My Best Friend Married A Prostitute

What happened to my best friend, Paul, could happen to anybody. You meet somebody new and you take whatever they tell you about themselves on face value. And that alone can be bad enough when you come to realise that what you have been told is speckled with lies, half truths and self delusion, but it's the parts that they don't tell you about that can really trip you up.

Paul met and fell madly in love with a very beautiful blond who was great fun, sexy and very well endowed. In time they got married and settled down to a life of domestic bliss. All was well until one night whilst having a bath together she blurted out something that shook him to the core.

What Maria told Paul was that before she met him she had worked as a waitress at a restaurant in the city. That much he already knew. What she had omitted to tell, until now, was that she had accepted money from male diners for sex after her shift had finished.

At first my friend didn't know how to react to this news and confided in me and his brother, and we both told him the same thing. Sex for money is nothing less than prostitution, no matter how you try to dress it up. Paul is a good man and tried to defend Maria saying "Who knows what any of us will do for money if and when we find ourselves in desperate circumstances."

Paul's brother and I had to agree. However, Maria had a well paid full time job and no financial responsibilities such as children or loans or mortgages. So maybe she did it for the thrill of it. And if that was the case then it put a totally different complexion on the matter. Who was to say if she wouldn't do it again for example? What also intrigued me was why mention it now after getting married, indeed why mention it at all? Whatever, Paul decided to be none judgemental about the matter and said no more of it.

Not too many years later Paul discovered that Maria was having sex with a petty thief. She had discovered that this low life was stealing some very valuable product from a member of her own extended family who he had worked for for many years. The thief payed her hush money and in so doing had inveigled her into his confidence, making her complicit in his illegal activities.The relationship then progressed to her accepting money for sex. She was now well and truly in it up to her neck.

Sadly for Paul this signalled the end of his marriage which ended with a very contentious divorce, and that was just the start. Furious that she had been found out by Paul she set about trying to take him for every penny he had ever earned. Even that was not enough for this spiteful little madam. Like the perverse narcissist that she was, Maria did everything she could to totally destroy Paul. It was like trying to destroy the evidence after the crime, or more to the point, to destroy the only person with an interest in exposing her for her deception. Maria just wanted to pummel Paul into dust, and at the same time tried to appear the victim. It has to be said that Maria was highly successful in her malicious intents.

In better days Maria had persuaded Paul to put a brand new car he bought for himself in her name with that old feminine trick that if he didn't it meant he didn't trust her, and that meant that he didn't love her, and if he didn't love her then why was he with her. Needless to say she kept the car and sold it walking off with the best part of thirty thousand pounds.

Again, in better days, Paul had put a very substantial deposit on a new house. This time he put it both his and her name. However, Maria tried to deceive him out of his house, and although with this one she failed, her attempts were successful in Paul losing the whole deposit of almost fifty thousand pounds!

Paul ended up penniless, living on the streets, fearful for his own life. Maria had managed to manipulate so many people, family and friends, some of whom simply wanted to give Paul a damn good beating for the lies she told about him, and even the police and the courts. Maria claimed that Paul was a threat to her and ought to be sent to jail for her safety. Paul escaped being sent to jail by a whisker.

At the same time Maria, who was more than physically able to land a good punch herself, brutally attacked Paul kicking and punching and biting and screaming......and got clean away with it because the police refused to believe that a woman was capable of causing such serious injury.

In the end, when there was very little left to steal or destroy. Maria just upped and left the country, no doubt in search of yet another poor victim. However, even that was only after two of her post divorce lovers had mysteriously died prematurely. Paul did report his suspicions to the authorities who told him that unless he could come up with some solid evidence to stop wasting their time.

These days Paul lives in secret very far away. He still hasn't got a penny to his name and is too old to start all over again. However, he has found some level of peace and tranquility and is grateful for small mercies.

Looking back, Paul told me, he very deeply regretted not only ever getting involved with the woman, but also he lamented being so forgiving of her secret history as a common prostitute. He felt he had every right to walk out of his marriage right there and then. I guess Paul is one of those people who are just too good towards others for his own good. I did tell him, a leopard never changes its spots, he didn't listen then, perhaps he'll listen now.