Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words may break my heart.
My ex-boyfriend "Ray" --Whooo! what a piece of work he was. Ray crashed into my life seven months and one failed rebound engagement (!) after my divorce. At the time I felt as light as air, having shaken off the burdens of my ex-husband and rebound fiancé (whose proposal I only accepted because I felt guilty that I had taken his virginity – um, I was a different person then), and I was overly confident with men. I thought I had everything under control, and never imagined that I could fall under the spell of someone as deceptive and conscience-free as Ray.
I had never to my knowledge been lied to or cheated on, and I offered Ray my trust and my love, fully and immediately. My naïveté was the beacon that drew him to me, and his confidence combined with his age (I was 27, he was 46) made me feel I had found someone who would cherish and protect me like a father, which is probably what I had been subconsciously seeking.
The next several months were a roller-coaster of emotional highs and blatant lies, passion like a sharp knife and betrayal like a dull one. It took nearly two years for me to emotionally recover after Ray was finished with me, and I'm still not sure I've done all the necessary healing.
One of the last things he ever said to me, after he had been exposed as a manipulative, womanizing, pathological liar, was this:
"The thing I always found most attractive about you was your innocence."
Then he shrugged and said, "But now that's gone."
My ex-boyfriend "Ray" --Whooo! what a piece of work he was. Ray crashed into my life seven months and one failed rebound engagement (!) after my divorce. At the time I felt as light as air, having shaken off the burdens of my ex-husband and rebound fiancé (whose proposal I only accepted because I felt guilty that I had taken his virginity – um, I was a different person then), and I was overly confident with men. I thought I had everything under control, and never imagined that I could fall under the spell of someone as deceptive and conscience-free as Ray.
I had never to my knowledge been lied to or cheated on, and I offered Ray my trust and my love, fully and immediately. My naïveté was the beacon that drew him to me, and his confidence combined with his age (I was 27, he was 46) made me feel I had found someone who would cherish and protect me like a father, which is probably what I had been subconsciously seeking.
The next several months were a roller-coaster of emotional highs and blatant lies, passion like a sharp knife and betrayal like a dull one. It took nearly two years for me to emotionally recover after Ray was finished with me, and I'm still not sure I've done all the necessary healing.
One of the last things he ever said to me, after he had been exposed as a manipulative, womanizing, pathological liar, was this:
"The thing I always found most attractive about you was your innocence."
Then he shrugged and said, "But now that's gone."
posted by jp | 9:38 pm
That post read smoothly into the sledgehammer last two lines. I really wasn't expecting anything so perfectly evil. It left me feeling hollow.
Great work!
(oh, and boo hoo, etc.)
Thanks, JiB. Ray left me feeling hollow, too.
Sniffle, sob, and all that.