The pain in her life
was more than any one person should have to suffer. There are many forms of
abuse out in the world, and she was a victim on many levels. She needed
courage, she needed hope, and she needed to be loved. I prayed for her to find
the courage to be strong. I gave her hope that her future could be bright. And
I showed her it is possible to have fun in life: to smile and laugh every day
without fear or restraint.
She gives me a lot of credit for helping her get out of a
terrible situation, but I tell her every day that she is the one who did the
work, I was merely there to support her and tell her she was wanted.
We continued our coffee dates. We would meet for hours
before work that passed as minutes in our paradigm. We could talk the whole time,
or sit in absolute silence without awkward tension. I have never felt so
comfortable or connected to a person, and we locked in on each other and smiled
for no reason other than pure delight.
It was tough for a while to hide our emotions from the
people we worked with. At one point, well before I ever talked to her or told
her jokes, I may have told a few people there that I would marry her someday.
This was before I knew she had a husband, and before I found out that she likes
country music. I had that very thought that moment I was standing in the bar at
my interview: I didn’t think it, something said it, “There she is.” I knew what it meant.
A few days after we started talking, and privately meeting
up for our coffee rendezvous, somebody took something out of context and
started a rumor that we were sleeping together. This, I assure you, was not
true, but it spread like wild fire and we were both talked to by management and
the person responsible was reprimanded and slowly the rumors quieted, and we
continued in secrecy.
This is a good point to mention that there are two beautiful
creations as a result of the marriage. She has two amazing daughters that gave
her hope and strength and happiness in her life when there was little else to
be grateful for. I won’t write too much on that subject now, but it will be
relevant to a later post.
We wanted to spend more time together but that would be
difficult to do with an ever-prying husband and children to take care of at
home. Me going to her place was out of the question as he didn’t know about me
and surely he would fret. She lives fifty minutes away, so travel for us is
less manageable than you might think. But, we managed to see each other before
work, and we would often go for drives after work, meeting in the Lund’s
parking lot down the road as not to arouse suspicion amongst the other
employees. We were in our own little world when we were together; nothing could
get between us.
A few weeks had passed since we exchanged our very first
words through the kitchen window, and the inevitable happened: he found out.
To be continued…
