First Story
Devon told his story first as we ate our canapes and drank champagne. He was quite animated, jabbing his finger as he spoke of his workmate and lover's betrayal.
Lyssa was an outgoing and popular single mother, with a teenage daughter, Shelley, who had always been her priority. She had rigid ideas about parenting which meant she would sacrifice her own happiness in order to keep her relationship with Shelley exclusive. That said, she and Devon had for many years flirted with each other at work, half joking about setting up home together one day in the future when Shelley was independent. Devon lamented the day eighteen months ago when Lyssa, working with the elderly, met an undertaker called Frank who in spite of his dour demeanour, somehow swept her off her feet-she was smitten.
Within weeks they were looking at houses and planning an engagement. Devon was devastated. Lyssa forsook all her friends for Frank, even though he refused to socialise at all. He was jealous of her friendships, and Devon found that whenever he phoned, Lyssa would cut the conversation short saying Frank needed her. Weeks passed and there was no engagement ring, no party and no house purchase.
Yet Lyssa persisted in telling her friends that there would be a wedding on 10.10.10 - a date she had long wished to be her wedding day, and that this would be a Sex and the City type wedding in New York.
Devon was concerned. It was apparent to him that Frank was a Walter Mitty character, pandering to her desires but never intending to follow through. She never went to the house he shared with his parents and brother. When his mother died she wasn't invited to the funeral (which Frank conducted).
October 10th was approaching and still no flight was booked in fact Lyssa admitted to Devon that Frank had no passport. Shelley seemed to know nothing about the intended nuptials, yet Frank had won her round with an iPhone and an ipad. Lyssa was still professing her love for Frank when October drew to a close. Devon was getting increasingly concerned-Lyssa still hadn't been to Frank's house and he now had a key to her flat.
Lyssa forgot her friends' birthdays and for the first Christmas in 8 years hadn't sent Devon a card. Was she totally under this liar's spell? How could Devon rescue her? The only light in the tunnel came from an event at Lyssa's mother's death when Frank refused to drive her to her ex husband's house to pick up Shelley and take her to say goodbye to her dying grandma.
Lyssa couldn't understand his reluctance to help her, yet later he conducted the funeral and impressed the rest of her family. We all agreed that maybe soon, the scales would fall from her eyes and she would realise Frank was just stringing her along.
There were more stories about Lyssa to unfold which Devon promised to tell us during the next course.
