The Stranger Among Us

On a recent Saturday, at 4:30 am, I got a phone call from someone who had learned that the guy she'd been dating for 7 years had gotten married last summer. It was incredible! I was almost tempted to disbelieve it, but there was so much heartbroken certainty in her voice that it was obviously true. This was a guy that I knew. He'd spent Holidays with my family, and a group of us had gone on vacation together. The irony is that I thought he had a problem with committment because he seemed incapable of moving the relationship forward. Instead, he had a problem with honesty. People in relationships fall in love with other people all the time. It's complicated. It's messy. But it happens. What doesn't happen, most of the time, is the person lying for months, years? about his feelings for the unsuspecting girlfriend. I suppose this particular situation was aided by the fact that it was a long-distance relationship which meant that he could see his new girlfriend in the open and my friend would never find out. But she did. And now she's having to question every single thing that happened while they were together. Even things that might have been the truth are suspect. I feel nothing but contempt for this man. He's a coward, and since I believe in Karma, I know that at some point in the future, he will hurt as badly as my friend is hurting now. Why is it, that the people we end up hurting the most are the ones we're supposed to care about the most? I think it's pretty evident that this guy only cared for himself.