Taking a Trip Down Under: Part Two
Ancona, Italy
A short detour before my Great Australian Love Story…
Since I was leaving Italy earlier than expected, the parents I worked for asked me to babysit the boys the night before I left. My flight was leaving for Aix-en-Provence at six-o-clock the next morning, and the father was kind enough to drive me so early in the morning, so I was happy to babysit. As I was putting the boys to bed, I received a Facebook message from a Filipino woman who worked in Saudi Arabia saying, “Hello, Miss Shirley. I have some questions for you.” I assumed it was spam, so I deleted the message. Once the boys were asleep, I checked my phone again and saw the woman had sent me a friend request. Just as I was about to delete it, I noticed we had one mutual friend: my French ex-boyfriend. After asking him who she was and why she was trying to contact me and hearing his inconsistent responses, I knew that something was wrong.
Long story short: she was a flight attendant and when she stopped in Paris, my ex-boyfriend cheated on me with her. She was under the impression that he had been single for two years, had a successful career, was a good person, etc. He denied cheating on me despite the evidence. He eventually caved and told me he had also cheated on me with his previous American ex-girlfriend and had been using dating apps our entire relationship. The Filipino woman also thought she was pregnant. It was sickening. He is, to this day, one of the scariest humans I have ever come across (for many other reasons, which I will not include in any of my future posts).
Despite finding out about the cheating, I still boarded my flight to Aix-en-Provence since the flight cost me an arm and a leg. The night before, my ex told his mother everything and she insisted on picking me up from the airport and driving me to the nearest train station to return to Paris. I made it clear that I did not want my ex to be at the airport when I arrived but he had plans of his own.
Flying to Aix-en-Provence
On my connection flight from Ancona to Rome, I was sitting next to a blonde Italian woman probably in her mid-fifties. After take-off, she pulled out a small deck of what looked like tarot cards. I immediately asked her if she spoke English to which she quickly shook her head “no”. I then asked her if she spoke French, to which she excitedly said, “oui!!” Pointing to the cards, I asked her if they were in fact tarot cards. She nodded and said she always brings a small pack with her when she flies. I asked her if it was possible to give me a reading. After choosing 3 cards, she told me that I had been exposed to evil, that I was in pain, and that I would be okay soon because of my strength. She then asked me what was going on in my life. I told her everything. When I was finished, she insisted on doing another reading for me. I chose a few more cards and the reading came out similarly as the first one but with a slight change: I had been exposed to evil, I was in pain, and new love was coming my way. Her reading was calming for me and I was thankful for her help, but I by no means took any of this to heart.
Flying above Ancona
Landing in Aix-en-Provence
Lo and behold, when I landed in Aix-en-Provence, my psycho ex was waiting for me at baggage claim. I was beside myself. After insisting that he NOT be there when I landed, he showed up anyway. I was furious. I walked directly past him and found his mom outside. When I found her, I could see that she had been crying. When we had a moment alone, she pulled me in for a hug and said she was in disbelief that she had a son like him. She was disgusted. In the quick ride from the airport to the train station, I did not say a word. I just tried my best to ignore him staring at me in the side mirror.
Once we arrived at the train station, his mother insisted on walking me into the station—which was unnecessary, but she was obviously trying to take care of me. When I said goodbye to her, my ex asked me to talk to him for a minute. His mother gave me a look to see if I was okay with this. I nodded to her and she walked away. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and begged for me to work it out with him, even telling me that his grandfather had cheated on his grandmother and they still made it work. I let him finish what he was saying and then I looked him dead in the face and said, “this is the last time you will ever see me. I’ll send you my banking info to reimburse me for my travel fees.” He tried to say something else but I cut him off and told him to get lost. He eventually walked away, but turned around multiple times to get a last glimpse of me. I remember thinking that he looked like such a loser. I was relieved when he left, but obviously still felt devastated. He later sent me a text message saying he would pay me back for all of my travel fees and felt the need to include that none of his friends liked me…hahaha. It still makes me laugh almost two years later!
Back in Paris
When I arrived in Paris, I was staying in the family’s apartment alone. At first I was worried that I would feel really lonely during the 4 days I had before leaving for Australia. The first day back I allowed myself to sulk. I didn’t eat, I slept, and I spent some time in isolation. The next day I didn’t allow myself to sulk anymore. Instead, I met up with an Indonesian friend for a beer at a gay bar, explored the city, met a friend from Kentucky for some champagne along the Seine, and watched the Eiffel Tower light up at the top of the hour until it was time for us to go home. Luckily the day after that, a friend of mine from California, happened to be in the city and we met at Angelina Tearoom for some pastries. My final day before leaving, I had another unexpected visitor from Massachusetts and we met up for lunch in Le Marais. What seemed like a dreadful 4 days actually turned into something great. My time was well spent with friends and I felt absolutely surrounded by love. I felt really lucky.
Champagne by the Seine
The day before leaving for Sydney
When I saw that the money my ex said he would pay me was not in my bank account, I sent him a message asking what was going on. He then told me that he could not afford to pay me back, that he would never had agreed to me joining his family vacation if he had known the price and THEN he told me that he never agreed to pay me back to begin with. I felt like my head was spinning. I reminded him that he told me three times he would pay me back for the travel costs. He told me to “prove it”, knowing very well that I most-likely deleted all of our messages. I couldn’t believe it. I then just told him “fuck your money, just get out of my life and leave me alone.” He then started to taunt me by saying things like, “you know I would not have ever agreed to pay you that much money”, “you told me you only paid X amount of money”, “I would have never agreed and you know it.” I told him that he was my worst nightmare and that he was the worst person I’ve ever met. He responded with, “No, I’m the man you’re going to marry.” I blocked him immediately and sent both his sister and mother messages explaining what happened. His sister asked for my banking information and his mother wired me every cent I spent getting from Italy to Paris. She wrote me a heartfelt message and finished it up by saying, “I hope you use this time in Australia to forget you ever met my son.”
My ex harassed me with emails sent from three different accounts for four months. He threatened suicide, sent me crazed journal entries, tried to win me over by telling me how much he had changed, had friends of his (whom I had never met) message me. I never responded to any messages until he sent me one nearly four months later. A week later, I realized that if I didn’t say something, he would never stop. I grabbed my phone and wrote the most stinging email in less than two minutes. He has not contacted me since. Hallelujah.
Katherine
Taking a Trip Down Under: Part Three
