So Iwound up at Andy and Anna's. Sadly, that is the only place I had to go. And if I'm going to be honest, I wanted to tarnish a little the squeaky clean image Andy had of Rob. Not very nice or mature, I know.
And not very practical, either. Considering Andy was hardly a Boy Scout himself.
I spent the night there. Ironically, it was Andy's birthday so I ended up going out to dinner with them. To Joe's Crab Shack. That sticks in my mind.
I forgot to mention that after I confronted Rob with the proof that I knew he was being less than honest with me, he took a long drive. I don't know where, but I'm pretty sure that he drove back over by the Red Roof in (on the other side of town) and did a little backstory, cover up work. There's a shopping plaza off the highway there called Taylor Square. All the sudden, he came home to tell me the details of this girl he'd met online and had intended to go meet at a McDonalds close to the Red Roof Inn. He said she'd given the Red Roof Inn as a landmark and he called to get directions.
Sure.
He said he sat at the McDonald's for a long time and she never showed.
Sure.
Her name?
He said it was Taylor.
Sure.
Even at the time, as gullible as I was, I didn't believe him for a second.
I believe he drove over that way to see what was near the hotel and made up this ridiculous story around that.
Was there ever a Taylor?
I don't know. Nor will I ever really know.
Was he meeting up with this broad Sherri from work?
No clue. I'll probably never know that either.
Where was he the day he said he had to work half a day and then I caught him in a lie?
I got nothin.'
These things used to haunt me and make me lie awake at night.
Now I just wonder from time to time.
Anyway....here I was at Andy and Anna's.
I left from their house the next day for work and decided to detour to my house.
Mistake.
Rob was there and he'd written me this letter telling me how he felt so bad and he'd been up talking to his mom the night before.
They agreed that we were such a great couple.
And then he finished it by saying that he realized he wasn't right for me and that he understood why I wanted to move on.
I should have said, "Yep! You're right. See ya."
Instead, I did what so many women do...I made him promise he'd never lie to me again and we decided to give it another go.
And then we set a new date for the wedding, pushing it up 4 months.
Are you rolling your eyes? I am!
Lord, why oh why did I not have enough self-respect to GET OUT?!
*sigh*
But we continued on.
The situation actually did put a wedge between Andy and Rob. The funny thing?
Andy was mad that Rob would have gone to meet someone and not tell HIM.
Really? These are the people I surrounded myself with?
But I loved Rob. I wanted to believe all the things I told myself about him. I loved his mom. I wanted to be a family with him.
And I still had that ridiculous notion that he just hadn't met the right woman yet (me!) to make him settle down.
I once had a friend tell me that if I felt in my heart he was unfaithful, I needed to listen to that.
But I didn't.
As with so many things, I turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.
Instead we went ahead with plnas for a beautiful garden wedding. Oh the excitment.
It's easy to get caught up in the planning and the fairy tale aspect of things and forget that you can't trust your fiance. I was so busy looking at wedding dresses, lattice, tulle, and reception venues that I conveniently stopped thinking about all the lies, half truths, inconsistencies, and negative aspects of our relationship.
This was going to be my happily ever after if it killed me, damnit!
And it almost did. At least my spirit.
