The Matchmaker Meets Her Match

SEVEN

Mary had a friend who was acquainted with an intern that worked at Sosha's firm. The information she received wasn't retrieved through snooping or gossiping. It had been simple, really, because all the intern had to do was to ask Sosha's co-worker about him and he happily obliged. It had been the same co-worker who would dine at the diner with Sosha every once in a while.

Mary had considered withholding the information from me until she learned that I had not gone back to the dormitory when the girls called earlier that morning. It didn't take long for her to realize that I had been with Sosha the previous night and was horrified. Of course, there was no way that I would sleep with a man if I knew that he was married. That was the type of person she thought me to be. Sosha had to have withheld the information from me to get me to go to the hotel where he was waiting.

I thought differently after I discovered that Sosha was married. Before, I would have never considered dating a married man. My heart had betrayed my ideals and I found myself thinking differently. I learned that Sosha was married but I had no intentions of ending my relationship with him. I laid on my bed at night, looking up at the bottom of the bed above me while in deep contemplation.

I was nothing but a mistress to him. His wife and children would always come first. What I had with him wouldn't last and though I knew that, I didn't want to end it with him. I was definitely my father's daughter. I didn't feel the slightest guilt at the thought of ruining a family. I was madly in love and did not care for what anyone thought or said. Sosha's feeling were yet to be defined but as long as he desired to be with me, even if it was only for a few nights, I would gladly be with him.

As I thought my life and love story over, I did not see Sosha for a few days and did not call to check on him. He had no way of communicating with me and was probably awaiting my call, but I didn't think to call him. I went through my work days focusing on my job. I avoided starting any conversations about him and Mary did not pester me with questions of whether or not I was going to see him again. I had no idea if I would and was slowly distancing myself from his image.

I hid the picture from the newspaper somewhere I wouldn't obtain it easily, only looking at his face a few times. He was very handsome still and I was proud that I had spent the night with a man like him. Ultimately, he was married to someone else. He had chosen to devout himself to that someone and to give his all to them and their children. I would never be the one for him.

So, as Mary expected to happen, I decided to forget about Sosha. I threw away the picture from the newspaper and asked Mary to set me up with one of her available male friends. It went great for a week with me seeing him everyday after work. He was charming and nice man who walked me home because he didn't think it safe for a young girl to be walking through the city on her own. Our first date was very successful and a second one came around, also successful.

A third date was on the way and I was to meet him later one evening when a familiar person walked through the front the door. It was Sosha, who had visited the diner only a week after the last time as opposed to the usual month. I was taken by surprise and so was Mary. She had believed that I would use the one month I wouldn't see him to forget about him and move on with the man I was to go on a third date with that night.

I was taking orders from another table when he entered and sat down at an unoccupied table. Looking across the room, I saw Mary, who shook her head upon seeing that I was looking at her. Sosha was obviously there for me and it would have been rude of me to ignore him. I walked over to his table with a menu and a notepad, not wanting to repeat the same mistake, and stopped before him with a forced smile on my face.

"What would you like to have?" I asked. He looked up at me, saw my smile, and a small one appeared on his face.

"You know, I never heard your name," he said, catching me by surprise. Of course, he still didn't know my name; didn't know anything about me at all.

"Beatrice," I obliged him by telling him my name.

"Beatrice," he repeated it. The way my name rolled off the tip of his tongue made my heart melt. I was falling for him all over again now that I was seeing him again. The only reason my feelings were fading were because I hadn't seen him in a while, not because he was actually married to someone else.

"You never called me. I've been waiting," he said next and I averted my eyes from his. How was I to tell him that I threw away his picture with his number on it because of what I had learned about him? I didn't want to seem disrespectful and now that my feelings had returned, I didn't want to push him away.

"I didn't think you were still interested in me," I replied and he nodded. He had made me believe that nothing else could come out of that fling but I was wrong. I wanted me and though no feelings were present, he didn't want to let me go.

"I want to see you again... just the two of us." His words brought back the memory of that night a week ago. My face began to glow a bright red. It was too late for me. I had fallen hard for him and there was no recovering from that.

I started seeing Sosha more often than I thought I would since that day. He would check us into different hotels where we didn't do anything erotic. Instead, we talked to each other for hours at a time. He wasn't only interested in sleeping with me but for me, the person I was. The thought that he was married never crossed my mind again and we saw each other many times over the course of four months. I hardly spent time at the dormitory. I immediately went straight to a specified hotel after work.

It eventually came to a point where he asked me to move out of the dormitory to an apartment he would pay for so that we wouldn't have to sneak around in hotels anymore. I did what he asked and said my goodbyes to the girls I never saw again. I still had my other family at the diner, all of whom respected my choices. Mary was not content with my relationship with Sosha but she did not disapprove of it. She respected my decision as well and ceased her meddling.

Sosha and I were happy together for about a year. He would stay at the apartment with me for a few days to a week from time to time under the pretense that he was away on a business trip. We went to many places together; traveled to different countries, went to the movies, on outdoor dates and the rest. At some point, he asked me to quite my job so he could spend more time with me. That was when I began to notice that Sosha had developed feelings for me to the point where he was becoming clingy and needy.

He rarely spent time at home with his family and didn't want me to leave the apartment without telling him where I was going. The city wasn't safe, I understood that, but he just wanted me wrapped around his finger. However, it was he who was wrapped around my finger. He would do whatever I asked of him including buying many things for me. He had a lot of money and was wealthy. Naturally, that wealth went up to my head and turned into what was referred to as a 'gold-digger'.

I spent his money when he was with me and when he wasn't. When I was bored and even when I wasn't. He bought a bigger apartment for me where I could put all the clothes, jewelry and shoes I bought. I hadn't noticed that my greed had overtaken me and had changed me completely. I started drinking again at parties he took me to and delved into his cigarette packs. There was no one left to keep me in check since it had been years since I saw Mary or the girls from the dormitory.

I didn't know how they were living life, if the ones in college had graduated yet. If any of them had children or lovers who were loyal to them. I never cared for the many years that passed by. I was enjoying the life of the rich while sleeping with a man who was still married.

It was when I was thirty-two years old that Sosha's wife finally learned he had been having an affair and filed for divorce. By then, he was in his late forties. His children had all grown up and moved away, leaving her alone in the house since her husband was rarely around. She was never a social person so she hadn't gone to parties or heard from anyone about the girl her husband was always with. His friends and co-workers Naturally assumed he had already been divorced. It was through a private investigator that the wife learned about me.

She threw a fit and was so upset and depressed that she broke anything in the house she could get her hands on. Sosha was shocked when he returned home and found the mess. They yelled at each other and she screamed at him, expressing the pain she felt. That same day, they came to an agreement; that it was better if they separated. He could be with his little tramp, is what she said, and she could move on with her life and be happy with someone else, is what he said.

The divorce proceedings weren't exactly easy. The wife took about fifty percent of his assets and his money, which I was not happy about. He assured me that he could earn it all back since the firm he now owned was very successful with many investors interested in it. I believed him and calmed down about the money matters. Everything went smoothly for another year and we were soon to be married. He had proposed and in less than six months, the wedding would happen and we would be happy together.

We would have our own children as Sosha's didn't want anything to do with him anymore. I had never met them and I could tell that they despised me. But I didn't care. As long as I had Sosha, I was happy. That was proven to not have been the case. I hadn't realized that my feelings for him had disappeared a long time ago and that it was his money that kept me happy around him. All I saw was money, expensive alcohol, parties and friend groups of high class that I was also a part of. I didn't see him for who he was anymore.

One day, when I was thirty-six, I was shocked to learn that the stocks and shares in his company had plummeted in value. His business was losing money rapidly and so was he. He was in distress, working hard to figure out what the problem was. He was rarely around and didn't send me any more money. He took his cards away from me, leaving me distraught. I grew angry and felt humiliated. It wasn't long until he went bankrupt.