince me said “No, I had it with him. I’m going back to South Carolina. Besides, I don’t love
him. I’m not there yet, emotion-wise” (Hmm, this was actually almost the same
text message she sent me yesterday).
This was my response to her, which was also my favorite part of that agonizing 2 hours!
- Felicia: “Why are you helping me? You said on the phone
yesterday, that you are fed up with John and you are going to leave him. That
now, you have enough reasons, and have
evidence of being lied to. You
confronted him last night, recorded him. But then, you still slept in his house?”
- Lili: (lost eye contact with me,
started looking at her phone again)” I, I… I don’t have a place to go to. My
father is now in my house.”
- Felicia: So you chose to stay at John's because your father is now staying at your house?
- Lili: Yes. And I don't have my bed anymore. I'll be sleeping on the couch if I went home.
- Felicia: (Girl), if I found out what you found out… I would sleep on the street!”
- Lili: Yes. And I don't have my bed anymore. I'll be sleeping on the couch if I went home.
- Felicia: (Girl), if I found out what you found out… I would sleep on the street!”
For months, I did not want to know about the other woman. In fact, when I found out (see blog entry: “The One When I Found Out…”) in May 2017, I did not ask Nadine or anybody else who
this woman was. I did not even ask for a name. I did not want to give this
woman any more credit than she deserved. And even when I found out in August that it was Lili all along, Lili, the
co-worker John told me that he only had a very short casual relationship with,
before he met me , I never had plans of talking to her, or worse,
meeting her. I only did it following my friend, Jean’s advice, and after
hearing the news from my doctor .
Oh, this is a text (a Spotify link) I got from John on
October 30th, just two days before he was recorded by Lili denying
me, and one day before Black Panther took a selfie!-----⇨⇨⇨⇨
To be continued...
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