The One With The Black Panther

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." 

It’s February 1^st, 2018. I opened Facebook and saw the movie trailer of Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman. I went to  class that Thursday afternoon, and  just next to my classroom, a 4 ft. x 6ft.  bulletin board was overfilled with Black History Month pinned posters, flyers and brochures.  This one of “Chadwick Boseman” (again) caught my attention. I guess I know which blog to write next.

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 31^st, 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 2^nd, 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 12^th 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!”

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 30^th, 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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