Dating Season - A Short Story

Dating Season – A Short Story
By Myra Williams

(The Follow-up to “Wedding Season”)

Wedding receptions are so beautiful and so much fun! As my cousin and I admire the ambiance of the golden lights shimmering in the dimly lit banquet hall, I snap back to my senses. I turn to my cousin, “Girl, it was kinda hot in that chapel but thank goodness it is really cool in here. Now at least we can relax. Did you get some champagne?”

She holds up her glass and smiles at me.

I say to her, “Have you ever seen the movie Wedding Crashers? These two divorce lawyers attend weddings they haven’t been invited to so they can go home with single and vulnerable bridesmaids…you know, pretty much the drunk and single woman who is wrapped up in a fantasy about her own wedding… That is not going to be me tonight. Yes, I’m feeling vulnerable right now but I’m not a dumbass!”

She laughs then says, “So are you calling me a dumbass?! Girl, the last wedding I went to, I went home with one of the groomsmen.” She rolls her eyes.

I smile as I tell her, “I guess wedding season is also dating season and mating season all the way ‘round huh? How did that work out for you?”

Our conversation is interrupted when the best man stands up and chimes for the room’s attention. It is time for him to propose a toast to the newlyweds. The wedding party grins from ear to ear, the banquet hall resounding with laughter as the best man proceeds to make jokes about the groom and flirt with the bride.

She rolls her eyes. “Girl, how come my groomsman turned out to be married with three children, one of them supposedly an adopted child?”

I look at her in shock. “Girl that’s crazy. How did you find out?”

She sighs loudly. “It’s a long story. Well, at first he told me he was divorced and was paying child support because the kids were in the mother’s custody. Then he kept telling me that he was having financial trouble and asking me if he could borrow money. At one point he told me that he lost his job and couldn’t afford to pay the rent at his own place so I let him move in with me…which was a big mistake because he didn’t have any money! I ended up paying his car note, child support payments, and giving him spending change!

I can’t breathe. I whisper to her, “Girl you are kidding me!"

She shakes her head.

I laugh and say, " Girl, you already know what I'm about to ask you. Was the sex "off the chain" or what?! It must have been for you to be doing all that!

She smiled. "Oh, yes girl! He had my body burning hot for him like a furnace! He licked me from head to toe...girl he didn't have no walls, no walls! Our love making sessions always lasted a minimum of 2-3 hours and I was worn silly, but still ready to go at it some more! I would be at work thinkin about it all day, craving all the sensations he made me feel..." She sighs loudly.

Still laughing to myself I ask her, "Was it all worth it?"

She shakes her head. “No! Girl, none of that was worth the emotional suffering or hurt to my bank account... All that continued for about three months until I ran into an old friend who worked at the company my groomsman told me he had been laid off from. I asked her if she knew him.”

I watch my cousin as she pauses and lowers her eyes to hold back the tears.

She whispers, “Girl, that lady told me that he slept around with a lot of women at the company and would ask them for money to help him pay his alimony and child support. She told me she heard he was fired from his job, not laid off, after the CEO found out that he had lied about his degrees on the job application and resume.”

I ask, “So what did you do?

She looks at me out of the corner of her eye and says, “I did some research of my own and found out that my groomsman had never been married to his so-called ex-wife or anyone else for that matter and that the woman who was supposedly his ex-wife was really his baby-mama and she was on housing assistance, receiving welfare.

I stop her short. "Wait a minute, you are saying they had three kids, one adopted, and they had never been married...not even common law? Had they ever lived together?"

She rolls her eyes then says, "Yeah girl, but since he was working, she could not add him to her housing or she would lose it... she would have problems getting her welfare if she either got married or reported that another able-bodied adult was living in her household. Therefore, no common-law marriage could exist without admitting to the government that they both had committed fraud. Girl, he couldn't even receive mail at her address." She shakes her head.

"Oh, Ok. So what did you do after that?"

She continued, "...so I took off work the next day and paid one of my guy friends to follow him to see what he does all day. Around 5pm that day, my guy friend told me that he followed my groomsman to a small town about an hour away from where I live. My groomsman had spent that entire day with his baby mama and the afternoon with his children…and I assumed this is what they did everyday. That night he came home to me at 7pm as usual, after dinnertime, and I asked him what he had been doing all day. Of course, he lied to me and told me that he had been out looking for work.”

The music in the room gets louder and the people at our table get up and go to the dance floor. My cousin, now in tears, gets up and walks into the hallway. I follow her and place my hand on her back while she continues her story, ignoring all the hoopla going on around us. She wipes the tears away from her face and continues, “So the next day I cleaned out my closet full of his Armani and Gucci wardrobe, put it in my car, and donated it to Goodwill. Then I had his car towed to the dealership, which I was sure would be calling soon anyway to collect back-due payments. I had my locks changed so that he could not access my apartment anymore. I sent him a text message letting him know that if he came anywhere near my home I would call the police and tell them he was trespassing. Then I just ignored his phone calls and after a few weeks, he stopped calling.”

She looks at me with a face full of shame and embarrassment.

I hug her and tell her, “He was wrong for what he did to you. You didn’t deserve to be lied to or taken advantage of. I’m so happy and proud that you had the strength to get rid of him so quickly and effortlessly because I know a lot of women who would have just let that nonsense continue until it ate them alive. In the end, you are the better, stonger person.”

She smiles at me with a sense of relief across her face. I say to her, “Now we are supposed to be having a good time. Why don’t we have another glass of champagne then go down to "The Strip." I hear a hot new lesbian club just opened! We can just sit back and relax in the company of our own... Women. No pressure. And I swear, if you try to go home with anyone there, I will beat your ass myself!

She laughs. “Ok. What the hell! Why not? Let’s go party.”

She follows me back into the banquet hall.

I whisper to her “But first, let’s go eat! They have some good food up in here! All this talking has made me hungry, girl!

Wedding Crashers- Funniest Moments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK0pKyrBMl8