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I live for TV One’s crime shows. For a while, I exclusively watched “Fatal Attraction,” but lately, I’ve been indulging in another series called “For My Man.” Essentially, the true crime show tells the stories of female inmates who are behind bars for crimes they committed “in the name of love.” In my opinion, many of the women are victims who were either abused by their partners or at some point during their childhoods, and their experiences caused them to fall prey to these unfortunate situations. However, there are also those who wind up in these crazy scenarios simply because they allowed falling in love with the wrong man to impair their judgment.
So many times, I find myself hollering at the screen, “What was she thinking?” But I eventually had to sit back and look in the mirror because I’ve done some pretty stupid things in the name of love as well. Thank God, it’s never been anything that had the potential to land me behind bars, but I can recall at least one instance where I believe that an ex was considering asking me to do something illegal.
During my senior year in high school, I started dating a guy from Harlem. My naïve, suburban behind was so infatuated with him that I practically hung on his every word. Sometime close to prom, he started asking me questions about which banks I had accounts with. At the time, I really didn’t understand what that was about or what he was getting at, but he eventually dropped the subject. Months later, I learned that he was into some type of fraud and one of his home girls, who allowed him to use her bank account, got busted by the cops and was brought up on charges. She took the fall, and he managed to walk away from the incident unscathed.
It didn’t really click for me at the time, but looking back, I’m so glad that nothing ever came out of those conversations we had about my banking institution. Although I like to think that I would have been smart enough to peep game and make my exit if he would’ve asked to use my account, there’s a part of me that knows there’s a slight chance I may have fallen victim to the foolishness if he insisted hard enough or pitched his story the right way. Why? Because I was young, dumb and “in love.” Thank God my guardian angels were somewhere intervening on my behalf.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one with a story, and as usual, we’d like to hear yours. What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done in the name of love? Share your crazy stories in the comments below.
