As a married woman, I have eaten alone with male friends many times. I have exchanged emails containing personal writings about my life and past. I have gone on long walks with a male friend. I have drunk beer alone in an apartment with one. I have stayed up talking to a male friend on our own couch after Lloyd has gone to bed and left us in the living room. We have texted and talked on the phone. Men who are not my husband have been confidantes. Sometimes we’ve hung out as a group with my husband, but I’ve had a distinct friendship with men apart from their friendship with my husband.
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Finding the best of my love after abuse
Some people called him “Barefoot Lloyd”. On our small college campus, being the person who walked around barefoot could be a distinguishing feature where names failed. “Oh, you mean that guy who walks around barefoot?”
We were both English majors. The first time he asked me out, I told him I had a boyfriend. It was true. I had a boyfriend whom no one ever saw because he was older and above my college life. I never said much about him because the relationship had become stifling and emotionally abusive by that point. [Read more…]
