It was January of 2009 and I had woken up that morning with a sad errand on my schedule.
My pet bunny Pebbles had passed away and I needed to go bury her in my parents backyard.
I had named her Pebbles because that's what she made in my hand when I first held her. Her companion Bam-Bam had died only a month earlier and I think that loss, along with the move to the new house, somehow caused her to simply stop living. I only moved to the other side of town from my parents house and I had a small pet cemetery in their back yard in which Bam-Bam had already been put to rest. I had to do it that day because Pebbles had actually died a week earlier and my roommates were starting to complain about the dead rabbit being kept in the freezer.
I had just loaded the deceased into my Jeep when my phone rang. I saw on the caller ID that it was Heather and when I put the phone to my ears I could tell immediately that she was crying. My first thought was, "Aww, she's crying because Pebbles is dead." I had done some crying over it myself, after all.
My second thought was, "Idiot, she's not calling about your bunny. How would she even know about it?" We had not spoken to each other for a few months.
I eventually found the clarity to be responsive and I asked her what was wrong. It took her a few deep breaths and sighs before she could get it out. Ryan had been cheating on her.
Not just regular cheating either.
She had been with Ryan for almost two years. They worked at a little dinner theater and had acted in several plays together. They had moved in together, gotten a joint checking account, a time share in Florida and two cats. They had spoken seriously about marriage and jokingly referred to each other as husband and wife. The entire time they had been together he had been cheating on her with the same person, Casey.
Casey was more than just a mildly moronic blonde with big tits, she was a stripper too. When she wasn't working as a stripper, she worked as an actress, in a little dinner theater, with Ryan and Heather. Her vanity was right next to Heather's and they had sat next to each other every night for almost two years, and Casey had been sleeping with Ryan behind Heather's back the entire time. Casey even had her own boyfriend named Craig, whom she had married. Heather and Ryan had been invited to the wedding.
The affair continued past the wedding until one day when Casey had a big, blow-out fight with Craig and told him she had been sleeping with Ryan purely to hurt him. She told him that she and Ryan were in love and that they had plans to leave Craig and Heather so that they could run off and get married.
Craig had sought out a shoulder to cry on and ended up pouring his heart out to a woman who had met Heather and Ryan at the wedding. When this mutual acquaintance asked Craig if he had informed Heather that she was being similarly betrayed, he answered that he didn't know how. So this woman took it upon herself to call Heather and be the bearer of bad news.
Of course all she said over the phone at first was, "Ryan's been cheating on me." She explained that she was at work but she couldn't focus and needed to leave but she was too upset to drive.
It took me a few seconds to realize what she really needed, "Do you want me to come pick you up?" I asked.
The answer was yes. As she had sat there at work having just found out that her committed relationship was a lie, she realized that all of her current friends were also co-workers at the little dinner theatre. She knew that the story would spread through the troupe with true theatre gossip speed and that it would not be long before everyone knew. She had needed a friend that wasn't a part of that world, and I had been the first person she thought of.
I picked her up at work and through streaming tears and sniffled sighs as she got in my Jeep she said, "Nice car." It was new (certified pre-owned) and I was delighted that she was able to notice and comment on it, despite her emotional state. I played the "I Will Survive" cover by Cake off of a newly burned CD and drove her to come hang out with me at my house while she told me the story that I've just shared with you.
We ended up spending almost every day together for the next six months.
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