The Forgiveable Journey Of The Cheated

12. Coupling Cars

Lies lies lies.

Liam is somewhat discouraged. He is emotionally drained after his telephone conversation with Charlotte that had followed a predictable script. He so wants to believe Charlotte, he so does not want to believe Mike Smith. His heart had already been broken and now it is being ripped apart, and this is excruciating. It's 9:23 p.m. and he struggles against his urge to go to bed and sleep away the ache. There is a fleeting thought about how he can take no more (and he is overwhelmed with the fear of being dragged into darker thoughts and actions), but the infuriating sense of being lied to and manipulated by Charlotte is most salient. He chooses to prepare a rum and coke, which he drinks swiftly, followed by a second. He downs this one in two gulps. Metallica blares from his sound-system, a musical selection made between the two gulps to reflect the intensity of his rising anger and frustration. He thinks about his situation more intensely while he prepares his third rum and coke from a rum bottle removed from a hidden place in his bedroom closet.

His thoughts begin as they usually do. A year ago, he had a life, he had a wife, and he had a beautiful daughter and a family. He lost his life, he lost his wife, and he lost his family. He also lost his home, which had handed over to Charlotte less than a year ago without a fight because of his conviction that he is a lost cause and burden on others. This conclusion stems from his own perceptions, which had been strongly reinforced by Charlotte over the past 8 years, particularly the moment she announced she wanted him to leave their home. Now he lives in the basement of his parents' house (though this is temporary) like a royal loser doing variable shifts at work, struggling with feeling like a mega-failure, drinking rum and cokes on the sly, and terrified of neurological relapse and of spending the rest of his life alone and rejected by those he loves while Charlotte shines and is venerated by those same people, bla bla bla. He ruminates the same sob story.

He is a victim of his lemon life.

He consumes the third rum and coke more slowly and the anger gives way to sadness while he pours his fourth. With the remaining anger driven energy, he writes to the alleged lover of his ex-wife before beginning the fourth drink, which he sips while wandering into the dark thoughts he had feared of being dragged into only an hour earlier. He does all this before falling into the restless sleep of a drunken man.

The next morning, Dan announces to Eve that he received a series of messages from Liam. He is afraid to open them and chooses to ignore them. However, portions of the message are visible and provide some indication of the content: “MS (referring to Mike Smith) has been saying a lot about you…” and “…you don’t answer me, I’ll talk to your girlfriend.” We’ll assume that just before the second “you” that there is an “if”.

Is Liam mentally unstable?  He certainly doesn’t sound happy. But Eve knows that he, like she, is only looking for answers. It seems impossible to continue lying to this guy!

She tells Dan, “Of course you aren’t going to answer those messages. It’s not your responsibility! It’s Charlotte’s responsibility to tell him. She has no choice now!”

Dan is all serious-like. He has a headache of course.

Off to work he goes, his mind justifiably spinning and aching. Things had been set into motion after all. Then, upon returning home, Dan provides a summary of his exchanges with Charlotte. Prepare for jaw dropping news: Liam confronted Charlotte, as expected, and she continued to deny! She told Liam the same story that Dan and she had kissed last summer. Evidently, in her fable, Liam and she were already separated so “technically”, she had not cheated. Now the seat gripping clincher: Charlotte challenged Liam to go ahead and “call Eve tomorrow” if he doesn’t believe her.

Eve is flabbergasted (yes, it is the appropriate word). Charlotte didn’t just give Liam permission to call Eve; she appears to have passed on to Eve the responsibility of true enlightenment!