A year ago, almost to the day, I made a new friend.
It was during that epic, weird Halloween snowstorm that hit here in the northeast. We ended up talking for 8 hours on the phone and soon became very close.
In the ensuing year, we became fast friends. We would talk or text at least 4 or 5 times a week...sometimes daily. We listened to our mutual problems and offered help and ideas, and sometimes just a friendly ear.
When I was in the hospital in July, he called me at least 3 or 4 times a day, and the same pattern continued when I was home recuperating.
I liked him very much; not as anything more than a friend, but I thought that after a year, we had a pretty firm foundation. We had shared so much and it seemed like something good for both of us.
This "Frankenstorm" that seems imminent reminds me of meeting him that day and what a nice addition to my life his friendship was.
I say was, because about two weeks ago, he cut me out of his life and sold our entire friendship down the river over the most petty of reasons ... a woman. We had talked about her many times...about how she had hurt him and treated him badly. About how he kept going back to her even though he knew she didn't care for him the way he cared for her (and had told him this point blank). He was resolute about not doing it again.
He failed. And instead of telling me about it, as he had many times before, he slammed the door on our friendship and that my friends, as they say in the movies, is that.
I've been hurt and betrayed by men I've been in love with...that's the proverbial story of my life. I've never had a friend betray me like this. It's a different kind of hurt, and loss.
