The Forgiveable Journey Of The Cheated

14. Flattery and Empathy Go a Long Way

Liam looks forward to her messages. She just puts it all out there. And she cares. Something that feels something like love is building up inside him and he wants her to know. The words come surprisingly easy, although he senses a need to censure because he’s prone to impulsive emotions, both positive and negative, and he’s wary of the consequences. Plus, how could it be love? “I like you for all you have said! Thank you!!! You are kind and direct. Though I would just love to write to your boyfriend to tell him he’s a fucking … but I won’t out of respect for you. Grrr, my raging heart!”

Eve thinks, “Please do. Please write to him. Please be kind and direct with me. Please be my friend.” She really thinks he could. Instead she writes “Well said. Raging heart. I was looking for the exact words and you found them for me!”

Eve can’t decide what to do with this new found friendship (?). She suspects it’s not the right thing to do for her relationship with Dan, but it sure does feel good. Yet he should be OK with it, because its effects are positive on her mood and her inclination to be tender towards him. It also eases her need for answers. Strangely, she feels growing love for Dan after exchanging with Liam. Or is it guilt driven affection?

In any case, she becomes irritable when Liam is slow to respond. Lisa tells her to stop writing to him.

She doesn’t stop.

Liam is appreciative. He writes this. He confides his rage. He tells her she is a good person who doesn’t deserve this situation. In return, Eve feels less lonely. Liam says many of the things that she wishes Dan would say to her. Liam senses this and opts for flattery and empathetic responses for lack of ideas of what else to say.

He is not about to tell the truth about himself - “Yah… I’ve fulfilled Charlotte’s predictions by turning to drinking to ease my pain, I’ve pretty much told most of my friends and family to leave me alone over the past month, if I’m not numb from drinking or sleeping, I’m somewhere downstairs crying and feeling sorry for myself. Though one good thing is that I’ve stopped being so nice to Charlotte.” These truths are probably exaggerations, and certainly do not make for a very attractive response, so he sticks to flattery and empathy.

He also has some unexpressed opinions about Eve’s options, but he is a kind enough of a person to know it would not be helpful to tell her to leave Dan. He also considers cutting her off because what good could come of this?

At least somebody here has some sense about what’s going on.

She responds predictably to his compliments and insinuations of affection. Yes, he thinks, she would be easy prey for someone looking to get up her dress. An image of having sex with her doggy style while she is still wearing a dress, one hand on her shoulder pulling her to him, pops into his mind and causes the start of an erection. He tries to shake the image from his head - what a mess that would be! She would be messed up for life!

He crosses off the notion of preying, but the idea of messing her up intensifies his erection and he decides to masturbate to the image in his head anyway.

If he had known she was 7 years older than him, well it probably would have taken him longer to come.

“I need to find a new girlfriend,” Liam concludes after taking inventory of his surroundings and the context to which he just fantasized. After all, it is only a fantasy right? She would make a good girlfriend he bets: not really my type but she is smart, funny, kind, she likes me and surprisingly, I like her. And in his post-masturbatory euphoria, he made the decision to stick around in case she does leave Dan. Perhaps there is a relationship, or at least a fling to be gained.

Eve, on the other hand, is nowhere near thinking about sexual relationships with Liam, her notions about leaving Dan and finding herself in the arms of Liam are being entertained but have much more of a General rating. We could suppose it is not surprising they think about potential romantic connections between each other when the single person options available to either Liam or Eve are pretty limited and when there are winning conditions for such an outcome: one who is looking, and one who is almost on the market and who is afraid of falling flat.