I live in Australia. For five-and-a-half years I was in the worst relationship of my life with a person I would later learn, from various sources including specialists, was a borderline/narcissistic personality. By the end of it my sense of self had been almost completely destroyed, I had no confidence, everything had become a kind of relativistic miasma, my self-esteem was shot, I couldn't think about the future and barely had the energy to get through the day. I was at the end of my rope, not just because of the usual pains of a bad breakup, but because I had been leveled by degrees, by stealth, over the course of half a decade.
The thing is, I didn't really understand that at the time. So the short story is this: a string of coincidences led me on a four-month international jag. I spent a little time in London. I met a friend at a pub, on a whim. We were drinking. I look up. And my ex's ex walks in the door.
Now two things are important: 1). Over the course of my relationship this guy was held up to be a total demon, a black-hearted monster of the first order, and 2). we kinda knew each other before that relationship started.
