Star-crossed lovers? Tales from the trenches of treachery

Oh, the perils of love. From restraining orders to betrayals to acts of violence, these locals have burned in the hellfire of love gone awry. Fortunately, they've lived to tell their tales– and there are even some happy endings.

Kirk Bryant

 "She was from Georgia, and we were 17," recalls Kirk Bryant of his adolescent experience of love-gone-wrong. After dating for a few weeks, Bryant met his new sweetheart's parents to ask permission to see an R-rated movie. Permission was granted but then suddenly denied, Bryant says. So the pair decided to watch some movies at home– a move that had not been parentally approved.

When the irate parents understandably forbade him to see their daughter again, Bryant says he tried to comply– but his former girlfriend continued to contact him. And when friendly persuasion failed to reel him back in, she turned to threats.

"She said, 'My new boyfriend will kick your a–,'" he recalls. Then her parents, convinced that Bryant, who had turned 18, was still a "threat," said, "We're going to get you for statutory rape."

The whole situation was "a learning experience," says Bryant, who now avoids arguments whenever possible.

"I became more passive," he says meekly.

Kirk Bryant
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Danny Bishop

 Love hurts, and sometimes it hurts more than just your heart. That's what Danny Bishop learned when a former girlfriend accused him of staying out too long with friends– and away from her.

"I was right in the neighborhood," he says of the fateful night. But that rationale didn't pacify his girlfriend, and when he arrived home, she was waiting by the door.

"She hit me in the face with a bottle," says Bishop. "I saw stars."

It probably goes without saying that the incident ended the relationship.

"I was afraid to go to sleep around her," he says.

Danny Bishop
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Chris Oakley

 When Chris Oakley's 30-year marriage unraveled years ago, she sank into the dismal world of lawyers, litigation, and pain. But, she says, an unexpected light soon illuminated her dark despair.

Jim Beall, in town for a course at the Federal Executive Institute, walked into Oakley's bookshop to browse the science fiction section.

As he was leaving, Oakley says, Beall paused at the door and asked her to hold up her left hand. Somewhat puzzled, she complied, and he walked out of the shop– having noted the absence of rings.

Oakley didn't give his odd behavior a second thought– until he called the store just an hour later and asked if there was any way they could meet.

Three days after Oakley's divorce was final, the couple married– accompanied by a string quartet that just happened to be practicing outside the Charlottesville courthouse on that warm October afternoon.

Oakley says her experience just goes to show that, even in the darkest post-breakup hours, it's important to "keep your mind open."

Chris Oakley
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Sally Murphy

 Sally Murphy learned the hard way that three's a crowd when she was part of a girl-girl-guy trio of friends. Murphy says things became complicated when she began dating the male component of the trio, leaving her best friend out of the loop.

The attempt to morph from friends to lovers was doomed from the start, she says, but when she broke it off– hoping to return to the peacefully platonic three-way relationship– things deteriorated.

In fact, her now ex-boyfriend had secretly begun dating her best friend– leaving Murphy odd-woman out. In fact, some two years later, the two are still together.

Murphy, however, doesn't hold a grudge and says her friendship with the two was more important.

"They're really cute together," she says, probably too perkily for most people to believe.

Sally Murphy
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Sean Thomas

 "This is actually where we first met," says Sean Thomas, sitting in Café Cubano on the Downtown Mall and reflecting on his foray into mad love, with the emphasis on mad.

The first sign of trouble, he recalls, was the visit of his then girlfriend for his college graduation. She "freaked out," he says, when he didn't devote 100 percent of his attention to her.

Things went from bad to worse.

One night, Thomas had planned to go to a show at Trax nightclub after his shift at Rapture. When he didn't call his girlfriend between the end of his Rapture stint and his Trax visit, he says she laid into his belongings, ripping up valuable artwork and many of Thomas's clothes.

And the tantrum didn't end there: she moved on to Trax, where even the bouncer wasn't able to save Thomas from her wrath.

After that disastrous dust-up, Thomas decided that the girl had to go. But (curiously) she didn't agree.

"She wouldn't leave," he says bluntly.

In desperation, he finally sought a restraining order to keep her at bay. But maybe Thomas's loss is another man's gain.

"She found some other guy to go crazy on," Thomas laughs– with more than a hint of relief.

Sean Thomas
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Niki Simon

 Nothing's worse than a girlfriend who takes her cues from early KISS rock shows. When Niki Simon's dad moved in with his girlfriend, he thought they were deeply in love– so much so that he bought her an expensive antique guitar. But only a few days later, after a lover's quarrel, the girlfriend smashed her new guitar to smithereens.

That little display caused Simon's dad to hire a U-Haul, empty the apartment, and move out, leaving only one thing for his smash-happy ex-sweetheart: the broken guitar.

Niki Simon
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Natalie Estrallita

 One local romantic hoping to avoid heartbreak has employed a creative strategy used most commonly by the very young: the imaginary friend (or in this case, imaginary lover).

A 49-year-old transgendered woman, Natalie Estrallita says she's grown weary of waiting for a man to come into her life. So she's taken matters into her own hands–literally. She bought herself an engagement ring.

To accompany her sparkling new accessory, she's invented a fiancé, a man she describes as an "old French anthropologist" named Roulé.

But even imaginary love isn't perfect, Estrallita reports wistfully.

"We've already had our first argument," she says. "He likes opera, and I don't."

The artistic difference wasn't a serious threat to the relationship, however, and Estrallita continues to enjoy the excitement of her dream engagement. She sleeps soundly knowing that this is one relationship that can't crash and burn.

Natalie Estrallita
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

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