I met Vince through his mates. I was seeing this guy, he was one of Vince’s mates, so we usually ended up going out to the same places. Pubs mainly, and clubs. I never had much interest in Vince at the time, we only got together after the guy I was seeing dumped me. Vince wasted no time pursuing me. I wasn’t that interested, but I was pissed off at my boyfriend for having dumped me and I thought going out with Vince would be a good way to get back at him. He knew Vince liked me, and he’d always said I was well out of his league. We went on a few dates, and I ended up really liking him.
My plan worked, and my boyfriend tried to get back with me. But by then I was well into Vince. We were together for nearly two years before Vince ended up in prison.
Guilty as Charged
They always say they were innocent, don’t they? Everyone says it was a mistake, the police got the wrong guy. Not Vince. Sometimes he can be such an idiot. He admitted to what he’d done as soon as the police found him. The silly idiot was hiding in my flat.
He’d nicked a car (another one), only this one had a tracker in it. It didn’t take them long to find it parked outside my place. The thing is Vince could have denied everything. He’s not so stupid that he doesn’t wear gloves when he steals cars. They would have had a hard time proving it was him. They don’t send out the forensics guys and all that stuff you see on the TV for a stolen car. But the silly idiot admitted what he’d done right in front of me in my flat to the policeman who was asking all the questions. I think he was actually proud of what he’d done because the car was supposed to be really hard to steal. High-security locks or something, I don’t know.
Vince probably would have just got a caution or community service or something like that, except it wasn’t the first time he’d done this. He’s already got a criminal record, he’s been in trouble with the police on and off for years, so the magistrate threw the book at him. Made an example of him. Banged him up for a year.
Prison Visits
I visited him every week while he was inside. It was a right pain, the prison was miles away. I had to get a train, then a bus, and then a taxi from the bus stop. The taxi driver got to know me and we were on first-name terms before Vince got out! I did it because I loved him.
He promised me he’d change. Every time I went there he said he loved me and all that. He was going to turn over a new leaf. He didn’t want anything to stand in the way of us being together, including being banged up.
Good Behaviour?
After six months he was let out for good behaviour.
Only he didn’t tell me.
When the visiting order paper didn’t turn up I just thought there must have been a mistake. It happened a lot. The prison was always messing up the paperwork, but there was never a problem with them letting me in to see him during visiting hours even when the paper didn’t come. So you can imagine what a mug I felt when I turned up at the prison to see him and they said he wasn’t there. I said what do you mean he’s not here? It’s not like a hotel, he can’t just check it out when he feels like he can’t he? He has to be here. That is when they told me he’d been let out.
Okay, I thought, he’s going to surprise me. While I sat on the train going home I got quite excited. It was romantic. He hadn’t mentioned anything about getting out early, probably because he didn’t want to get my hopes up. He was going to be at home when I got back and it would be a big romantic reunion.
Only he wasn’t at the flat when I got home. He wasn’t at his mum’s place either. But she had seen him. “So where is he?” I asked her. She seemed reluctant to talk. Then his dad came to the door and said, “He’s with her, isn’t he? The new one.” His dad had never been very discreet.
It took me a minute to work out what he meant. All that time Vince’s mum was looking at me with a mixture of pity and embarrassment.
“The other one?” I said. Vince’s dad had gone back inside now. His mum looked at me and shrugged and said, “Sorry love, it’s not really for me to say. This is between you and Vince.”
She went to close the door but I got my foot in there so she couldn’t, and I said, “Please, just tell me. What do you mean the other one? Is he seeing someone else?”
She shook her head again, pushed my foot out with her own, and shut the door.
Searching For Vince
I went straight round to my ex-boyfriend, the one from before. I knew he’d visited Vince in prison a few times. He was still pissed off at me, even after two years, and didn’t want to talk to me. He wasn’t going to tell me where Vince might be, but there was an evil grin on his face when he shut the door in my face.
In the end it was one of Vince’s other mates who told me. The bloke was into me a bit. Actually, this is a bit embarrassing. I don’t want to make it sound like all of Vince’s and my ex-boyfriend’s mates were into me, it wasn’t like that. But this guy did fancy me, I knew that. Which is probably why he was more than happy to tell me that Vince was shacked up with a new bird. He even gave me the address.
I didn’t believe it. I thought this was all part of his plan. He was going to surprise me. Maybe he was organizing a party or something.
He’d organized a party all right. Just not the kind I was thinking of, and not for me. He was having his own kind of party with the girl who worked behind the bar in our local.
The Shocking Revelation
I felt like such a mug. It turned out she’d been visiting him every week in prison too. She told me this, just before she shut the door in my face. I didn’t even get to see Vince.
I went home, crying all the way. Everyone had been slamming doors in my face, my boyfriend was shacked up with someone else, and apparently, I was the last person to have found out.
I went into a deep depression for a few weeks after that. I stopped going out because I thought everybody was laughing at me behind my back. And ’cause I didn’t want to see Vince or that bitch from the pub. And because I didn’t feel like doing anything. I just sat at home and binged stupid romcoms on Netflix.
Move On Or Get Him Back
My dad came to see me and tried to talk me out of my fug. It didn’t help with the Vince situation, but it did make me see I couldn’t carry on like this forever. Either I had to move on, or I had to get him back. And mad as it may seem, I still loved the idiot and I still wanted him back.
When I explained my case to Joshua, I didn’t know quite how much background information to include. The website said it was all irrelevant, that the only thing that mattered was I wanted somebody who didn’t feel the same way about me. Still, I included a bit about Vince being with this other woman, it seemed important. And I mentioned he’d been in prison too because I thought it might affect his state of mind, which might affect the spell.
Joshua wrote to me and said he’d be working on my case. I didn’t have Vince back yet, but to know someone was helping me, someone was putting time into trying to make things better, that was a relief. It helped lift my spirits, and at least I was able to go outside again.
The Spell is Cast
The date of the spell came and went, and Vince didn’t come knocking on my door. I know I wasn’t supposed to expect that, but a girl can dream.
He did come knocking ten days later. He had a little case with him. He stood on my doorstep with this stupid sheepish grin on his face. I looked at him, looked at the case, and said, “Bit presumptuous isn’t it?”
He shrugged, and I hugged him.
I didn’t let him move straight back in. I’m not that much of a mug. I made him earn it. He went back to his mum’s and we saw each other a few times a week. He was dead keen. He wanted to see me all the time. The spell had had a really strong effect on him. A bit too much!
I wanted to know his feelings were real though, and I wanted an apology and to make him pay for the whole barmaid thing. To be fair, he did apologise. He admitted he just liked the attention, said he didn’t really know why he’d done it. He claimed to love to me. After a few weeks of this, I relented and let him back to live with me.
All Good
So far everything’s been good. His new leaf is holding. As far as I know, he hasn’t stolen any cars (or anything else). He’s back on the straight and narrow. Maybe I’ll regret using the spell and getting him back, he might let me down again and I’ll think I was better off without him. But right now, today, I love him and he loves me, and that’s all that matters.