Two women who found that they share the same boyfriend, took a vacation together.
Responding to a photo Faith Bistline, a nurse had just posted weeks before she was due to leave for her 30th birthday trip to Costa Rica with her boyfriend of 18 months, a message read, "Is he your boyfriend? Because he's been dating my friend for the past 10 months." In shock, Bistline assumed that the sender of the message might have been mistaken. In hopes of clearing the air and a validating response, she took screenshots of the texts and forwarded them to her boyfriend of almost one and a half years which led to no reply from his side, Bistline shared with The Washington Post.
Sometime later, the sender's friend and co-worker, Emely Ortiz, 22, who thought she and her boyfriend of nearly a year were exclusive, got in touch with Bistline and enquired, "I just want to know how long you guys have been dating for. Did he ever mention me to you or you had no clue." To this, Bistline replied, "I had no idea. This is sorta freaking me out. We've been dating for almost a year and a half. I'm trying to give him the opportunity to explain himself to me but he's not responding to me right now."
Both cheated upon women working in healthcare and living in Las Vegas like their now-ex-boyfriend, confirmed the uncomfortable scenario and that their boyfriend was really the same person, by exchanging pictures of the man with each other and exchanged notes on where they left their toothbrushes in his bathroom when they slept over, the gray fuzzy robe he wore around the apartment and how he met their families. While Bistlinebegan dating him in April 2021 after meeting through friends a year before that, Ortiz met him at the clinic she works as a medical assistant and where the boyfriend—a doctor—had his residency. He asked her out on a date in October 2021, without giving her the slightest hint that he already had a girlfriend.
After two days, the mutual boyfriend (anonymous for privacy reasons) finally responded to Bistline's messages and didn't shed a hint of remorse or guilt. Bistline shares, "The first thing he said was, 'So I guess I have a little bit of explaining to do.' And then he put this little, like, half-laugh emoji," which rubbed on her the wrong way and she replied, "Is this funny to you?" On the other hand, Ortiz did not wait for a response. The day she found out, she went straight to his house. Although she waited for hours outside, she revealed, he never showed up. "I think I called him, like, a hundred times," she said. Ortiz went back to his apartment the next evening and found him there. "I confronted him. He said, 'What are you talking about? Are you crazy?' And then I pulled up the messages, and he was like, 'Oh... yeah..'" When he apologized, she said, he told her: "I never should have let it get out of hand."
After dumping their boyfriend, both women took a few days to mend their hearts. Bistline told Ortiz about her upcoming birthday trip to Costa Rica. She had paid for it all, but no longer wanted to take her cheating ex as she had planned. Instead, she asked Ortiz to accompany her. "I didn't want to go alone. I was thinking it would probably help us both to go on a trip like this. We deserve this after what we've gone through," Bistline explained. "If you're serious about Costa Rica, let me know. I'm dead serious about bringing you instead of him lol," Bistline asked. Ortiz initially hesitated but later replied, "Yes I'm serious about Costa Rica we need a vacation after this." "At first I was like, this girl is crazy. But I just thought, it might be good for us to heal together because we're the only two people who know what we went through," she shared.
On September 16, three weeks after finding out about their boyfriend’s duplicity, the women boarded a plane to Costa Rica together and spent four blissful days there. Working through their feelings of betrayal while exploring the jungle and waterfalls, helped them heal. Since a month after their breakups and travel adventure, they've both decided to remain good friends. According to Ortiz, in addition to a new friend, she has also gained a lesson from the experience. "Always listen to your intuition," she said.
References:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=5732918830105089&set=a.241466465917047&type=3
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/30/cheating-boyfriend-vacation-bistline-ortiz/
Cover Image Source: Facebook | Faith Amelia
