Sven: Part VII

This is the seventh part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI before continuing.

“Hey, Alicea, there’s someone here you should meet. This is Erin.” Fiona presented a woman who was a little taller than Alicea and who smiled warmly as she shook Alicea’s hand. “Erin was just telling me about her narrow escape from Creepy Sven.”

Alicea’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?” Alicea knew the meeting between Sven and her girlfriends hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped, but she had had no idea of Fiona having anything like this up her sleeve. Before she knew it, she was alone with Erin as Fiona practically shoved them together and then bailed.

“Sorry about that,” said Alicea. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her lately.”

“Oh, no. I was the one who asked her if I could talk to you. When she told me you had been dating Sven, I –”

“Wait, what? Dating? No. Definitely not dating. Just friends. We get together once a week just to have a couple drinks and catch up, but that’s it.”

Erin’s smile was sympathetic. “Yeah, that’s how it started with me, too.”

“How what started?”

“Everything. The controlling behavior. The manipulation. All of it.”

Alicea hesitated before saying, “That doesn’t sound like the Sven I know.”

“Doesn’t it? Doesn’t he look heartbroken every time you say you can’t hang out with him?”

Alicea paused.

“The truth is I never even wanted to go out with him, but he seemed so nice at first, so we hung out, and then it became obvious that he was super needy and annoying, but I just felt sorry for him. I couldn’t bear to tell him I didn’t want to hang out with him anymore, and it didn’t seem like such a big deal to just go along with it. But then he just took advantage of every situation to ingratiate himself further and further into my life and I wasn’t sure I could get out.”

Alicea shook her head. “I know what you mean, because he was that way when I first met him, but trust me, he’s changed.”

“This was all just last year, Alicea. Maybe you should trust me when I tell you he hasn’t.”

To be continued…