Be not afraid my dear peeps. If you haven’t been cheated on yet, you are just around the corner. There is single cheating, double cheating, cheating combo and cheating with delicious toppings induced by certain atmospheres, adventures and creative individuals. All in all, cheating in all flavors! Unfortunately you don’t get to choose the flavor you want. Poor you.
Like every other habit or trend brought to our beloved society through globalization and media, and because it’s so cool to become “Americanized”, talk in “Franco-Arab” and follow the latest Western trends, betrayal and disloyalty within relationships has become as dangerous as the power of Bin Laden over Al-Qaeda.
It’s no fiction, it’s real. Picture this: A man, let’s call him “Timmy” who was in a relationship with, let’s say “Lara”. Timmy was an average man in his mid-twenties, nice, kind and loving, surrounded by friends, and an artist. And like everyone else, he wasn’t perfect; he had his flaws, possessive, obsessive and pessimistically realistic. Lara on the other hand was the kind of girl who would blow away the mind of any man who wants to love life, full of positivity and keenness to a better life. And that was a problem; that she always thought the grass was greener on the other side, hence she was never satisfied with what she had and always looked for something better. After Timmy got to know her, he realized that she was everything he has ever hoped for and wanted. They made each other happy, the typical fairy tale: Gone bad.
A year and a few months later, Timmy decided to take the big step and face all obstacles like Farid Shawkey in “Antara ibn Shaddad” when he was undisputed and ran everyone over to get to his beloved “Abla”. Timmy faced his parents, long conversations, arguments, pushing and pulling until finally, Timmy’s parent’s stepped forward and paid a visit to Lara’s family. Engagement! Wohoo!
And like any relationship worldwide, as soon as family members get involved, trouble starts to bloom. “Where’s your apartment Timmy?” Timmy struggles for months, and voila! Mission Apartment, accomplished! But Timmy is a Sculptor in other words, unstable income, which is of course inconvenient for Lara’s parents. And although Timmy loved his job passionately, he considered quitting art and looking for a more stable source of income, all for Lara, because she’s the love of his life, The One! Or so he thought.
More trouble, struggles and suddenly, Lara assumed neutrality, accordingly, Timmy is confused. What happened to his sweetheart, he did not know. Why he was no longer being supported in the struggle for them to end up together “happily ever after,” was beyond him. Lara drifted away, asked him for space, Timmy got furious as she avoided him and didn’t even want to sit down and try to solve the accumulated dilemma that was, supposedly, their combined life. Funny though, a new boy showed up in town, a so-called long lost cousin, we’ll call him Steve, and Timmy felt her drift away further and further. Lara found refuge from her own predicament. And while Timmy struggled to keep the slowly falling pieces of his long awaited marriage-to-be, Lara threw herself into Steve’s warm arms; they went on an “innocent” family trip to a prestigious beachside resort, a perfect spot for sin.
Timmy, on the other hand, under the false impression that he has been pressuring his sweetheart, deliberately backed off for a while, and gave her the space she asked for, so “she can recollect her thoughts and mindset”. He tried to keep himself busy and plan for a better future, he struggled further to improve himself and his own potential. On the other hand, Lara and Steve were in a haven of their own living their own sinful honeymoon. Suspicion crept to Timmy’s mind, a feeling that was fortified by the difference in Lara’s attitude upon her return. She was not the same, distant and different, a whole different person with a constant attitude, the attitude of a person who’s hiding something. Timmy freaked out, asking everyone around them if they know anything; everyone declines, until Timmy made the discovery himself, through sheer coincidence.
He has been cheated on. A monster slap in the face.
Timmy might not have been the most perfect man in the world for Lara, and Lara could have turned out to be a good person deep inside, and every person is bound to fall into the trap of lust, mistakes are inevitable sometimes. But mind you, there is no reason whatsoever that would justify betrayal. If you’re unhappy in your relationship, be it normal friendship or otherwise, end it. Period. Rather than being labeled a cheater.
A friend of mine once said: “Let not the seemingly pretty appearance of a cheater fool you, for they are, in fact, rotten and hideous on the inside, a fraudulent decoration to a dead, wicked, soul.” And just as Timmy has been cheated on, betrayed, many others have been in our beloved society, both males and females. It has become something that is looked upon as a “normal” mistake, it’s NOT!
