Phrasal verbs and idioms in context - Lession 4: Maria

PHRASAL VERBS AND IDIOMS IN CONTEXT 03
MARIA
 Maria had been in Rome for just ten days when she left her boyfriend’s flat to go to live in a rented room.
 Desperation had forced her to do what she hadn’t wanted to. Now she was living in an area not so far from Giancarlo’s place hoping he would beg her to go back and tell her that it had all been one huge mistake. Her dreams had been shattered not long after she’d joined him in Rome to start a new life together.
 An English girl had placed an ad on a website seeking an Italian flat-mate who loved cats and dogs. Maria had seen the ad and noticed that the room was not too expensive and that everything was included. She’d lied when she said she loved cats. Really she was a bit scared of them. She hadn’t lied though when she said she loved dogs.
 She tried her best to act as if nothing was wrong the day she went to view the room. She put on a huge smile and introduced herself and was as friendly as friendly could be. She forced herself to pat the two cats, to make it look as though she did indeed love cats, and played a bit with the dog. The dog was lovely. He was big and cuddly and very friendly and playful and the room, she loved it. It had a French window leading out onto a large garden and was all peach coloured and bright and sunny. She liked the English girl too and thought she could put up with someone else’s pets seeing the room was such a bargain compared to the cost of the other rooms she’d seen advertised in the area. They’d all wanted a whole lot more not to mention the additional expenses which were not included. And there were about three or four others to share with. Here there was only the English girl so that meant the bathroom would not be occupied night and day and there’d be plenty of space in the fridge to organise her foodstuffs. She also thought it would be a good way to practise her English instead of paying for costly private lessons. She’d already forked out a small fortune in the past, or rather, her parents had.
 Her mother and father were not rich people and had made a lot of sacrifices to invest in their daughter’s future. Now it seemed those sacrifices were beginning to pay off since Maria had been one of the lucky ones to land a good job, as a teacher in a primary school, with quite a good salary and a permanent contract – not so easy to come by in Italy nowadays.
 It was Saturday morning when she moved her belongings into the newplace. As she sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and getting to know her new flatmate she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She was thinking back to that morning when her boyfriend Giancarlo had done nothing at all to stop her from going. She’d imagined him on his knees begging her to stay – but no. He’d been as cold as ice. He was just not the same person she’d spent all those years of her life with.
 They’d been going out for seven years when Giancarlo found a job in Rome. They’d been together since they were eighteen years of age. Their families lived next door to each other in the “paese” – town. Both of them had applied for jobs in Rome now that they’d completed their studies and obtained university degrees. Now they could begin to build something concrete together. They’d talked about marriage and how many children they would have once they got their degrees and found jobs. That dream had seemingly come true when Giancarlo got his first job in an auditing company and left their hometown for Rome.
 Maria was to follow him a few months later. Her boyfriend had found a lovely flat and – at the time – couldn’t wait for Maria to join him. They’d been so excited about their future together now that their days of studying had come to an end. It was to be a new beginning. But something had changed along the way and after Maria moved into the flat Giancarlo had rented for them, he became distant with her.
 Maria had done everything possible to capture his attention. She’d even gone out and bought new clothes, got her hair done and started to wear eye make-up to enhance her already beautiful hazel eyes.
 Nothing worked.
 He’d become more and more distant as the days went by. Maria was heartbroken. Upon doing some investigations she soon learned that he’d become a bit of a hero at the company where he worked. He’d been given a project to do with a one-month deadline to complete it. It was easy peasy for him. He had the project all ready to hand in to his boss just three days later.
 Apparently the boss could not believe it. It’d been done to perfection in record time. Word got round and all the young girls who were doing internships in the company soon flocked around him and it had all gone to his head. He was young, handsome and intelligent – typical marriage material for anyone in pursuit of a husband. He’d never had any other girlfriend before Maria.
 One thing Maria hadn’t found out during her investigations was the relationship he’d formed with the elegant Gianna.
 The Scottish girl Karen all of a sudden interrupted Maria’s thoughts.
 ‘Is everything alright?’
 Maria started to cry. She desperately needed a shoulder to cry on. She blurted out the whole story.
 Karen’s advice was that under no circumstances was she to contact him.
 ‘Don’t be tempted to send him text messages,’ was what Karen told her.
 ‘Heed my advice. I’ve been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.’
 ‘He told me he needed some breathing space and time alone to think about his life,’ sobbed Maria.
 Karen knew from experience that when a man said he needed breathing space and time alone to think about his life it was synonymous with ‘it’s over between us’.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Karen. ‘With your pretty face soon you’ll have all the guys in Rome queuing up.
 Karen knew that in a moment like this nobody wanted another guy. The only one who could put things right was the one who had caused the grief in the first place.
 Karen noticed that as the days went by Maria was becoming more and more restless. She wasn’t sleeping at night. Why wasn’t Giancarlo phoning her she’d thought over and over again? Really she’d left him and come to live here convinced he’d come to his senses and be right down to talk her into going back to him. It wasn’t to be.
 Maria broke down.
 ‘How could he just throw away seven years of our life together? How could he be so cruel and heartless?’
 Karen had seen this kind of thing happen over and over again. Life came with no guarantees.
***
Glossary – phrasal verbs
Apply for – formally request in writing
Be over – be finished
Blurt out – suddenly open one’s mouth and reveal something usually due to not being able to control one’s emotions
Break down – become upset and start sobbing and crying
Come by – (not so easy to come by) difficult to find or acquire
Find out – obtain information/discover/become informed or become aware of
Flock around – gather (like sheep around the shepherd) – in fact the collective name for sheep is ‘a flock of sheep’.
Fork out – pay, usually grudgingly
Go back – return
Go by – pass
Go on – pass (as the days went on – as the days passed
Go out – frequent someone as boyfriend and girlfriend
Hand in – give by hand
Move in (to) – start living in a place
Pay off – eventually have rewards
Put on (a huge smile) – feign/fake a smile
Put up with – tolerate
Queue up – form a line in a queue
Talk (someone) into (something) – persuade and manage to convince someone to do something
Think back – recall a past moment or event
Well up – fill with liquid, in this case the liquid is tears
***
Glossary – idioms and expressions
A shoulder to cry on – emotional support when a person is in distress
Come to an end – terminate/reach an end
Come to (one’s) senses – finally begin to reason
Get to know – to begin to know on a deeper level
Go to (one’s) head – become intoxicated by praise and success
I've been there, done that and bought the T-shirt – a cliché (an overused
English expression) to be completely familiar with a situation having experienced it first hand
 In the first place – to begin with/from the onset
 Over and over again – repeatedly