Complications and Lies

There had been little doubt on my part of Susan's fidelity or veracity in spite of some rather far fetched claims about being related to the Louisville Courier-Journal Binghams-an air even more rarefied than my humble family. Susan had evident doubts about my faithfulness, however. On the night of the 1996 Georgia-Tennessee football game, I asked if I could come over and watch on her ESPN cable. I did not have a key to her condo at that point and she said she would be working. I told her that I would go to a strip mall near her condo and watch the game on one of the screens at a bar or restaurant there. As it turned out, a sports bar a block from my house which I thought would have been packed was virtually empty, so instead of driving five more miles, I opted to watch the game there. As another synchronicity, a Marshall man came in and watched the game next to me. I was excited to tell Susan who was a Marshall alum of the small world coincidence. When I returned home and called her, she was irate. "Who have you been out fucking around on me with?" she demanded. "Pardon" was my shocked response. "Where in the hell have you been? I got off early and went to Lion's Head to meet you and you were no where in sight. I looked everywhere and then started rolling up and down the fucking highway looking for your lying ass." I could not comprehend the venom. I had a delightful story to tell her and she was absolutely spiteful. I was in the dark about her psychotic level of jealousy; this was my eye opener. She eventually accepted that my evening had been completely innocent but instead of backing off, made it clear that I should never make a mistake about my whereabouts with her again. I, on the other hand, gave her great latitude in "running errands" which she was constantly doing when not at work or in class-she was pursuing continuing education credits and started study to complete a nurse practitioner degree. I was overjoyed that she was continuing the conversion classes on her route to join my faith. One morning, Susan said she had a conversion class at Temple that evening, a few blocks from my home. I tried through the day to contact her on her work-provided pager about going out to dinner after the class which she had said would end that night at seven.When I failed to reach Susan, my parents and I decided to meet her at the temple and take her to dinner after her class. On arrival there, only one car was in the parking lot and the building's doors were locked. As I walked back to the car, a secretary emerged and relocked the entrance from the outside. I asked her about what had happened to tonight's conversion class. She explained that the introduction to Judaism classes Susan had said she had been taking had run for three weeks alternating between the various temples and synagogues but had ended six months ago with another cycle of classes about to start in a couple of weeks. I thanked her, but realized Susan who said she was off to the introduction to Judaism conversion class two nights a week had been lying to me for six months. I did not confront Susan about the deception, but ever thereafter, I was skeptical about Susan's so-called classes and occasionally would drive to see if her car was where she said she was going to be. Only once was the Celica where she told me she would be when she had enrolled in a dance class in One Hundred Oaks and the sports car was indeed parked there.