At the end of my senior year of college I was very busy doing my internship. I was lucky if I had 30 spare minutes, even on weekends. This did not fare well with my love life since Linda, the girl I had been seeing steady for about a year, didn't see me very often either. One Saturday I got lucky and had no responsibilities to deal with. I found this out Saturday afternoon and I immediately went to see Linda. I was surprised when she said she had to study and was going to stay in Saturday night. Of course I protested, telling her we rarely got a chance to go out for anything more than a quick lunch or dinner and asked her to put the studying off until Sunday. She said she couldn't do that. So I went home, it looked like I was going to be spending my rare free Saturday night alone.
As I sat in my apartment I couldn't stop thinking about Linda. I couldn't understand why she would not compromise and go out with me. She was always willing to make an abrupt change of plans if it afforded her a chance to have sex. It had been a while since we set up a love nest and I really needed one. So I decided to do some detective work. At about 7 o'clock in the evening I went to the girl's dorm she was staying in and called her room. There was no answer. Then I saw her roommate in the lobby. She and I were friends too. I asked her where Linda was because she didn't answer the phone. She said Linda left about 6:30 and she didn't know where she was. That seemed odd too. She and her roommate told each other everything.
I walked outside and saw some other people Linda and I knew. When I asked them if they had seen her or knew where she was they didn't know a thing. I walked up and down the street for about a half hour asking any body that knew Linda and I if they knew where she was. A lot of people knew we were a couple but none of them knew her whereabouts. It was like a Twilight Zone story, Linda seemed to have disappeared and no one knew a thing about her.
I was looking forlorn standing by a telephone poll in front of the girl's dorm. A giant guy wearing a football jersey walked up to me and said, "Hey buddy, I think I know where you can find the girl you are looking for." I didn't know this guy, didn't recall ever seeing him on campus and I wondered why he was willing to help me. He didn't know me either but I immediately replied, "Damn, that sure would be nice." He said, "I'll see that no body stops you, follow me."
We walked about a half block to this big house the college provided for the football players to live in. It was a nice old place and had three floors, plus an attic. I thought we would never stop climbing steps. It seemed like there were a lot of guys in the stairway as we went up and they looked sheepishly at me. I had been getting that kind of look from a lot of people today. Finally we reached the top floor, the attic. There were a couple of guys standing at the door of one of the rooms. My big friend asked them to step aside and he and I walked into the room. There was my heartthrob Linda, naked with a guy in bed. Actually, there were other naked guys standing around watching. I knew what this was. I only looked at her for a few seconds, until I was sure she saw me. Then I turned to the big guy, shook his hand and thanked him for helping me. He said, "No problem buddy, I would hope if it happened to me some one would do the same for me." He and I left. I never saw him again.
Oddly enough, I didn't seem to be hurting. Seeing her cheat made it easy for me to end it with her, and I did, immediately when she called me about an hour later to apologized. I wanted nothing to do with her again as a couple. And those other people I thought were my friends, who told me nothing when they knew I was desperate to find Linda that evening, weren't friends at all. The only friend I had that night was a guy I didn't even know. I don't know his name but I will forever appreciate his compassion. That night I learned to be more cautious about calling someone a friend because they may not be the friend you think they are.