Hell Hath No Fury

I am still in semi shock from the call I received slightly after lunch today. My thoughts may not be very coherent so bear with me. I gotta set a couple of background scenarios so you can fully comprehend the story I am about to relate.

Background One
I was coerced by a couple of ex-school mates to join some site connecting people all over the world. The minute you do that, all the contacts of friends are then cross-referenced to your own contact list to see what degree of friends you have in common and so on. Anyways, I realised later on that this also led to tonnes of people surfing thru my site and sending msgs to be friends. It couldav been some sorta 'Pick A Girl' past time for some of the more pathetic ones. *sigh*

One such msg came from a friend of a friend, X. X started off innocent enough. Having things to say rather than a silly pick up line. He got interested in what I did for a living and started asking work related issues then. I got the impression that he wanted to be a friend so he could get free professional advice from me, which was just fine with me. We even exchanged HP numbers on an occassion whilst he was working on some project that required my professional expertise.

When he later started hinting at wanting something more physical than just a friendship, I stopped taking him seriously. He became someone I never gave two thoughts to more than the usual Hi and Bye. The faux salutations carried on for over a year. To be frank, because I didn't do more than say hello in reply to his, I don't know much about him as a person. I did know however, that he was hiding more than he was eluding to. I just wasn't bothered to find out what it was.

Background Two
During my trip to Taipei, I received several calls from a number I did not recognize, followed by several from a private number. I never once picked up those calls just because I didn't feel like it.

The Shock
Well the other shoe dropped today. I received a call from my office line soon after lunch. When I picked up the call, I heard a guy's rather loud pleas "Nade! Don't do this Nade! PLEASE NADE... I beg of you Nade!" This went on for quite awhile and I didn't want to hang up the phone as it was rude to do so to a business call. Soon after, I heard a female voice. She said hello a couple of times before loud male pleas drowned out her voice. I was wondering if she was calling me at a bad time and if she wouldn't rather call me later, after she had resolved whatever it was happening at the time.

Anyways, it soon unfolded. She asked if I have corresponded with a person by the handle name X. She proceeded to apologize for disturbing me and putting me on the spot. She said she has already warned him once before that he really shouldn't go online and say such things. She said it was disrespectful. He was still hollering at her side, telling her not to say so much to me and to stop explaining.

I on the other hand, was having difficulty comprehending what she was really saying. Did she really think he went online solely for virtual flirting and it was this that she wasn't too happy with? Or was she trying to say in not so many words, that she knew he was being unfaithful to her. Anyways, she asked if I took him seriously. I told her of course I didn't, which was why we never met. He was screaming at her side, saying that he lied about everything and that we never met. I was like "Oh my gosh! That mustav been quite some lunch, this isn't really happening. I CANNOT be taken to be a third party when I haven't done or intended to do anything."

Anyways, she said that she has a couple of the messages he sent me on record. I told her then she could infer from those messages that I didn't respond to him in kind. She then asked if he has ever once told me he had a wife and kids. That was when time stood still. Gosh! WIFE and kids? I was silent for moments before whispering:"OMG! You are his WIFE?" She replied that she was... I told her I was sorry for her. This seemed to have been a slap across her face for she drew a sharp intake of breath before repeating "Sorry for me?".

I said "It must be tough on you to have to verify on what he is doing online and going through a list now can't be easy. This is what I am sorry about". She proceeded to say that there is no list and he says that I am the only one. I knew then that it must be the heat from lunch that fried my brains, causing this illusionary nightmare now. How could I be the only one targetted when he has always bragged about his regular fuck buddies? I haven't even met the sod nor have I ever once entertained anything about being a fuck buddy. Good Lord! A wife and kids and he hunts online? Geez! The poor wife! What must she be feeling?!!

Anyways, I told her that I have no romantic notions toward her husband and that I never intended to meet him despite whatever messages he may have sent me. I told her that I never knew about him having a wife and kids but didn't mention that he has maintained that he was single and has not met the right one to date. I told her that we could meet in person if she wanted to and that I was really sorry that she was going through this right now. All through our entire conversation, he was pathetically begging for her to stop doing this. I don't think I have seen a man more pathetic than what I have heard during our entire tele-conversation.

She said she believes me for I sound sincere (how else would I sound when this is the truth?) and that she doesn't need to bother me further by meeting up. I told her to take care of herself and not to keep apologizing. I understand her need to verify this and that I will be around if she requires more answers.

I hung up absolutely bewildered. This happens only to people who have been guilty. I have never heard of the innocent being ensnared in such a treacherous pseudo-adulterous situation. Gosh... I wouldn't mind such a call if I had really been an innocent but naughty participant. Then I got a little miffed at having been put into the role of an adulterer. Geez... the nerve of that sod! As if!

Anyways, I then concluded that those calls I received whilst in Taipei must have been from her then. I don't even know her name and number. It was one of those rare situations where I had nothing to say then but a trillion to say and ask later. I wanted to ask her what she was asking me in the afternoon and what she really wanted to know.

Did she want to know:
1) If I believed all that he said online and was in love with her husband?
2) Or was she really asking if we had been intimate for real?

Does that mean that she doesn't really approve of him flirting online but didn't think it was that big a deal? If that were the case, could a woman really be that naive and think online flirting always ended there?

Anyways, I don't think I helped her much either ways. I pray for her sanity and her life together with her kids thereafter. There isn't much else I can tell her that would give her any real comfort and security. I just pray that she really considers again giving her life to such a man and that she decides to leave him sooner rather than later. From what I am hearing, I do not think she is going to leave him at all. *Sigh*

Are woman usually the ones on the receiving end of infidelity?
I thank the stars above in my firm belief that no one fully understands what it means to say "I Do" and "Forever" at the altar. Goodness... and people keep hounding me to get married.

Nay I say! I respectfully pass this option if this is a peek glance at what is to come.