She’s at the beach, sitting on the sea wall, cellphone dangling aimlessly in one hand and a wine glass clutched in the other, at a glance, the scene was quite picturesque. Beautiful melanated goddess basking in the glow of the evening’s sun with sister locs cascading down her back. One would have to look closely to notice the telltale signs of overwhelming dejection. Her shoulders were slumped and her head hung low. Occasionally she would swipe at the tears trickling down. There was no sound beyond the waves gently splashing against the shore. Sadness emanated from her entire being.

Cautiously, she was approached. A gentle hand rested on her shoulder. What was meant to bring comfort, unleashed the agonizing, soul-shattering howl from deep within. This howl spoke of pain and anguish.

The pain of betrayal

The pain of regret

The pain of having loved and lost

This was the pain of heartbreak.

She was engulfed in comforting arms and encouraged to unleash it all. What seemed like forever was only a few minutes as her wails became whimpers and then eventually silence.

With red-rimmed eyes and a shaky hand, she took a drink from the wine glass and gave a crooked smile.

“I thought what we had was something special”, she said.

“I’m sure it was, I said. Then asked, “Do you remember how you met?”

She smiled and leisurely ran her hands through her locs.

“Of course”, she exclaimed, “how could I forget. After all you introduced us, we were all hanging out at the beach, listening to Jazz music and enjoying our Friday evening”.

She reminisced for a few minutes before I interjected while interlacing our fingers together “Do you remember his girlfriend?”

The silence between us lingered for a while and for a split second, the tension was palpable. Our bond, thankfully, was truly tried and tested. Hence the ability to have an uncomfortably honest conversation existed.

“You allowed yourself to be courted by a man who had a girlfriend. This was a fact we all knew. Yet you encouraged the chase. You even enjoyed it! Enjoyed it so much that when he supposedly severed ties with her to be with you, you broadcast every smile, hug, and date on social media. You even went so far as to post pictures of you two together while he slept next to his girlfriend. You reveled in being able to take any man that you want.”

At this point, she tried to remove herself from our embrace, unsuccessfully.

Taking a sip from her wine glass our conversation continued“We all deserve healthy happy intimate relationships and a relationship whose foundation is built on the tears of another is never a good start. In your single-mindedness, you forgot the #1 rule of relationship “how you get ‘em is how you will lose ‘em hunni.”