Confessions of a Christian Girl: Naked and Unashamed

Chapter Eight: Forever and Always

A full year had passed since Justin and I had been dating and it has been amazing! Every day I wake up and I thank God for blessing me with Justin. It’s amazing to know that God loved me so much that he took the time to create him especially for me and vice versa. It was now Valentine’s Day weekend and I wanted to do something special. I invited him over and I decided to portray one of the scenes from my latest romance novel I had been reading. When he came inside I had rose petals from the doorway leading all the way to the basement. Once we got to the basement I had a big black blanket spread out on the floor with some of Justin’s favorite foods spread out. We fed each other and I actually read a poem aloud that I had written especially for him. 

“Nicole this was so sweet of you. I’ve never had a female put this much thought into doing something for me. You’re effort has been duly noted baby,” he kissed me before saying, “close your eyes.” I closed my eyes and when I opened them, he had a small box in his hand. My heart began to pound uncontrollably and I started sweating….was this what I think it was? 

“Open it baby,” he encouraged.

Opening the box, I saw the most gorgeous pair of diamond stud earrings. I must admit, I thought it was an engagement ring in that box but I was more than grateful for the earrings. I’ve never had a guy give me something without expecting to get anything in return. He also gave me the cutest stuffed animal. I named him Valentino in honor of our first valentine’s day. This day was so special to me and I appreciated Justin so much for sharing it with me. At the end of the night, I couldn’t stop professing my love to him. I loved him and I wanted the world to know.

It seemed that finally my dreams were coming true. Instead of being bitter about love, I began to embrace love. Once Justin came into my life, it seemed as if I became one of those characters from a fairytale. I had my prince charming and things were going great…but just like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…we ended up having our first major fight.

It was a Friday morning and I had just come back from the bank when I got a phone call from Vic. He was saying how he wanted to see me and how he needed to talk to me about something important. I hung up the phone and called Justin. I told him what happened on the phone with Vic and he told me to change my phone number when I got in the house. I did as I was told. I only gave my new phone number to a selected number of people. When Vic couldn’t reach me via telephone, he began sending me emails…disturbing emails. In one of the emails he said how he was dying and how he needed me back in his life. The other emails were descriptions of my whereabouts. He had been following me around and he made it known. Once again, I called Justin because I was scared at this point. I knew Vic was crazy and the threats that he made in those emails were very descriptive and vulgar. 

“Baby calm down. I’m on my way over there now,” Justin reassured me.

When he arrived, he took me to the police station and I filed a restraining order against Vic. He was allowed to come near me. I felt safer. For months I hadn’t heard anything from Vic, no calls, texts, or emails. Just when I began to feel normal again, he showed how evil he really was. It was Friday evening and Justin had picked me up from work. We were inside of the bank when I noticed that I was missing $400 from my checking account. Justin began to question me about it and all I could do was suspect that Vic was the one to take it. He was the only person that knew all of my information besides my mother. 

Vic’s tactics began to put a damper on my relationship with Justin. We argued over meaningless things. I began to feel like that insecure little girl again. I began second guessing everything that he did. I questioned his whereabouts, his loyalty to me, who he was with, and pretty much everything he said and did. It was as if Vic still had control over me and Justin didn’t like it. He broke up with me and I cried for a month straight. I felt like my best friend was taken away from me. I felt lost and lonely again. I texted and called Justin non-stop for 2 weeks before he finally said anything to me.