“He was a gentleman. He opened car doors, took me out on dates, gave me compliments and seemed to have all the good qualities I wanted in a mate. And he was fine, he was a good looking man,” said Cheryl B. Cheryl B. isn’t her real name but for the sake of this story and to protect her identity and safety we will refer to this woman as such. Cheryl said she met her former boyfriend, “Chris” through her job and eventually exchanged numbers after he sought her about a personal matter regarding his family. “Chris, called me up one day at work and asked me if I could met him downtown for lunch. I thought nothing of it because we were only business associates at that time. Once I got there, he introduced me to his mother, we ate, and we discussed how we would handle his personal matter,” said Cheryl.
Cheryl said she remained professional with him but as time went on they developed a friendship outside of work. She would invite Chris and his family to her church, and they would later gather for dinner too. Cheryl mentioned she eventually would have a conversation with her church sister about Chris’s background. The church sister stated she went to school with his sister and knew how he grew up. This information would later become valuable to Cheryl as her friendship with Chris progressed.
“Once our professional ties finally wrapped up, I got a call from Chris inviting me to dinner one evening. I agreed to meet with him and he expressed to me how he liked me and would like to date me. I was flattered and thought, well I already had a great rapport with him and his family. So I didn’t object to him wanting to get to know me better,” said Cheryl. “We started dating and taking things slow. We would go to the movies, the park, attend community events and just do normal couple things. But this all changed quickly once my job started becoming more demanding and had to put in more hours at work, said Cheryl.”
She said his kind and gentle spirit eventually turned into something like the “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyell and Mr. Hyde” literally speaking. “I, mean I was at work one day and he called me on the phone while I was with a client and asked me ‘Cheryl, are you cheating on me?’ Clearly, I thought this was a joke because he would at times act silly and try to play pranks on me. But I heard his voice change in tone and I knew immediately he wasn’t joking with me.” I told him “No, I’m not cheating on you I’m at work and I don’t have time to play these games with you right now. I have a client in my car and would talk to you later.”
He then replied, “You’re lying and you’re always at work late.” So, to prove my innocence, which I shouldn’t have… I took a picture of me with my client inside my car and sent it to his phone. But he claimed I could’ve taken that picture awhile ago instead of taking it in real time,” said Cheryl.
“The acts of jealousy and suspicion of cheating was the beginning of this craziness and it continued to get worse,” replied Cheryl. “I mean, it really started to get crazy. It was like he would make up stuff in his head and accuse me of everything under the moon, including sleeping with my neighbor. I didn’t understand where all of his insecurities were coming from. We spent lots of time together, talked consistently on the phone throughout the day but it seemed as if I wasn’t by his side physically he would think I was off cheating,” she explained.
Cheryl B. described a time when her mother texted her really late at night and Chris happen to be spending the night at her house. “My mother and I were close and she knew I was a night owl, so it wasn’t uncommon to get a random text from her at 2 am. But Chris made a rude comment saying I need to tell my mother not to text so late because it would wake up my man. Girl, I almost gasped for air! How dare you say that to me and be bold enough to tell me to deliver that message to my mother. Who does that,” asked Cheryl?
Cheryl said she sought her friend and a few family members for advice after she and Chris had gotten into an argument and he called her out of her name.