maría

Maria Maria had been in Rome for just ten days when she left her boyfriend’s flat to go to live in a
rented room.
Desperation had forced her to do what she hadn’t wanted to. Now she was living in an area not so
far from Giancarlo’s place hoping he would beg her to go back and tell her that it had all been
one huge mistake. Her dreams had been shattered not long after she’d joined him in Rome to start
a new life together.

An English girl had placed an ad on a website seeking an Italian flat-mate who loved cats and
dogs. Maria had seen the ad and noticed that the room was not too expensive and that everything
was included. She’d lied when she said she loved cats. Really she was a bit scared of them. She
hadn’t lied though when she said she loved dogs.

She tried her best to act as if nothing was wrong the day she went to view the room. She put on a
huge smile and introduced herself and was as friendly as friendly could be. She forced herself to
pat the two cats, to make it look as though she did indeed love cats, and played a bit with the dog.
The dog was lovely. He was big and cuddly and very friendly and playful and the room, she loved it.
It had a French window leading out onto a large garden and was all peach coloured and bright
and sunny. She liked the English girl too and thought she could put up with someone else’s pets
seeing the room was such a bargain compared to the cost of the other rooms she’d seen
advertised in the area. They’d all wanted a whole lot more not to mention the additional expenses
which were not included. And there were about three or four others to share with. Here there was
only the English girl so that meant the bathroom would not be occupied night and day and there’d
be plenty of space in the fridge to organise her foodstuffs. She also thought it would be a good
way to practise her English instead of paying for costly private lessons. She’d already forked out a
small fortune in the past, or rather, her parents had.

Her mother and father were not rich people and had made a lot of sacrifices to invest in their
daughter’s future. Now it seemed those sacrifices were beginning to pay off since Maria had been
one of the lucky ones to land a good job, as a teacher in a primary school, with quite a good salary
and a permanent contract – not so easy to come by in Italy nowadays.

It was Saturday morning when she moved her belongings into the new place. As she sat in the
kitchen drinking coffee and getting to know her new flatmate she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

She was thinking back to that morning when her boyfriend Giancarlo had done nothing at all to
stop her from going. She’d imagined him on his knees begging her to stay – but no. He’d been as
cold as ice. He was just not the same person she’d spent all those years of her life with.

They’d been going out for seven years when Giancarlo found a job in Rome. They’d been together
since they were eighteen years of age. Their families lived next door to each other in the “paese” –
town. Both of them had applied for jobs in Rome now that they’d completed their studies and
obtained university degrees. Now they could begin to build something concrete together. They’d
talked about marriage and how many children they would have once they got their degrees and
found jobs. That dream had seemingly come true when Giancarlo got his first job in an auditing
company and left their hometown for Rome.
Maria was to follow him a few months later. Her boyfriend had found a lovely flat and – at the time –
couldn’t wait for Maria to join him. They’d been so excited about their future together now that their
days of studying had come to an end. It was to be a new beginning.

But something had changed along the way and after Maria moved into the flat Giancarlo had rented
for them, he became distant with her.

Maria had done everything possible to capture his attention. She’d even gone out and bought new
clothes, got her hair done and started to wear eye make-up to enhance her already beautiful hazel
eyes.
Nothing worked.
He’d become more and more distant as the days went by. Maria was heartbroken. Upon doing some
investigations she soon learned that he’d become a bit of a hero at the company where he worked.
He’d been given a project to do with a one-month deadline to complete it. It was easy peasy for him.
He had the project all ready to hand in to his boss just three days later. Apparently the boss could not
believe it. It’d been done to perfection in record time.
Word got round and all the young girls who were doing internships in the company soon flocked around
him and it had all gone to his head. He was young, handsome and intelligent – typical marriage
material for anyone in pursuit of a husband.
He’d never had any other girlfriend before Maria.
One thing Maria hadn’t found out during her investigations was the relationship he’d formed with the
elegant Gianna.
The Scottish girl Karen all of a sudden interrupted Maria’s thoughts.
‘Is everything alright?’
Maria started to cry. She desperately needed a shoulder to cry on. She blurted out the whole story.
Karen’s advice was that under no circumstances was she to contact him.
‘Don’t be tempted to send him text messages,’ was what Karen told her.
‘Heed my advice. I’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt.’
‘He told me he needed some breathing space and time alone to think about his life,’ sobbed Maria.

Karen knew from experience that when a man said he needed breathing space and time alone to think
about his life it was synonymous with ‘it’s over between us’. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Karen. ‘With your pretty
face soon you’ll have all the guys in Rome queuing up. Karen knew that in a moment like this nobody
wanted another guy. The only one who could put things right was the one who had caused the grief in
the first place.

Karen noticed that as the days went by Maria was becoming more and more restless. She wasn’t
sleeping at night. Why wasn’t Giancarlo phoning her she’d thought over and over again? Really she’d
left him and come to live here convinced he’d come to his senses and be right down to talk her into
going back to him. It wasn’t to be.

Maria broke down. ‘How could he just throw away seven years of our life together? How could he be so
cruel and heartless?’
Karen had seen this kind of thing happen over and over again. Life came with no guarantees.

****
Glossary – phrasal verbs

Apply for – formally request in writing

Be over – be finished
Blurt out – suddenly open one’s mouth and reveal something usually due to not being able to
control one’s emotions
Break down – become upset and start sobbing and crying
Come by – (not so easy to come by) difficult to find or acquire
Find out – obtain information/discover/become informed or become aware of
Flock around – gather (like sheep around the shepherd) – in fact the
collective name for sheep is ‘a flock of sheep’.
Fork out – pay, usually grudgingly
Go back – return
Go by – pass
Go on – pass (as the days went on – as the days passed
Go out – frequent someone as boyfriend and girlfriend
Hand in – give by hand
Move in (to) – start living in a place
Pay off – eventually have rewards
Put on (a huge smile) – feign/fake a smile
Put up with – tolerate
Queue up – form a line in a queue
Talk (someone) into (something) – persuade and manage to convince
someone to do something
Think back – recall a past moment or event
Well up – fill with liquid, in this case the liquid is tears

Glossary – idioms and expressions

A shoulder to cry on – emotional support when a person is in distress

Come to an end – terminate/reach an end
Come to (one’s) senses – finally begin to reason
Get to know – to begin to know on a deeper level
Go to (one’s) head – become intoxicated by praise and success
I've been there, done that and bought the t-shirt – a cliché (an overused
English expression) to be completely familiar with a situation having
experienced it first hand
In the first place – to begin with/from the onset
Over and over again – repeatedl