One thing is for sure: All is not fair in love. Emotions are messy, strange things, and most people aren't very good at dealing with them. So when it comes to romance, our lives can go really wrong in no time flat. As it turns out, horrific breakups, hidden texts, and massive secrets are just the beginning of these relationship horrors.
1. Spread The Love
My ex-wife started sleeping with my best friend of 14 years as soon as we separated, but I'm pretty sure that their affair started before that, when we were still married. Yep, not only did my ex crush my soul, she also took my best friend. Oh, and he was also married throughout the whole time. I hear they have a baby now…and he is still married to his wife.
Whatever. I hope karma comes for them soon.
2. Love Potion Number 9
Monday, my boyfriend and I decided to make the 8ish hour drive back to our home state to live for a few months. Right before leaving, we got into a big fight because I wanted to stay at my mother’s house for a while. However, he doesn’t want me to, among other things I won’t get into. Well, before leaving we decided to eat dinner so we didn’t have to stop anywhere.
Fast forward to our drive, and not long after hitting the road, it all went so wrong. I passed out. I don’t even really remember falling asleep. I woke up one time for a while, drank some Gatorade that he gave me, and then I fell asleep again. I thought this was extremely weird because I wasn’t tired hardly at all and we didn’t even leave super early.
I kept commenting on how weird it was that I was tired the whole drive and slept 90% of it. Yesterday, the tension eased a bit, and he made a disturbing confession. He made the offhanded comment that he wishes he could drug me more when I “act out” and argue with him. I ask him what he’s talking about. He proceeds to tell me he put Benadryl in my drink.
That’s why I slept, so he didn’t have to deal with me. He literally said this as though it wasn’t that big of a deal! I’m still reeling from the conversation and completely floored. I don’t know if I’m overreacting or not but something tells me I’m not, and it’s extremely messed up to put medicine in drinks. I don’t even know what to do.
3. Picking Sides
My ex's friend coordinated for all our mutual friends and acquaintances to delete me on Facebook at the same time, two months after the breakup. They're all in their 20s. I was not impressed. Coincidentally, within the same week of this happening I got three emails from Facebook about password change requests, so I guess someone wanted to get into my account, too.
4. Liar, Liar
I came home from work early and found female sneakers in the garage that weren't mine. At that point, I sort of already knew what I'd be walking into. My husband has recently become very fit and has been consistently going to the gym, during which he made a female friend who he even brought home for dinner last week. Yeah.
She's beautiful and thin and everything I am not, which instantly made me feel horrible. So, I talked to him about it. He encouraged me to build my confidence and reassured me he loved me and would always be loyal to me. I walked into the laundry room from the garage and sort of tiptoed around the house before going upstairs. That’s when I saw the sight that ruined my life.
They were getting intimate. In our bed. With a framed picture from our wedding above the nightstand next to it. I silently left the room and got back in my car with tears streaming down my face and drove to get food and just sat in my car. I’ve been crying since. It’s now almost 1am (I walked in on them at 7pm) and I've returned to the hospital.
He called me asking why I wasn't home and I told him my shift is extended but in reality, I'm laying in one of the on-call rooms bawling my eyes out. I feel so worthless and ugly and stupid. I don't even know how to proceed. On the one hand, I want to divorce him and never see him again, but on the other hand, I feel so gross and the self-loathing is getting too much right now.
5. How Rude
My boyfriend and I have been in a relationship for a year and we had a baby boy last week. I had a natural birth and my boyfriend was there throughout the whole process. I screamed A LOT, and each time I did, he whispered something awful to me. Things like, "Can you stop screaming, you're really embarrassing me."
I also threw up a few times and I saw him cover his face in shame. When I held the midwife's hand for comfort, he whispered, "Let go of her, stop being so embarrassing." He also said that my birthing position was embarrassing too, and called me a few vulgar names. I'm really upset about his behavior that day, especially when it was when I needed his support the most.
When I try to talk to him about it, he denies ever saying it and that I'm being silly...I tried asking him about couple’s counseling, but he refused. My mom has agreed to let me stay at hers until I can find a new place for myself and the baby. I haven't said anything to him yet about splitting up; I've been advised not to so I am still planning out how I am going to take the next step.
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6. A Work Of Art
My first serious live-in girlfriend cheated on me with several of her past partners. I could never catch her doing it, but for a variety of reasons I knew. I was nuts about her though, and she lied like a politician. Finally, one of my friends came up with a horrific plan. Unbeknownst to me, he slept with her too, to “prove it.” Uh, yeah, thanks for that, I guess (?).
I packed up my stuff and left, peacefully. However, I had forgotten to grab my art portfolio from behind the couch. I called her that afternoon and said I would be right down to get it. As I pulled into the driveway, she dropped the lit match onto the gasoline-soaked pile of my entire life’s collection of artwork. Never did another piece of artwork again.
7. Buckle Up
My wife works as a flight attendant and is often doing long journeys to other countries. Our second anniversary was last week and she was not going to be home for it, so I decided to give her a surprise card and one of a few gifts. However, I was going to bury it in her luggage suitcase before she was about to leave. That’s when I found them.
They were new-looking white lace lingerie pieces that I have never seen before, as well as a pair of heels that I do know because I got them for her. As soon as I saw them, there was a ringing in my ears and it felt like the world had come to a halt. I have been trying to come up with reasonable explanations as to why she would have that, but none of them are in character for her as far as I am aware.
That's why now I am fearing the worst—infidelity. She doesn't know I saw it because I didn't leave the gift and card, but she has been back home since then and gone again. I am going crazy with the thoughts of her with another man, but I don't have concrete proof. I don't know how I'd even get solid evidence to come to her with.
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8. Something Stinks
I have been with my boyfriend for over a year and everything has been great—except for one thing. Every single day, at least once, he will tell me that I stink and smell of B.O. When we met, I showered every day, applied regular deodorant in the morning, brushed my teeth three times a day. Now I am so paranoid about smelling bad that I shower at least twice a day.
I also apply new industrial-strength deodorant every few hours (I have a reminder on my phone), perfume, and I brush my teeth anytime I eat or drink something that isn’t water. I feel like I’m going crazy. I didn’t think I smelled bad in the beginning and I don’t think I smell bad now, but I obviously smell bad to him, right?
I’m that weirdo who keeps “sneakily” smelling their own armpits. I have been to the doctor and he has said there is nothing medically wrong. It has honestly gotten to the point where I literally shove my armpit in friends’ faces, asking if I smell bad. They all say I don’t smell like B.O. at all. One friend even said I smelled too clean, like a lush store.
I am getting so paranoid. He won’t cuddle or anything when he says I smell. Then something unexpected happened. I waited for him to make a comment this morning so I could talk to him. It was less than an hour after waking up that he said “god you stink,” even though I had already showered and put on deodorant. I snapped and asked what exactly was he smelling because, at this point I’m one of the cleanest people on the planet.
I said if I still smell bad to him, then we should just break up. He got all panicked and upset, and he made a mind-blowing confession. I eventually got it out of him that this is what his father always said to his mother. Apparently, his father told him that it was a sure-fire technique to have a woman never leave you because “she will feel too low to cheat, will love only you, and will always be clean.”
Needless to say, his father is wrong. He’s packing his things and moving out of my house today.
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9. Boxers Or Briefs?
My boyfriend and I have been together for three months. My sleepwear consists entirely of tank tops and underwear. I have underwear for during the day and for dates, which is primarily small and lacy, and then I've got women's briefs and men's boxers (usually a cotton blend) for sleeping. They're really comfy and really big.
I don't think they're ugly, they're just not very cute. Well, my boyfriend slept over last night and I went to get dressed for bed. As I pull out the briefs he goes "Do you have to wear those?" so I pull out the boxers. He says that's worse, and asks if I can wear some of my "nice" underwear to bed. I tell him that wearing lace all day and then overnight and again the following day is how you get yeast infections.
That just grossed him out. So I put them on and go to get into bed, and he asks me to take them off, not for intimacy, but just so I'm not wearing boxers to bed. I ask him what the big deal is anyway, and his reply made me so angry. “Forgive me for wanting to find you attractive." I don't know what to say to that but he rolls over, straight to sleep, no cuddling.
This morning I wake him, we kiss, I'm thinking it'll lead somewhere, but he touches my boxers, stops, gets dressed, and leaves. This is starting to affect my self-esteem just a bit. I'm only wearing them because they're comfortable and I don't want to buy all new stuff, but this is apparently a real turn off for him and it's causing problems. Oh, but it gets worse.
I texted him finally and straight-up asked what the issue was again. He thinks it's "gay." As a bisexual woman, I cannot see an alternative to breaking up with him right now.
9. The Pains Of Being Pure
My fiancé proposed to me about eight months ago. We decided on having a relatively small wedding, which is in two days. Everything was going great. He seems absolutely perfect and we are very much in love. I am a virgin and so is he; he wanted to save it for marriage and I wasn't fussed, so I agreed to saving it, too.
He has told me before this that in his family, the father checks the virginity of the bride the night before the wedding. I laughed this off as it seriously sounded like a massive joke. I was so, so wrong. He was super serious. He wants me, the night before, to open my legs up in a small ceremony-type thing so his dad can check me while he, his brothers, and uncle can watch so that they know I am still “pure.”
I told him fat chance I am going to do that, and he was begging to me to go through with it and saying how important it is for him. He said he knew it was slightly embarrassing for me but his mom did and it will prove how much I love him and that I have nothing to hide anyway, as I am still a virgin. I left and he was crying, it was very dramatic.
So I went and talked to him this morning I told him that his father is not going to look at me and he needs to respect that. He was adamant that it needs to happen, and then it got more brutal. He accused me of lying about my virginity. I was trying to be calm and rational, but he was not having it and just became more and more angry.
I told him if he really loved me, he would stand by me on this and tell his father no. Instead, he slapped me and said he didn’t need to prove anything. So I ended it and left him. I am currently at my friend’s house being miserable and eating pizza, which at least is pretty fun. Either way, I can’t help but think that I dodged a bullet on this on.
10. Getting To Know You
I live a pretty normal life, and I thought so did my girlfriend. We've been together for a few months and after things got serious, we moved in together. We started sharing a lot of the household responsibilities, but the one thing she was adamant on doing was the laundry. She would come home and find me in the bedroom getting the laundry together and would quickly ask me to go do something else.
I'd come back to finish the laundry and she would have already started it. I always thought it was sweet and never her job to do it alone, but hey, if it makes her happy to do it all the time, I wouldn't stop her. This is where it takes a turn for the weird. I keep all my socks and underwear in the bottom drawer of my dresser.
I also go to the gym frequently, so I always keep a good supply of clean gym socks ready to go. I never kept count, but I know by just a visual glance I have several pairs. This morning when I went to grab a fresh pair to pack for the gym, I noticed there were several dress socks, but no gym socks. Again, not weird, they must have been in the laundry.
I went to check the laundry basket and it was empty, so I checked the washing machine and dryer. Both were empty. I couldn't figure out where all of my gym socks had gone. So, I did the very natural thing of asking my girlfriend what had happened to them. After all, she is the one who does the laundry all the time. She went silent, turned red, and ran out of the room.
When I went after her to see if she was okay, she wouldn't talk to me. I told her I wasn't mad, I was just looking for my socks. She kind of mumbled, "I don't know." I still wasn't mad, of course, but I was super confused. Socks just don't disappear. So I asked her again, even laughed about it, and she just looked at me and got mad and said, "I'll buy you new ones!"
The first thought that went through my head was she had somehow managed to destroy my socks while washing them. I thought the sight of that was actually pretty funny, so I joked with her about ruining my socks. Wrong. Thing. To. Say. She started immediately crying. Like, full on sobbing. At this point I don't care about the socks anymore, I want to know what's wrong with my girlfriend.
I sat down next to her on the bed and put my arm around her and asked her if she was okay. She just kept saying she was sorry and that she would buy me new socks. I tried assuring her again it was okay. Even went so far as to say I would buy new socks and she didn't have to. I sat with her for a few minutes, trying to calm her down, and eventually had to get ready for work.
I told her loved her and got my things together to leave for the day. On my way out, I grabbed the garbage to take outside. When I got outside, I lifted the lid off the garbage can and I noticed a small plastic bag sitting on top of the garbage already in there. I could see through the bag (kind of the semi see-through ones), and there were socks in the bag.
Since I was sure she had somehow managed to ruin the socks washing them, I wanted to see for myself. I opened the bag and immediately regretted my choice. There, inside the bag, were several pairs of my gym socks covered in what looked like poop. As soon as the smell hit me I knew it WAS POOP. We don't own any pets. We don't have any kids.
WHOSE POOP WAS ON MY SOCKS? Work could wait. I couldn't go the rest of the day wondering why my gym socks were covered in poop and inside a plastic bag in the garbage can. I grabbed the bag and walked back inside. As soon as my girlfriend saw the bag she flipped out and started yelling at me. She said I shouldn't be going through the garbage and that I was disgusting for bringing it back into the house.
I asked her to calm down and that I just wanted an answer as to why there was poop on my socks. I wasn't blaming her or anything, but she started accusing me of blaming her. That's when it clicked. I don't know what it was that led me to ask this, but everything leading up to this moment had just been so crazy. I asked her, "Is this your poop?"
She started sobbing again and ran out of the house. I didn't go after her this time. The only conclusion for me at the time was that she used them after going to the bathroom. Which that alone has its own set of questions above everything else. I sent her text asking her to come back, and I left for work after throwing away the bag of poopy socks.
She texted me back and she's clearly embarrassed, but felt she owed me an explanation. She said she didn't want to talk about it in person and that we could discuss it over texting and to NOT bring it up in person. Her responses were super short, but I'm getting the idea. I flat out asked her if it was a fetish. It is not, apparently.
She confessed to using the socks after going to the bathroom. I found the reason she always does the laundry is because she was hiding the fact that she uses socks to wipe with, primarily her own. I had no reason to question the amount of socks she ever has because who pays attention to that kind of thing? She thought I would notice and think it was weird since she doesn't own many socks.
She admitted she has done this for a long time. Her reasoning, as best as I can understand, is that because she is a germaphobe (her word), she is afraid toilet paper will tear and is afraid of getting her hands messy in ANY WAY. She uses socks because they cover her entire hand. After she's done with them, she throws them away.
She used mine because she didn't have other socks. So, my girlfriend has a fear of getting poop on her hands so she wipes with socks, and has done so for a long, long time. It could be worse, I guess. I hope we can laugh about this later. I'm trying to find the humor in it now, but I'm still weirded out, I have to admit. At least I know the truth.
11. Sibling Rivalry
Me and my girlfriend have been going out for eight and a bit months. We didn't sleep together straight away and first did it only a few weeks ago. I was a virgin before that, so I'm not experienced at all, and so far I haven’t been able to, you know, satisfy her. Now, the kicker is that before dating me, my girlfriend was dating my brother.
It was awkward at first, but we're all okay now. Anyway, so last night I tried my best to get her there but in the end she told me to "just stop," so I did. Then she said something that made my stomach drop. "Your brother turned me on so much more than you do." I was so shocked by her saying that, I didn't know what to say back.
She got dressed and left the house and we haven't spoken yet. I just feel so confused about how I feel. I know I'm not as attractive as my brother, but I didn't think she would say that. Am I just being a baby and getting upset over nothing? I understand she's probably fed up and she might have just said it in the moment.
12. The More You Know
I came home one evening and found a note from my girlfriend, saying she didn't love me anymore, she had moved in with her parents, and she would appreciate it if I could be gone during the upcoming weekend so she could come and collect her stuff. Stunned and stupid as I was at this point in time, I complied. This turned out to be the biggest mistake of my entire life.
I came back home Sunday evening to find the place completely empty. She took everything, except one thing: a 22-volume Britannica she bought the month before, despite my protests, and had only paid the first instalment for. When I asked for an explanation, she told me that since I had a job and salary and she was a student, I would be able to replace all the furniture and pay off the Encyclopedia.
The first thing I did was sell the books and spend the money on a trip to Paris. Witch.
13. Thou Shall Not Covet
My youngest brother has been staying with us. My wife and I have a 5-bedroom home but currently don't have children yet, so we let him stay here. My brother has always been...different. He's a bit of a loner and doesn't have a lot of friends outside of his online group. He's a shy, geeky kid but he's otherwise all right when you get to know him. Or so I thought.
So here's what happened. The wifi doesn't quite reach my brother's room, so he usually does his school work and other stuff in the dining room. A few nights ago, I was walking to the fridge after waking up in the middle of the night, and saw my brother working on something. As I got closer, my jaw dropped. I saw a very compromising picture of my wife; a cleavage shot as she was gardening.
He noticed me and quickly closed the window like he had something to feel guilty about. I was too shell-shocked to say anything at the time and he just smiled awkwardly and ran to his room with the laptop. When I realized that something was up, I knew I had to find out more. The next day, I asked my brother to pick up some groceries and some lunch for us.
While he was away, I went to his room and, well, it wasn't pretty. I saw a couple of my wife's bras and some of her panties, which I can only assume he used to pleasure himself. I took his laptop and screw it, decided to snoop. I knew his password, and it was there that I saw some of the most sickening entries I've read.
There were pictures of my wife in a towel, her working out, her in compromising positions, etc. All taken without her consent by the looks of it. The creepiest part? He sometimes listens in on us when we sleep together. My wife can be a bit loud, but we didn't think it would be a problem since his bedroom was in a different part of the house.
I left the room feeling like I needed a shower. It was absolutely disgusting. Now I don't know what to do. I find myself fighting the urge to pummel him into next week every time I see him. I haven't told my wife yet because I'm 100% sure she will feel violated and disgusted, so I want to find the best solution first before doing so.
I so desperately want to kick him out but he has nowhere else to go. Even if I do, what should I tell my parents? The truth? This will most likely break the family apart. I do plan on telling my wife soon but if I do, I can almost guarantee she would want nothing to do with him and would never want to visit the family if he's around.
I'm so lost right now. Still fighting the urge to beat my brother to a bloody pulp.
14. Baby On Board
I am days away from giving birth and my boyfriend just decided to tell me that he can't be at the birth—because he's married. I'm just in shock right now. Like I almost feel numb. I was really happy and looking forward to the baby, and I just feel really sad right now so I need to take a breather. Everything is ready for the baby and I'm still excited to meet them, but Jesus.
So first off, he’s quite a bit older than me—I’m 23 and he’s 37. I know the age gap probably should've been a red flag, but I was stupid. We've been together for two years, but he lives in a different city. When I got pregnant, he said he was going to move to my city and we would move in together, and that he just needed to finalize some things with his ex-wife.
He told me he was divorced when we met and I never had any reason to question it. I knew that he had two kids with her as well. He told me the truth about that, just not that he wasn't divorced—or even separated. So fast forward, I'm 39 weeks and he suddenly got uncommunicative, which is less than ideal when you're literally about to give birth.
Bear in mind that he was supposed to have been fully moved in here a month ago, but he kept delaying.
Today I found out I am going to be induced on Monday unless the baby decides to come out over the weekend, so I contacted him and I was like, okay, what's going on? And that's when he told me the horrible truth. That he isn't actually separated or divorced, that he never told his wife about anything, and how he felt like he was backed into a corner.
I don't feel sorry for him for that because that's his own fault, but obviously literally four days before giving birth isn't the time you want to get this news, and I have no idea what to do now.
15. We’re Going Where??
I didn't mess up the date. The date was just messed up. I met a girl at the local McDonald's after school one day when I was 15. We talked and then exchanged numbers. She asked if I'd go out with her the next day. I thought she was gorgeous, and when she said I should dress up, I expected something special. She took me to her grandma’s funeral.
16. Just My Type
My boyfriend, who is 29, admitted that I am the oldest girlfriend he's ever had. I am 21 years old. He then nonchalantly admitted to dating a 15-year-old when he was 27 and a 17-year-old when he was 28 before he got with me. Now I want to break up with him. It has been a difficult time to be honest, my world has been turned upside down and I have been reeling from everything that happened.
I had been staying over at his place for the week and when I woke up from what I could only describe as a depression nap, he was already in his home office working. I took the opportunity to pack my things and brace myself for what I was about to do. A part of me was still very much in denial of him being a predator, so I opted to fix breakfast so that I could get him to talk about it more. His revelations were shocking.
I wanted to find out the true extent of these relationships. I brought up his ex while we were eating, and he was more than inclined to talk about her. She went to the same high school as his sister, and that’s how he met her. My now ex-boyfriend makes a 6-figure salary and he drives a really flashy car, which he says was the reason she approached him, "to check it out."
He continued to insist that she threw herself at him, and used him for his money when they finally got together. I asked him about the girl’s parents, and he said he met them and that they clearly didn't like him, but "as long as their daughter was happy, they were alright with it." That particular line did me in, but he harped on.
He talked about how the dad never let him near his other kids and how much convincing it took for her parents to finally be all right with her sleeping over at his place. He says that they broke up because she found someone wealthier and she dumped him. He apparently met the second girl, the 17-year-old, online. I asked for specifics.
He said she lied about her age on Tinder because she was turning 18 soon anyways, and they just "clicked." However, he was only looking for a rebound, so they didn't "really date," they just "screwed" (his exact words). That apparently lasted a month until she dumped him as well. When I asked him if he prefers girls in that age range, he said, "Yes, but obviously I want a more mature woman to grow old with."
He then looked at me as if that statement was supposed to somehow reassure me, or make me feel better. I couldn't act passive anymore after that and I told him I do not think I am the woman he is going to grow old with. An argument ensued and he told me I was a "horrible lay anyways" and "How dare you accuse me of such a horrible thing, you're sick," when I told him his proclivity for young girls was not normal and it might do him some good to get help for it.
I grabbed my bags and drove back to my apartment. Hindsight truly is 20/20 because so many red flags are glaring me in the face. I am petit (5'4, 120lbs) and he always liked how small I was. He constantly commented on it. There were a few times where he told me I remind him of his ex and even though it made me feel uneasy, I just dismissed it as him having a “type.” I also didn't know at the time that she was a teenager.
He has been insistent on me moving in with him and quitting my job because he makes enough money for both of us to live comfortably and he made it sound so romantic. I was genuinely considering it, and I think he might have been trying to isolate me, as he already didn’t like most of my friends. He was also very emotionally manipulative.
All the times he has ever guilt-tripped me or used the things I told him in confidence against me, all came rushing into my mind. I am starting to see how far from perfect our relationship was, and I am sick to my stomach thinking about it all. I do not know how I can possibly stop him from doing this to someone else because I have no evidence and I am afraid my claims will be dismissed if I report him.
I am also concerned about how this will affect the victims in this case. Is it really all right for me to report something on their behalf?
17. Daddy Issues
I met my wife when we were in high school and we married in college. We have five beautiful children together—really, I consider them a total blessing regardless of what I'm about to bring up—and up until a couple of weeks ago, I thought that we had the perfect marriage. We were typical high school sweethearts for the longest time.
We go out together, we never fight, and I feel like I've done everything a loving husband should do. I am saying this not to make myself out as the perfect husband, for example my work has always meant I work long hours and maybe I haven't always been there when she needed me, but I want to stress that I've never felt our marriage was in any trouble.
And never in a million years would I ever have suspected my wife of being disloyal. She's always done everything she could to support me and take care of our children. Now, my eldest daughter recently had an ancestry test done. Well, the results of the test shook me to my core. They strongly suggested I was not her father.
She confided this to me privately, showing me the results, and I could tell this visibly upset her. Of course, the first thing I did was reassure her that no matter what, she's my daughter and I'll always love her unconditionally. But secondly, the two of us decided to get an official paternity test, since the ancestry tests are not completely reliable.
It comes back and I am indeed not her biological father. This news really broke me. I'm ashamed to say I broke down in tears in front of my daughter. It was a combination of finding out about my wife's infidelity and how upset I was making my daughter by how I was reacting. I really wish I had kept it in for her sake, but I didn't.
Following this, I asked my other children, except my youngest, to come and see me. I wanted to know the extent of my wife's infidelity—if it was a one off, I could maybe work past it, especially given how long ago it would have been. However, I didn't want to tell my youngest as she is still in school, a teenager, and really I didn't think it was appropriate to tell her yet.
We tell the other three what has happened, and I reassure them that I love them unconditionally and that I'll always be their dad, but that I need to know how long this has been going on. God, I can't begin to explain how touching their reaction was. They didn't care if I wasn't their biological father, they were just upset at how heartbroken I was.
I feel like the only thing that has kept me going these last couple of weeks is their unwavering support. So we have paternity tests for each of the three done. Not only are none of them my biological children, together four of my children have three different fathers. Which somehow made it worse. It's like, she wasn't just having an ongoing affair, she was having multiple?
I can't explain how this makes it worse, but it just does. So I confront my wife with this, expecting her to confess and beg for forgiveness. She doesn't confess. She doesn't even take it seriously. She says the tests must be flawed. All four? How the heck am I supposed to take that seriously? I keep bringing it up and she keeps brushing it off, getting progressively more annoyed at me.
When I bring it up, she will try and guilt trip me. "We've been together since high school, do you seriously not trust me?" etc. But how am I supposed to trust her in the face of such overwhelming evidence?
18. To The Left, To The Left
I overheard my wife talking to one of her best friends on the phone while I was passing the bedroom. This friend is in a serious relationship. My wife then said to her, “Sweetie, remember it’s your choice. Don’t settle for just anyone. That’s the mistake I made. Who knows who else I could have had. [My name] was my very last resort, and now look where it made me end up.”
Hearing that honestly broke my heart in two. So I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Today after breakfast I told her we should “sit down and talk.” She was hesitant, but I said it was important. We went to the living room and she said to me, “I already know what this is about.” Of course, the waterworks started happening right away.
I told her what she said had deeply hurt me. Through her tears, she said, “I was just joking, I wasn’t serious.” She then went on saying stuff like “I love you, I love you.” I told her I can’t be in a marriage where my wife doesn’t love me the same way I love her. She tried to tell me that she loved me and that I meant something to her.
But it was all false. She said she “didn’t want to lose me.” I told her I don’t think this marriage was the right decision. And from there I basically told her it was over. I told her I knew how she really felt about me, and that it was messed up that she basically played with my emotions. We have no kids, and I pay fully for the apartment we live in, and I own almost everything we have other than her clothes.
I even pay for her car. So after all of this, she’ll have little to nothing left. Before our marriage, we agreed to sign a pre-nup, and at that moment, I’ve never been so happy with a decision I’ve made in my life. After that, it was a few seconds of awkward silence, before she said to me “Screw you.” She started screaming at me.
She started telling me, “You just can’t end things like that.” I told her I could do whatever I wanted, and that’s when she became very hostile. She screamed at me saying, “You’re the worst relationship I’ve ever been in. You think I can’t find someone again?” “Do you think you’ll ever find someone as good as me? You’re an idiot.”
She grabbed her bag and phone and said, “I’m leaving!” before slamming the door behind her. At that moment, I felt like I was on one of those dramatic sitcoms you’d find on TV. I sat down on the couch and cried, and I’m still crying as I type this up. It’s both happy and sad tears. I knew it was only time before she cheated on me or left me.
She never loved me, that much was obvious. Our relationship only went one way, and I feel like a complete idiot for not seeing it earlier. I’m going to start the process to annul our marriage. Tomorrow, I’m going to start throwing all of her belongings into trash bags, because that’s essentially where they belong, and give them back to her.
19. You’re All Mine
I dated this guy for about three months and then I broke it off because he was trying to control me. Before we broke up, he was living with me and subletting his apartment. Well, once we broke up, I obviously wanted him gone. Unbeknownst to me, though, he had gotten himself a residency permit—which meant that legally, I couldn’t kick him out.
I spent nine months fighting this. In the meantime, he would slap himself in the face until it was bright red and then call the authorities and say I was beating him, I would get detained and then let out the next day when he decided not to press charges. He did that about once a month. The apartment was in my name, too, so I couldn't just leave it without penalty.
I was essentially stuck. Nothing I tried to get him to leave worked. Finally, I met a new guy, and the ex decided that if he couldn't have me, no one could. Then he dealt me his cruellest blow yet. He lied and told everyone I know that I had herpes and had a history of getting knocked up and getting abortions. All the rumors essentially ended my new relationship.
I couldn't take it anymore. I called my dad, had him come pick me up, broke my lease, and got the heck out of there.
20. Me-Ow
So my girlfriend and I have been together for nearly eight months, and she's always been a very quirky and nerdy person. She does cosplay, is very into anime and role-playing, etc. Nothing too weird. We've been kind of distant lately; we haven't seen each other much and only talk for half an hour a day. Well, last Tuesday we got to hang out at her place, and I noticed something strange immediately.
She wore cat ears and a belt with a tail the entire time. At first I thought it was either going to be a naughty surprise or her testing a new cosplay, but nope, she sat me down, asked me if I really do love her, then she hit me with a very long monologue that made head spin. Essentially, it summed up to: "I'm a cat in a human body."
I wish I was joking. I thought I misunderstood and then believed that maybe it was a weird joke, but she kept being serious about it and doubling down. I left shortly after because I had a shift at work, and I still believed it was an oddly drawn out joke and nothing more. She ended up texting me with resources to help me understand, which is when I realized that she really is serious.
Apparently, she believes she is an otherkin: A person who holds the belief that they are not human. She says she was introduced to this by one of her friends months ago and has since joined discords and communities of others like her. Her friend believes he is a demon trapped in a human body, and she sent me a testimonial.
She explained her otherkin type as being a cat, and now she 100% thinks she is a cat. How did she know she was a cat you ask? According to her: Sleeping a lot, liking the sun, hating water, feeling more comfortable crawling on all fours, and claiming to understand what cats are saying and being able to talk to them through meowing.
She has also apparently been distant with nearly everybody we know, as I got multiple messages asking me to let her know to be in touch with them. My head has been spiraling this past week. I keep thinking it’s a joke, but nope, she has handed in her two weeks’ resignation at her job because cats don't work. Again, I wish I was joking.
I've been limiting my interactions with her ever since, because this is hurting my head a whole lot and I just can't cope. She has also surrounded herself with a large amount of yes men and women who support her 100% and are enabling this, some even encouraging her to make a Patreon and make otherkin content that they would contribute to, which she brought up when I asked her about quitting her job.
To make things worse, I can't discuss this with anyone in real life because I know how crazy it sounds and I know that leaving her is a valid option. Still, I'm in love with this woman and now I don't recognize her. I know that there is something very, very wrong and I can't reach out to her. She refuses to hear anything from me unless it is unconditional support.
As much as it hurts, I have no intention to continue to be in a romantic relationship with her because she will absolutely not hear anything if it's not 100% support. I love her, but I love myself and I don't want to be dragged down to something like this, especially when it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall. I will, however, try to remain in contact with her just to make sure she's not heading for a mental break.
I will visit her today to have a talk and officially break it off, even though she's been refusing to see me unless I am completely on board.
21. Dog Days
When my ex and I were going through a divorce, he made a chilling confession. He decided to share with me that a year and a half prior, he had taken my dog—she was 14, and I’d had her since she was six weeks old—with him to work, dropping her off in the middle of nowhere on the way. She was afraid of him, but he lured her into his truck somehow.
He even left the gate open to make it look like she got out on her own. All this time, I really had thought she’d run away. I searched for that dog for months. Meanwhile, he sat back and watched me cry, put up posters, and go to every animal shelter around us without ever finding her. I hate that man, and not only for that reason. He’s also a religious weirdo.
22. A Losing Game
My fiancé and I just got engaged a week ago. I proposed to him when I heard from our friends that he was sad that his proposal plans were ruined. We have been very happy this past week. But there was a huge downside. I guess this caught the attention of his bitter ex. She contacted me on through text and said that even though I may be marrying him, I would never be able to satisfy him the way she did.
For some background, early on in our relationship I was a bit insecure about this ex, especially how attractive she was. Still, my fiancé assured me that he would never, ever consider being with her again, because she mistreated him and used to force him into things he didn’t like. I soon grew out of these insecurities. Until I saw the videos she sent with the texts.
I decided to watch the videos she sent. It was a huge mistake. I have never seen my fiancé so passionate/vocal during intimacy with me. She even had a video them getting it on in a public place; I never knew he was into all that stuff. I got really upset and decided to check if he had kept any of these videos on his phone.
Turns out he hadn't kept any of them, but it didn’t end there. I found out messages discussing them with his best friend Sarah. Apparently, his ex had sent these tapes to him as well to remind him how good it was between them. He had deleted them right away and blocked her, but was debating whether or not to tell me about this, and thus asked Sarah's advice.
The conversation somehow turned into Sarah asking who was better in bed. My fiancé tried to evade the question, but she pressed the issue for some reason. It looked like she was teasing him and was being playful, but after a while he got mad and sent her a mini rant about his feelings. The important gist of it was basically this:
"If you look at it from a purely physical perspective, then yeah (ex) was better. She was more my type physically. She was very aggressive and passionate and always took the initiative, which I liked, and she was very 'talented.' But she was also horrible to me towards the end, she started using intimacy as a tool, and instead of feeling loved it became a desperate attempt for me to connect with her."
Conversely, he said, intimacy with me made him realize that it was not just about the physical aspect. He said he felt loved and secure and happy when he was with me. Although the second half of his rant somehow saves it, I still feel really hurt by his admission that intimacy was better with her. I can’t get it out of my head.
He did tell me that he liked me being aggressive and taking initiative, and I do try to be more like that, but once things start happening I end up becoming more passive and let him take the lead. I know I can try being more aggressive, but I am afraid I can never be as good as her and I can never be the kind of girl that can give public “services.”
Now I wonder if he settled for me. Logically, I know I don't have to be the best at everything for my fiancé. But it hurts because he is the best boyfriend I have ever had in all aspects that I can think of, and I always thought our bedroom life was amazing. Now I feel like I just got lucky because I was the first person he dated after that witch and the bar was set so low.
The ex managed to ruin what was supposed to be one of the happiest periods of my life. I don't know how to bring this up to my fiancé without sounding like a nut with no self-control, who thought it was a good idea to watch the videos and snoop on his phone.
23. Bonnie And Clyde
I dated a hot/crazy girl in high school. When we were going out, I thought that I would be super cool and take her to my parents’ lake house for a weekend. After we had (inevitably) broken up a couple of weeks later, she and her new boyfriend rented a U-haul van and cleaned out the house of all of the furniture. She even took my eight-year-old little sister's bunk bed.
The only thing left was fridge, because they couldn't get it through the door. Dad found the house trashed and was shocked, but we didn't find out she was the culprit until a couple of years later, when her boyfriend got caught on another charge. He admitted to taking our stuff since the officers were able to match the serial numbers on our old washer and dryer.
I knew something was up when she called me up that Thanksgiving, just before we got the news about her boyfriend, and said that she really loved me and really missed me. Stupid me thought this girl was coming around and we would get back and life would be great. Two weeks later, I was giving my report to a detective and she is now currently behind bars.
I am now married to the most beautiful woman in the world, and she is my best friend with a baby on the way.
24. A Fork In The Road
Two nights ago, my fiancée accidentally set fire to our kitchen and the fire extinguisher in our apartment was defective. The fire spread quickly and burned through most of the building before they were able to contain it. I wasn't home, so I wasn't there to help my girlfriend gather anything up. If I was, I would have forced her outside and told her to leave it all.
It's just stuff. She chose differently. First, she took our two dogs outside and handed them off to a neighbor on leashes. Then she went back in. At this point, the kitchen was engulfed in flames and she couldn't make it into the living room, but she could get into the bedroom. She knew she wouldn't be able to make two trips and she had to act fast.
Both of us have lost parents. I lost my dad three years ago. He was a friend of her father's so she knew him (though not very well), but he passed before I actually met her. I have most of my dad's stuff in a storage unit, but in our bedroom I have his ashes and a couple of other very personal things from my time with him.
She lost her mom as a teenager, and because her father is a jerk, she only has a few small things of hers, including her wedding dress. Instead of choosing to save the few things that she has of her mom's, she gathered up my father's things, wrapped them in a sheet, and ran out of the room. I don't even know how to begin to say thank you.
I'm so completely devastated by her losing her mom's things like that, and I can't imagine what she was thinking or how much she must really love me to make that decision. I don't know how to repay her. Or where to begin. She must be devastated. I can't imagine losing the last bit of my dad.
25. “Expecting” The Worst
This is all over the place. I really need help. My wife and I have been married for two years and together for 15. All this time, we had either decided not to have kids or had problems getting pregnant. After some medical testing, we found out that it was near impossible to get pregnant due to some medical issues with her.
We were thinking of adopting, when one day she came home and told me she was expecting. Of course I was super happy. A week later, we had an appointment and she had some blood drawn. The test came back negative after all. I was devastated, but her reaction weirded me out. She wasn’t at all. She claimed that she was pregnant and that the doctor was wrong.
We took some more store-bought tests and they all came back negative. My wife is in complete denial. Now she claims we are having twins. She is buying them clothes and decorations and is pressuring me to start with the nursery. I am at a loss and don't know what to do. My inaction is making her believe that I want to leave them and that I am going to doom my wife into the life of a single mom.
What is even happening. I love her but I don't know what to do. I have tried talking her into therapy, but she accuses me of gaslighting her.
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26. Don’t Lose The Weight, Lose The Man
I’ve been dating my boyfriend for a year. I am 5”4’ and 125lbs. He pursued me. Slowly, though, he keeps making more and more negative comments about my appearance. He made me a workout and eating plan and constantly asks if I follow it. He basically wants me to go vegan. Honestly, I’m not into the vegan lifestyle and I don’t eat horribly.
When we ordered in yesterday I got baked ziti. He looked at me and cut me to the core. He asked how I could be ordering this when we both agreed I need to lose weight. Every time I try to dump him over this, he tells me I don’t understand where he is coming from. He told me I’m average and he wants me to stand out.
He says that he noticed I have low self-esteem and he is trying to make me confident and be happy with myself. Every day, he asks me if I did my workouts. But that’s not the worst part. He will send me photos of other girls and say if I follow what he says I will look like that. He REALLY pursued me and now I feel like he’s ruining my self esteem.
Why pursue someone so hard if you aren’t that attracted to them? He told me if I lose 15 pounds, I’ll be perfect. He sends me pictures of women who have post pregnancy bodies or not good bodies at all and he tells me that they are like me, that they are chubby and not curvy. Or he will send me pictures of girls I don’t consider pretty and say if I listen to him I will look like that, I just need to lose weight.
I tell him I think I’m thinner than those girls and he tells me that he has better eyes.
27. Money Can’t Buy Class
My girlfriend and I have been together almost three years. 99% of the time, we're great. She's funny and smart and we have a lot of shared interests. But every time we visit her family, I start doubting everything. They are very wealthy, which by itself is not a bad thing, but they're also very fixated on being rich and have a habit of placing the monetary value of things (and people) over everything else.
I come from a very middle-class background. I have a good education and a decent career that I really enjoy, but I'm definitely not rich. Because of this, they view me as a loser. For example, yesterday we made the two-hour drive to her parents' in my new-ish Honda. When we got there, her mom immediately ordered me to park the car behind the house so the neighbors wouldn't see it.
She was furious we didn't bring my girlfriend’s Land Rover, which they bought for her as a birthday gift this year. The girlfriend doesn't like to drive on long trips and I'm not allowed to drive the Land Rover (per her parents) so we brought my Honda. Oh, but the plot thickens. My girlfriend’s dad has never spoken to me directly.
Even when she introduced me the first time, he turned to her and said, "What does he do?" So we went in the house and I gave her dad the usual, "Hi, merry Christmas" and he gave me the usual disinterested glance. One more example: Last year, I made the mistake of bringing a bottle of wine. It was a $25 bottle, which was pricey for me, and I even had the wine store lady help me pick it out.
My girlfriend’s mom told me to put it in the kitchen. They didn't open it while we were there, and she later admitted to my girlfriend that they'd re-gifted it to their housekeeper because it was "gas station hooch." We managed to get through the day yesterday without much drama except the car thing, which I'd normally consider a win.
But today I keep thinking about the whole situation with her family and wondering if I'm really willing to deal with these people for the rest of my life. My girlfriend and I have tossed around the possibility of getting married more than once, but I know they'll never accept me. If we get married, I'll have to see them a lot more than once a year.
My girlfriend has given up trying to defend me to her parents and just ignores them most of the time, but I can tell it bothers her, too. They bankroll a big chunk of her lifestyle and I think she's worried they'll cut her off if she pushes too hard—they've threatened to over other things. So am I wasting my time? Is this relationship doomed?
My girlfriend always tells me she doesn't care what her family thinks, but I'm not sure that's true. She always tries to downplay how mean they are to me. But I know I'll never be good enough for them, even if I'm good enough for her.
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28. Father Knows Best
My ex wouldn’t let me off the lease for our apartment, but still had her new boyfriend move in with her. They got it on in the bed I slept in, as well as on pretty much every surface of the apartment. I won in the end, though: Her dad called me to tell me he was sorry for raising a daughter who could do something like that, and said I was a better man than her boy toy new boyfriend. Feels good, man.
29. Happy Endings
So, background: My best friend and I met in college and have been best friends since then. We hooked up once years ago. It was a drunken exchange and I honestly chocked it up to we were both drinking and in the right place. She got ovarian cancer that was stage three a few years back and survived and has been in remission since then.
However, she had to have a complete hysterectomy, and she had mentioned a year ago she was considering surrogacy and she wanted me to be donor as she has been single for a while. There’s just one huge problem. I am in love with her and I have been for years, but she had no idea. I know at one point she had feelings for me but I was seeing someone then.
Out of respect for my girlfriend at the time, she never acted on it. I felt like before I gave her an answer, which was yes, I should tell her how I feel. I want to make her dream of motherhood come true and I am honestly touched she thinks so highly of me she wants me to be the father. Regardless of how she feels, I would still donate.
Anyway the consensus with my friends was I needed to tell her. We do brunch on Saturdays because she does Yoga Sundays so we met up this morning. I could barely eat and she could tell something was up. She got worried, thinking I was going to say no or something worse, so by the time we took a walk both of us were nervous wrecks.
I sat her down and told her everything. How I realized I was in love with her several years back but was too much of a chicken to come clean. I told her that I never said anything because I did not want to jeopardize our friendship. Her face turned white. Then a myriad of expressions came over her face, then she started laughing until tears came down her face.
I honestly was stunned, my stomach was in my throat and I honestly thought that almost 12 years of friendship were down the toilet. Then she started crying, sobbing really, and she lightly hit my chest. She half laughed and sobbed that she was in love with me too, but she thought that it would also impede the friendship we had and she wanted nothing to screw up what we have.
We hugged and I told her that there is no one on this Earth I would want to have a child with but her. We talked for hours. In fact, I just got home. We have decided that we want to focus on us for now. I want us to be at that point that we can do it together. I know that this isn’t a rom com, and that things could end up not working out for us in the end.
However, I am pretty sure if there is such a thing as soul mates, she is mine.
30. Homewrecker
My ex-wife freaked out when I got engaged and bought a house with someone else, so she took off for months with our son, and spent that time harassing and stalking me, filing bogus charges, etc. I told her my new fiancée was pregnant, that it was an unlikely pregnancy, and that it was a very easy one to lose, so please stop causing us stress. Her reply was heartbreaking.
All she said was, “I don’t care.” She cost me my fiancée, the pregnancy, the house, and my new job. She ruined both of our lives, and messed up life for our son. All because I didn't want her. I told her at the beginning that I had met someone, that it was serious, and could she please just act like an adult and share our son and everyone could move forward.
She said yeah, sure, no problem. The day I told her I was getting married, she started her revenge. No one's life has recovered since.
31. Cat Fight
I can't believe I'm about to type this, but here we go. I've been dating my girlfriend for seven months. She's amazing and we're super compatible in a lot of ways. She is an outspoken vegan, and she made it clear at the start of our relationship that it was important to her that any potential partner had similar cruelty-free values.
Me, already being a pescatarian, had little difficulty transitioning to a fully plant-based diet. My girlfriend was proud of me for going cruelty-free and everything seemed well. We became "the vegan couple" on our college campus. But a horrific problem has come up. See, then there is my cat, Mittens...I've had her for three years and I adore her.
She's such a sweet and cuddly cat. However, my girlfriend was always a little apprehensive around her, and she blamed it on not growing up around cats. After a while, we sort of made a tacit agreement to mostly hang out at her apartment instead of mine, so Mittens never really came up again in conversation. Until, well…
We began seriously looking at either buying a new apartment together or having one of us move in with the other. However, after a lot of talking and planning, my girlfriend sat me down and dropped a big reveal on me. She said that with this next phase of the relationship, she did not see a future with me unless I was willing to give away Mittens.
She said that she believed owning a cat is unconscionable for vegans, because they hunt mice and eat meat, and because the very act of owning a pet is a violation of vegan principles. I was stunned. I told her that I was absolutely not willing to give up Mittens, and Mitten had no choice but to eat meat, so I was reducing harm as much as possible by buying reputable brands of cat food.
Plenty of vegans own cats and think along those same lines. My girlfriend got mad and said, "How much flesh does your cat eat? How many animals perished to make all that food? Would you be okay with that being human flesh?" I got mad and told my girlfriend that I would have really appreciated her telling me about her cat opinions before we got serious.
She went on and on about cats hurting animals. I ended the conversation there. I was so angry that I left my girlfriend’s apartment, and I snuggled with Mittens when I got home! Although the mood soured a bit when my girlfriend sent me a link advocating for the extinction of domestic cats. Sigh.
I think it goes without saying that I am not going to get rid of my cat. However, it pains me to think that an otherwise wonderful relationship could be ending because of a difference in ideology. I don't even really understand where my girlfriend is coming from because like I said, a lot of vegans own cats and they make it work.
Now granted, cat ownership can be a controversial topic in vegan circles and I probably would not have gotten a cat if I had been vegan at the time, but I have Mittens now, and she deserves to eat. Yes, I've researched vegan cat food, but Mittens has some digestive issues and my vet strongly cautions against it. I've talked to some of my vegan and vegetarian friends, and they all think my girlfriend has lost her mind.
Some have suggested that it's not about Mittens and my girlfriend just wants an excuse to end it. So, we broke up, obviously. I would never, ever give up my cat Mittens. Many also said that this situation was about control, not veganism, and looking back, I do see a pattern of control on my girlfriend’s part. I was blind to it, I guess.
I called my girlfriend and said I was not willing to give up Mittens under any circumstances, and given the recent issues we'd had, and our incompatible views, I thought it was best that we parted ways. I said she deserved a partner that shared her values. She then asked if we were breaking up, I said yes. There was some anger on her end, but otherwise the situation actually went better than I expected.
32. Blood Under The Bridge
When I was 23 (five years ago), I was engaged to Ryan. Our engagement ended when my stepsister Kelly begged me to leave him. Her reason why was disturbing. It was because she slept with him and they loved each other, but Ryan was too afraid to break up with me because he didn’t want to hurt me or my family. When I confronted Ryan about it, he denied it.
He said Kelly had been trying to come on to him for some time and he never mentioned it because he didn’t want to ruin our relationship. He begged me not to believe her, and so we continued how we were. Kelly grew resentful and made nasty comments about how I was forcing a man who didn’t even love me to marry me because I had low self-esteem.
A month later, she sent me a video that ruined my life. It was of them getting it on in my bed, and multiple screenshots of him telling her he loved her, how he wished she was the girl he was marrying, how he hated that I wouldn’t let them be together. I was devastated and angry, but my best friend convinced me not to go nuclear on them.
Instead, I quietly moved out when Ryan was at work the next week. I contacted my dad and my stepmom and asked them if I could move in temporarily. I removed the money I had contributed into our joint account for wedding expenses and transferred the rest to him before closing the account. Once I got settled in, I sent all of the screenshots she sent me to all of our relatives and his.
Ryan tried to get back together with me multiple times, but I ended up blocking him after I found out even worse news. I discovered he had proposed to her with the same ring he gave me. Now, Kelly is my stepsister from my mom’s side. I have another stepsister and stepbrother from my mom’s second marriage, as well as a half-sister.
They all went to the wedding. Whenever I tried to express that I was hurt by the fact they were just supporting Kelly/Ryan as though what they did to me meant nothing, they would shrug it off and say they couldn’t cut them off completely because they were family. I haven’t spent a single holiday with my mom’s side since, and neither has my older biological brother or sister.
I only see my mom and half-sister when I invite them over to my place, as Kelly/Ryan moved in with my mom and my stepdad a year after they got married. Our relationship is very rocky, but I’ve grown closer to my dad/stepmom and their children, who have all been very supportive since this all happened, so it’s not all been bad. But fate just dealt me another curveball.
On New Year’s Day, my boyfriend (now husband) proposed to me. We had a small engagement party, which I invited my mom and half-sister to. They never turned up because I was “excluding half of our family.” I never invited my stepdad or stepsiblings because they were pretty hurtful when it came out that Kelly/Ryan were sleeping together.
They claimed it wasn’t their fault I got in the way of “true love” and made me out to be some sort of vindictive Disney villain for being angry with them. We were planning to have our wedding ceremony this summer, but in late February my husband suggested we postpone it until next year. I ended up finding out I was pregnant a month before our original wedding date, so we had a courthouse wedding on that date with the plan to hold the ceremony next year.
Only my dad’s side of the family were aware of both the pregnancy and the wedding. My stepmom likes to knit, so she’s been making some stuff for the baby. Recently, she posted about the things she had made on Facebook with a caption talking about how excited she was to have another grandchild soon. I was tagged in the post.
I have zero issues with the post. I never told my family I wasn’t going to inform my mom’s side. It wasn’t that I intentionally hid it from her, she just never seemed very interested in my life/relationship so I never brought it up. My mom called me an hour later to demand to know if I was pregnant and how she couldn’t believe I hadn’t told her she was finally going to be a grandmother.
She has since invited me and my husband over to her house multiple times. I’ve declined every single time for the obvious reason. My stepdad, who I’ve barely spoken to in 5 years, has reached out to tell me how excited he is to meet the baby and my husband, same with my siblings. Even Kelly reached out to my husband to congratulate us. I was furious.
The next time my mom and stepdad called me, I finally laid into them. I told them I didn’t want them to keep inviting me over when they knew I would be forced to see Kelly/Ryan if I came. I told them how hurt and angry I still am over what they did to me and how my “family” dismissed my feelings. I told them how they wouldn’t throw Kelly/Ryan away, but they were so quick to leave me out to rot.
All this while I was going through the worst betrayal I’d ever experienced in my life. I told them I wasn’t even sure I wanted people like them in my child’s life. My mom was crying and kept saying I was being cruel, and I couldn’t deprive her of her first grandchild. The thing is, my baby ISN’T her first grandchild. My sister has two adopted daughters already, who my mom doesn’t even try to bond with.
She kept wailing about how I might be the only person in our family to even give her grandchildren. My stepdad got angry and defensive. He claimed I was petty for holding onto something that happened five years ago. He pointed out how I had found someone else, so I should understand how love works and sometimes two people just can’t help themselves.
You love who you love, basically. He said Kelly/Ryan were happy together, so I should be happy for them the way they’re happy for me and my husband. The ironic thing is, my sister told me Kelly/Ryan looked like they were on the verge of divorce and they argue constantly. She says my siblings all hate him but pretend they like him for Kelly’s sake.
I ended up hanging up because I was so angry, and when I get angry, I start crying. I didn’t want them to think they got to me. Since then, I’ve been receiving texts and calls nonstop from my mom’s family. They’re all essentially telling me I should be over things already. It’s gotten to the point where my husband and I have switched phones so he can screen my messages for me, and I don’t have to read them.
33. Band Of Brothers
During my second deployment to Afghanistan, I deployed with a friend of mine who I now consider to be a brother. When we first started our tour, his wife told him she would write weekly. We eventually found out this was a big fat lie. This brother of mine goes months without hearing from his wife, and the longer he doesn't hear from her, the sadder he gets.
His morale dropped so low that my commanding officer suggested putting him on suicide watch. Well, about nine months into our deployment, he finally gets a letter from her. After mail call was over and we were dismissed, we all ran to our tent as fast as we could to see him open the letter. After seeing how excited he was, the most horrendous thing happened.
He ripped the envelope open, and inside were divorce papers. He went through some very, very rough times after that, but we were always there for him. I took him into my own house, and I’ve never been happier to have practically a real brother living with me. We both still look out for each other, and I still hate his ex-wife with a passion.
34. Mrs. Wrong
My wife and I have been married for slightly more than three years now. Last Christmas, I saw texts I wish I could unsee. I found she had been having a long conversation with a co-worker of hers, in which they talked about sleeping together multiple times and that they couldn’t wait for the next one. The guy said he was going to book a hotel near their office right after Christmas.
In this conversation, when he said he was looking forward to seeing my wife, she would reply with things like “I’m looking forward to much more than just seeing you” etc. You get the idea. Overly flirty and all that. When I confronted my wife, however she denied the conversation existed. After deleting it, she showed me her phone to prove it didn't exist.
But I had taken a few pictures. She then said it was all virtual and that they never did anything physical. To prove she was right, she messaged her co-worker (in front of me) asking if he had booked the hotel, he replied “not yet.” She then asked if he was really expecting them to meet, to which he replied negatively.
She promised they would never talk again and I agreed, simply because I love her a lot and wanted to trust her, but in my mind I wasn’t completely sure she had been honest. For a few weeks, I must admit I checked her phones a few too many times, so she changed her password, which I was fine with because I was probably being too paranoid.
This week, I picked her phone up because I needed a code that had been sent to her phone number; I didn’t even need to unlock the screen to get it. When I saw her messages, my blood boiled. To my surprise, under the message with the code there were other messages from the same guy. One of them was an audio, the second one was a shirtless photo of himself in front of a mirror, and the third one said “sweaty” and a few emojis with the tongue.
I confronted her, since she had promised they wouldn’t talk ever again and she said he just wanted to show her he’s going to the gym to show progress. But that the rest of the times they talk it’s just about work, and that this is just a coincidence. I asked her to show me the rest of their messages but she said she had mistakenly deleted their conversation history.
My wife says she’s going to change this time and that I never really forgave her and that’s why she kept talking to the guy. She says this time she’s really going to stop but I have a hard time believing it. Or even if she does stop, I fear when things don't go so well between us she'll do it again. I really love her but can’t keep living like this.
My brain just can’t overcome the catastrophe and the collapse of the world I had built for me in which my wife is my love, my best friend, and partner, as well as the person I admire the most. She was entirely perfect, and made me happy for many years. I thought no couple in the world could have what we had. We were both very happy for a long time.
We were both attractive, we were both inherently good, had big hearts, and were individually wildly successful in our careers. Recently, I moved in with my family to think things through for few months. It’s been a terrible time but a psychologist is helping me recover from a terrible mental state. My wife was very sorry and continued saying they hadn't met.
I knew it wasn't true but was willing to forgive the woman of my dreams, who continued being in the highest altar of my universe. Fast forward to last Saturday morning. I went back to our place, ready to forgive her and talk things through in the most mature way possible. And well, there she was, but I was the one who received the biggest surprise.
THE guy was in my house unclothed, and so was my wife. The guy from the messages, the guy from the pictures. The one she said she didn't even like. I caught him hiding in my bathroom as my wife was putting her pajamas on. When I saw him hiding in my bathroom, he uttered, "Sorry dude." I didn’t even know what to say back.
All I said was, "I’ve got nothing against you." Even if he was doing it in a house full of pictures of me. Pictures of our wedding and our families. Pictures of my late father who would be so sad to see how the marriage he never witnessed was going to end. He has always been the reason I try to make the world a better place. He passed two months before our wedding.
I'm sorry. But I understand enough is enough. Even if my world collapses, I hope I can build a new one without lies and in which I'm not just a blind believer under an altar of a fake god.
35. You Did Me A Favor
In 6th grade, this girl I “dated” told everyone that I was gay, which followed me until I left public school as a junior in high school. The outcome? Well, turns out that I actually am gay. In a sick way, I'm kind of glad she did it. Being among the lowest of outcasts in the school-social hierarchy was very defining in who I am now, and really helped shape my world view.
Also, she looks like a Neanderthal now and has horrible health problems, so...sucks for her.
36. Getting Cold Feet
My wife and I have been married four years now, coming on five. We have generally had a good relationship and a good marriage. We had a reasonably expensive wedding, which we're still paying for now. I get the bill every month to prove it. My wife took charge of planning the wedding, so it was to her tastes. She seemed to enjoy it at the time.
In fact, for the first few years of our marriage, she would look back at the wedding with me happily and without issues. In recent months, however, I've noticed my wife's attitude to a) our wedding and b) our marriage itself shift. It began by her (I thought jokingly) referring to herself as my “girlfriend.” She told me to buy her a “girlfriend” card for Valentine's Day rather than a “wife” one, for example.
I thought she was just playing around at first. But this behavior has only escalated. Two months ago, my wife stopped wearing her wedding ring. I was understandably upset and asked her if there was something wrong. She told me everything was fine and she just “Doesn't like the sensation of jewelry on her hands.” My wife has never liked rings and so this could be the case.
But when we are with friends, my wife will now get upset if I talk about her as “my wife” rather than just a girlfriend. She will go as far as to interrupt me if I'm talking or telling a story to “correct” me on our relationship. Initially, this was something our friends laughed at, but now everybody just finds it understandably awkward.
One of our friends was talking about their own wedding, which is scheduled for early next year. They asked for advice from my wife about how she'd planned ours, and my wife’s reply stunned the room to silence. She responded with, “What wedding?” When our friend continued talking about the table decorations my wife had used, my wife visibly teared up in front of the whole group and had to step outside.
Later that evening, I asked her directly if she has a problem with our relationship or if I'm doing something wrong in our marriage. She assured me that everything is fine between us. From my perspective, outside of this issue, our relationship is as strong as ever. We are considering kids in the near future, and my wife recently suggested we get matching tattoos as a renewal of our love. I just don’t know what this is about.
37. Let’s Go To The Tape
Right after high school, there was a girl who liked me, but the feeling was not mutual. She decided to cope with her rejection using the means at her disposal—and came up with a diabolical plan. She was an assistant manager at a video rental chain in town. I had stopped renting there, but my rental account was still open.
So she started checking out movies under my name that I never actually borrowed. They would of course never get returned, so massive late fees plus replacement fees showed up on my account. She also changed my mailing address in their system so that I would never receive the notices in the mail and never cotton on to the whole thing.
It wasn't until close to a year later that I started getting the phone calls from debt collection agencies. It took years to get them to stop, and it negatively impacted my credit because I had no proof that the debts weren't valid, whereas the video chain had computer records of the rentals. In all honesty, I would think it was genius if it hadn’t completely ruined my life.
38. A Cliffhanger
My girlfriend is completely crazy but mostly in a good way. Spontaneous is an understatement. Sometimes she goes too far, but I love her for her crazy personality. I am more relaxed and we balance each other out. Two recent incidents really freaked me out though. I was driving on the highway with a lot of traffic. We were going maybe 40 mph.
She suddenly started tickling me and wouldn't stop when I yelled at her. I jammed on the brakes and someone almost hit us from behind. I asked her what the heck is wrong with her, but she just laughed about it and told me to chill. I said, "What would make you want to do that?" and she said "I don’t know, just felt like it."
Then last Saturday, I was hiking with her and I was standing near this steep cliff. I'm usually wary of her because you never know what she's going to do even though it's usually just a prank or something. I let my guard down and she went behind me and pushed me towards the cliff and I swear I almost fell off. She did it hard and I ended up right at the edge.
She was laughing so hard. I freaked out and started screaming at her and I may have been out of line but oh my God. She laughed about it at first but then she started crying and saying she was so sorry. The next day, she started texting me saying that she didn't mean any harm and she just "didn't know" that I would get so mad at her for doing that.
Am I crazy for even thinking about this? Is it possible she's just immature and if I get back with her she'll be different? I'm kind of lonely and I really love her, but this really made me rethink the situation because now I feel like she's legit crazy, not just fun crazy.
39. Leaving A Mark
My girlfriend of 11 months showed up to a party with a hickey. A mutual acquaintance just assumed I had put it there and wanted to joke about the situation. She inspected the hickey and turned to me—"Nice dude, high-five." But I knew the whole truth. I laughed dismissively, looked past the mutual acquaintance to my at-the-time-girlfriend, and said, "I don't leave bite marks."
She started crying instantly and ran to the bathroom. Epilogue: She's now married to said mark-leaver.
40. Confidential Information
Three years after I broke up with my ex, she found out who my new girlfriend was, somehow got her phone number, bought a disposable phone, and texted the new girlfriend that I was cheating on her. She used a different name and, using her previous knowledge of a birthmark location and what I like to do in bed, came off as pretty darn believable.
This threw my new girlfriend into rage and she didn't believe me due to the contents of the message. Forever alone.
41. Long Hair, Don’t Care
This started a few weeks ago. While cleaning the bathroom, I found a number of long hair strands over my bathroom wall by the shower. This is odd for two crucial reasons. Not only does my husband not have hair (he’s bald), I also wear a very cropped, short hairstyle. So it’s impossible for the strands I found to belong to either me or my husband.
Confused, I washed them away but couldn’t stop thinking about it. I decided not to mention it but kept looking out for them. There seems to be a pattern that there are hairs appearing when I’m either at work or out for a longer time period. I feel like I’m going crazy and feel like I shouldn’t just immediately go to the idea that my husband is cheating on me with a longer-haired woman.
I asked my husband about it and he just shrugged, which makes me more paranoid as surely this is something that’s strange, so why is he so blasé about it? I’m starting to think he’s playing it down to stop me from finding out the truth. It happened again two days ago and I asked my husband again. He dismissed it, but this time admitted it’s strange but told me the only explanation is that they must be my hairs.
They are not and after saying so, now he’ll just ignore me if I bring it up. I don’t want to assume my husband is cheating on me and accuse him of such over something so ridiculous, but I’m driving myself into the ground trying to work out how the hairs have got there without my husband dismissing it as nothing. But then I just figured it out.
I ultimately decided against getting a secret camera set up because ironically enough, I didn't want to betray my partner's trust, but I did plan to leave work early, which is something I've never done before. My boss allowed me to leave after a half-day. Upon returning home, nothing seemed amiss. I was expecting another car on the drive or parked outside on the street.
There was no other car I didn't recognise. Quietly letting myself in, I was immediately confused. In the hallway, there was a pair of shoes I didn't recognise, and not only that, they looked like men's shoes. I was standing in the hallway trying to work out what to do; I didn’t know if I should sneak around or make my presence known.
Before I could decide, my husband walked out of the kitchen with two cups of tea. By my husband's face, it was obvious he was surprised to see me. Playing along with naïveté, I asked my husband how he could have known I was coming home early to make me tea? Expecting my husband to lie, he surprised me by sitting me down and explaining everything.
Recently, his friend—someone I'm not all that close with because we only met once—was evicted, lost his job, and had been couch surfing. So for some days over the past couple of weeks, this guy has been traveling to our house, and with the acceptance of my husband, using our bathroom to freshen up to attend interviews.
He was also borrowing shirts and suits from my husband. As it turns out, my husband's friend has long hair and a beard. So it turns out my husband isn't cheating on me but was hiding the fact his long-haired friend was coming over to use our shower. After his shower, I ended up meeting "Dave," and he turned out to be a very nice guy just down on his luck.
I wished him the best and he went on his way. I asked my husband why he didn't just tell me, as I wouldn't have had a problem with it. He was worried about my reaction and me not liking his friend or approving of the situation. He also told me Dave was very embarrassed about the whole situation and didn't want people to know what he was having to do.
I told my husband I was starting to believe he was cheating and he was shocked, having not even considered those implications while attempting to cover for his friend. I told him this whole thing was ridiculous and even suggested his friend live with us until he's back on his feet. Funnily enough, my worst-case scenario was either a homeless man or woman living in my walls and sneakily using the shower.
And though this seems to be half the case, I'm glad it wasn't a stranger .
42. Puppy Love
My ex broke up with me with the usual excuses of “I need my space” and “I'm not ready to date.” However, less than a week later, she showed up crying and saying she had made a mistake. I take her back…only to have her immediately ask me to watch her apartment while she goes to Hawaii for a month with her family. Then it got weirder.
I stupidly say yes to watching her apartment and taking care of her puppy, which wasn't potty trained yet. Afterward, she gets back in town and is real distant right away. After being back a week and going out to dinner several times, she breaks up with me again with the same excuses—only this time she met a guy in Hawaii and they are soul mates.
Turns out, she had already made plans to meet this guy on vacation way before reuniting with me. She only got back with me because her friend who had agreed to watch her apartment dropped out because she had gotten a new puppy and didn't want to house train it. I’ve never felt so betrayed or so angry, and I do not have that girl in my life anymore.
43. Mr. Roboto
My husband and I have been married for six years. We have two kids and I’m pregnant with a third. My husband works from 9-5, comes home, does his chores, plays with our two kids, talks to me for a little bit, and then goes to sleep. But he doesn’t seem to enjoy doing any of it. Like this whole thing is one big chore. It’s like he’s turned into a robot.
He used to be this goofy guy who smiled and told jokes all the time, but I haven’t seen the man smile in months. It’s not like he’s neglecting his duties as a husband and father, but he acts like it’s just that, duties. Like hanging with the kids and me is a second job. I’m grateful for all he’s doing, and he makes all of our lives sooo much easier, but it’s like he’s constantly on the clock and I think he might be depressed.
I tried asking him if he was doing ok and he tells me he’s doing “fantastic,” but I know he’s not. That’s the line he uses at work when customers try to make small talk and ask how he’s doing. He doesn’t take any time for himself. He doesn’t take any breaks; he stopped playing games and stopped watching TV. He just does what I feel he thinks needs to be done and I don’t know how to help him out.
Our bedroom life has become one sided. We do it frequently, but only because I initiate frequently. Even if he doesn’t seem in the mood, he’ll do it. Like it’s his responsibility to “make me happy.” It feels like he isn’t there in the moment, like his mind is wandering the whole time we’re intimate and that, to me, feels worse than getting rejected.
I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know how to help because he won’t let me in. To anybody else he seems fine, but I know something is wrong and I don’t know how to fix this. I miss my husband, the guy who complained and told jokes. Not this robotic shell that looks like him. It’s clear to me now that my husband is overworked and “burnt out.”
So tonight, my husband came home at around 6 o’clock, and after he had something to eat I took him to the bedroom to talk. It was a revelation. I sat him down on the bed and told him I was worried about him. When I finished my piece he starting crying, like full-on crying. In all the years that I have known this man, I had never seen a tear roll down his eye.
I held him for a few minutes until he could recompose himself, and he told me everything. He told me that the world was in a bad place right now, and that we’re bringing a child into a stressful time. He said when I became pregnant, he felt he had to step up. He needed to take care of things because it was his responsibility.
He said that the weight of carrying the family was so much harder than he anticipated so he thought if he “doubled down” he could get through it. But the more he tried, the “darker the tunnel got” and eventually he couldn’t see an end. He said that he feels like he’s “constantly drowning, and the only breath of fresh air is on the car ride between home and work.” He wasn't even finished.
He said that sometimes the stress is so much that he throws up, but doesn’t tell anyone and instead keeps going with his day. He then pulled out a pack of gum from his pocket and said, “this was for when it happens.” I asked him why he couldn’t tell me any of this, and he said he didn’t want to “burden me with the truth.”
He said that he thought if he told me everything, that I would stop seeing him as a “protector and provider,” and that I would inevitably stop loving him. Hearing him say that brought tears to my eyes. I didn’t know where he got the notion I would feel that way. I asked him if he wanted to quit his job, but surprisingly he said the job doesn’t bother him.
He said the work in and of itself was fine. It’s just now he feels an added weight to provide. He said that some days he feels like packing a suitcase and running to some tropical island for a week and not telling anyone. But then he feels guilty and doubles down even more. I told him that maybe he should go on a trip.
I said that he deserved a break, and maybe if he did exactly that, he’d feel better. He tried to protest, but I insisted. In the end, he said that he’ll only go if we go together. Like a romantic getaway between spouses. Before the baby is due, he wants to take a week off from work, drop the kids off at Grandma’s house, and have us go on a vacation.
Just the two of us, like we used to when we first got married. He also said he wants to take the day off tomorrow and just sleep in, so that’s the plan. I’ll call his boss tomorrow and say that he’s sick and can’t come in. Right now, he’s playing with the kids and it doesn’t feel like he’s doing one of his chores. He actually seems to be enjoying himself.
For the first time in months I don’t see the robot, I see my husband.
44. Full Circle
I know a woman who was married for a couple of months, and then got pregnant. Her husband told her to get an abortion. Being in a small town, she had to drive several hours to the nearest clinic, but as she waits outside for an hour or two, she realizes she can't go through with it. So she calls him to tell him she can't do it. He hangs up on her.
After a long drive back, she comes home to her house, which is now completely empty. Like, everything, including the ice trays in the fridge, is gone. The only things left are a rocking chair and some of her clothes. He never shows back up. But there’s a happy ending: She had the baby girl. That baby girl grew up and I married her. The woman is now my mother-in-law and she is a wonderful person.
45. Ring Her Up
God this is a doozy. I swear my life feels like a movie right now. I am planning on proposing to my girlfriend of three years. Now, I suck at picking out jewelry. I’m the type of guy who doesn't see a problem with heart-shaped jewelry (seriously why is it considered so ugly?), so every time I want to buy something for my girl, I usually consult one of our mutual friends.
My girl's best friends are all friends with me as well and we all get along well, so asking them for help picking out jewelry is something I'm used to. When it came time to pick out a ring, I consulted my girlfriend’s best friend Justine. Justine and I are quite close and she knows my girlfriend better than anyone, including me.
So, when my girlfriend went out to visit her sister and baby nephew, I invited Justine over to the house to help pick out a ring. Justine and I looked through a few catalogs but decided it would be better to go to professionals at a jewelry store. However, I didn't know when my girlfriend would be coming home, so Justine and I thought of a clever text to gauge how much time we had.
I asked her when she'd be coming home, as I was ordering takeout and wanted to know when to tell them to have the food ready by. Her text back chilled me to the bone. She responded by saying it would be a few hours, since she met up with Justine to go shopping. I showed Justine the text, and she looked as confused as I was.
It isn't out of the ordinary for my girlfriend to meet up with people out of the blue like that for shopping, lunch, etc. She's a very spontaneous person and loves making plans on the fly. So ordinarily, I would have believed this text in a heartbeat. However, obviously this had to be a lie. When she came home she acted completely normal, and I played along, but it's been really hard to act like everything's fine.
We got takeout, ate together, and cuddled on the couch after. So far, she's caught on a little that something upset me, but I just can't tell her what. Looking at her hurts me. I don't know what to do. My girlfriend and I have zero trust issues and we tell each other everything, so this lie was ruining me. Eventually, I decided to confront her.
I decided to be honest. I basically just said that I knew we'd been thinking about marriage and she probably knew a proposal was coming soon, so I invited Justine over to help me find her the perfect ring, and that so happened to be the day that she said she was going to see her, so...what's the deal? She immediately started grinning like an idiot and prodding me about proposing and the ring.
Then we got back onto the topic of where she was, and she confessed what she was really doing. No, she wasn't cheating, and no, she wasn't picking out a ring for me. So, some people are dog people and some people are cat people. Well, me, I'm a snake person. I grew up with snakes my whole life. But I never felt I was able to get one because my girlfriend has always been uneasy about living with a snake, which I completely respected.
Also, the process of buying and raising a snake is very different than that of buying and raising a dog or cat. It's quite complicated. So you could imagine my surprise when my girlfriend showed me a picture of her holding the cutest Kenyan sand boa I have EVER SEEN! Needless to say, my girlfriend was going to surprise me with a snake!
We're picking her up next week.
46. Photo Finish
While splitting up all of our stuff during our divorce, my ex opted to claim ownership of every single photograph in the house. Including the very small handful that I still had of my brother who had passed years before. I found them by accident while making sure she wasn't taking more than her fair share, and she claimed it was just an oversight that my five pictures were wrapped in an envelope, inside another envelope, and packed in the bottom of a box.
Karma: I'm a solid foot taller than her and she outweighs me by 40 lbs now.
47. If The Shoe Fits
My wife is a neat freak. Always has been. She throws notes on my desk out assuming they're garbage, my belongings get rearranged to the point where it takes me hours to find them; it's something I've come to accept. I'm not happy about it, but we have a pretty happy marriage on the whole. I am a volunteer EMT, and I keep my boots unlaced up against the wall next to my clothes hamper so that I can throw them on along with my uniform if a call comes in during the middle of the night.
Well, my wife has taken to tying the bootlaces when she sees them untied. Not only does she tie them, but she tightens them and double knots them to the point where I need to undo the knot, open up the boots, and let a little slack out to fit my feet into them. I ignored it the first two times, but the third time she did it, I made it a point to bring up to her the next day.
I very calmly said, "Honey, I appreciate that you want everything neat, but please do not touch my boots in the future. Time is of the essence when I'm going on a call and at two in the morning I don't have the time to unlace them and open them up. It's not just a minor inconvenience, it's people's lives, so I would appreciate it if you left them alone."
She rolled her eyes, said I was being dramatic, and that she wouldn't help me out by keeping my things neat in the future. Well, she never stopped. No matter how many times I've asked her, told her, begged her; she just laughs and says, "Well you know how I am!" Then disaster struck. The other night a page went out for a CPR in progress.
I went to throw my boots on and they were, once again, tightened beyond recognition. So I'm sitting there on the edge of the bed, cursing, trying to get my boots open, and fumbling due to the stress of the situation. My wife opened her eyes, groggily looked at me, and asked, "Don't you need to go on that call?" I know I was in the wrong here, and I regret it.
I slammed the boot into the ground and yelled, "Yes! I do! I would have been out the door five minutes ago, except SOME STUPID WITCH MESSED WITH MY BOOTS AGAIN!" My wife got up without another word, walked into the bathroom, and slammed the door. I got my boots open and went on the call. By the time we arrived, the officers had gotten her back, so I didn't have to do CPR.
Still, I was sweating and shaking thinking my delay could have cost a life. I got home and my wife wasn't talking to me. She ignored me the entire day until we finally sat down and talked. She said I had scared her with how angry I got, that she thought I was going to hit her, and she didn't know I was capable of getting so angry.
Note: I have never raised a hand to her, nor have I ever yelled at her before; I am absolutely not a violent person in any way shape or form. I apologized for yelling at her, and acknowledged that I hadn't meant to snap at her, I was frustrated with the situation as I needed to get to the person in need of CPR as soon as possible and it was a delay that didn't need to happen. I, once again, pleaded with her not to touch my boots because lives were literally on the line.
She told me that if I was going to overreact and make her afraid then she would never touch my boots again because she didn't want to live like that. Last night, before I got into bed, I had a sinking feeling. I went over and checked my boots, and I was very disappointed to find them tightened up again. So I decided to show her how it felt.
I went over to her closet and pulled out her running shoes. I unlaced the shoelaces on both of them, removed them from the shoes completely, curled them each into a little coil, put them inside the shoes, and put them back. I then went to sleep. At 6:15 I was woken up by my wife screaming, "How could you!? Why would you do this?" holding up both laceless shoes with tears in her eyes.
My wife likes to go for an early morning run and I knew she would want to get out the door as soon as possible. I smiled and said, "You know how I am! I just like things neat!" She continued sobbing and walked out of the room. So, by the time she was all laced up again, it was raining so she missed out on her run. I actually feel pretty terrible about that because I really only wanted to delay her, not ruin her plans completely.
At this point, she's alternating between crying that I went out of my way to hurt her and ignoring my presence. I acknowledge that what I've done has been pretty childish and not at all constructive. I just don't know what to do. She said, through tears, "You admitted you were totally in the wrong for yelling at me, and then you turned around and took it out on me in a different way! What is wrong with you?"
The problem is, to her, an apology means taking on 100% of the fault. When I apologized for blowing up, she took that to mean she was 100% in the right and that my feelings were completely unjustified. So at this point, I haven't apologized for ruining her run, because she'll take that to mean that she wasn't wrong to touch my boots.
I've tried to have these discussions but it's in one ear and out the other. We have such a good relationship otherwise, but I feel like this issue has reached a tipping point and it's going to continue to result in arguments until we resolve it.
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48. Free For A Price
After I broke up with my ex, he and his new girlfriend proceeded to post a dozen or so ads on different sections of Craigslist advertising "free" things (TVs, etc.) with my phone number, address, and email listed. As part of the ads, my ex made sure to write "feel free to call and text at any time." For a good two weeks, I simply had to keep my phone off to avoid the hundreds of phone calls I was receiving.
Many people became irate after realizing that the ad was a fake, a few even threatening me. I spent those weeks in a constant state of paranoia.
49. A Bundle Of Joy
I was dating this girl for almost a year. She was always super happy and smiley and just amazing to be around, not to mention she was the artsy cutie in the top of her class in Visual Design, which is just my type. When college started back up after the summer I met her, I started hanging out with my college friends, going to the nearby dive bar and just being a normal college student.
One of these friends was a girl I'd known for years. She had a boyfriend, I had a girlfriend, and we never thought of each other as anything more than brother and sister. Anyway, the girl I was dating started getting jealous and wanted me to spend more and more time with her. So, I pretty much lived at her dorm while I was wasting a year's lease on my apartment, all the while not being able to see my friends.
Next semester rolls around and she can't afford the dorm fee. Being the idiot I am, I offered for her to come live with me and even give her part of my savings to help her out. This was a HUGE mistake. I was no longer "allowed" to drink or hang out with any of my "terrible friends." So, we have many extremely heated arguments resulting in hot make-up times.
One night, she ticks me off so much that I punched a hole through the wall and dent my fridge with my already fractured fist. I tell her to get lost. She comes back to me a week later and tells my parents I am a terrible person and makes up lies about my lifestyle, saying I do hard substances (I don’t). I have to console my mother for days.
My mother was very, very upset that I was a supposed hard user (which, again, I'm not). To top all that off, my ex proceeds to tell me she is pregnant with our baby. I say to myself, "I'm OK with this. I'll do the right thing and just pay child support." But it doesn't end there. She changes her mind about keeping the kid and asks me to give her money to get an abortion.
I talk to her and make sure this is what she wanted to do, because my head is spinning at this point. I had a lingering thought that maybe she was lying, so I asked to see the test results. They seemed legit so I give her MORE money this time to help with the procedure. Later on, I found out the dark truth. The papers were forged with the skills she had learned as a Visual Design student.
She played me HARD. Darn, am I glad to have her out of my life.
50. By Any Other Name
My wife and I have been married for four years and we have a two-year-old. We dated on and off for three years before getting married. Last night, I got the shock of my life. She said her ex’s name while we were getting it on. When I noted it, she gave some weird excuse as to why. She said it’s a common name (it is a very common name) and she must have heard it recently.
I wasn’t going to start a big argument with her at that time. But it has since gotten me worried about why she did that. For some background, this was a guy she was with for a couple years before I met her. They met in college and were serious for some time. They had broken up when I met her and decided they were better as friends.
They were friends for years before they dated. We started dating, but he remained in the picture. He was her best friend first and foremost and I grudgingly went along with it for her. But several months passed, and I put my foot down, saying it was too uncomfortable for me. There was some resistance, but she stepped back from him. But there was one big issue.
Every time we broke up, she was with him. We finally reconciled and got engaged. He apparently didn’t know this and stopped talking to her. She was devastated at the time, which should have been a red flag, I now see. At the time, though, we talked about it and she was happy to have chosen me. Now after this has happened, I’m tempted to see if she’s gotten back in contact with him again.
I know she’s checked in on his social media because I saw the searches on our laptop. She doesn’t know I know that. I don’t think she’d cheat, but this guy was always different for her.
51. He Moves Fast
My ex dated a rebound girl for two weeks. She cheated on him while he was out of town, and he breaks up with her. Then she comes back and says sorry, so he proposes to her, deciding that’s somehow how he’s going to get over me. He goes through with it, but the entire time he's trying to tell me how much he still loves me and wants me back.
It messed up my mental state big time during my first semester at college.
52. The Key To My Heart
In college, I dated a girl who was a raging alcoholic. It was the day after Valentine's and we had been going out for eight months. We woke up at my place like any other day and I started studying for midterms. She said that she'd let me study for a while and left. About four hours later, she came into my apartment, nearly unable to stand.
Puzzled, I asked where she had been, and she told me she just finished a bottle with some of her bartender friends. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. After about an hour of trying to calm her down and put her to bed to sleep it off, I asked her to leave. She became so upset that she started throwing my things around in the apartment.
I couldn't get any work done, so I physically dragged her out of the apartment, hoping she'd go away. Then she turned her anger to my car. She grabs a "For Sale" sign out of a neighbor’s yard and tries to etch her name into the paint. I was able to get in and drive away before the artwork was complete, however. I then went to a friend’s house and studied for a few hours…until I got a horrific phone call.
It’s around 9 pm, and it’s from my deranged girlfriend. She proceeds to tell me that she just regained consciousness to TWO GUYS WITH HER IN BED IN A RANDOM APARTMENT. She didn't know them, she didn't know the apartment. I hung up and tried to digest what just happened. To get my mind off of it, I went out to a local bar to unwind. A female friend of mine happened to be there, and after a few drinks she said she didn't want to go home to her parents’ house, so I said she could crash at mine.
We didn't hook up, and weren't going to. At around 2 am, the girl and I are sitting on the couch, watching TV. My front door flies open (should have locked it, rookie move) and there is the psycho. She's been keeping up her buzz. Her eyes meet with the girl sitting on my couch. She wants blood. She grabs the first thing she can find and lunges at the girl.
It's my own set of keys. I tackle her and she uses the keys to scratch the ever living heck out of me. She actually got put behind bars briefly for that stunt.
53. Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You
This girl broke up with me after 2.5 of years saying she needed to be single and wasn't interested in being in a relationship. A week later, she called me to tell me how she met this awesome dude and she's in love. Then she slept with him, and he never called her again. She then called me, crying about how he broke her heart. I mean, she pretty much got what was coming to her, but why she felt the need to call me and tell me about it? I'll never understand.
54. Family Feud
I have agreed to carry my sister’s baby for her, as she is unable herself and lacks the financial resources to pay a surrogate. I am happy to do this…or at least I was. The baby is biologically my sister’s and my brother-in-law’s. This child is made from her last and only viable egg. They had tried many times before, but they all failed.
So I am 6 months along at the moment and I met a lovely man recently and we are in the early stages of a relationship. He knows about my situation and is very accepting and considerate. Before agreeing to carry their baby, we had some firm rules in place. They asked me to stay away from any bedroom contact with men.
I agreed and I really didn’t mind, nor do I mind it right now. The agreement was no bedroom intimacy of any kind, and I have not done anything with anyone, as was agreed. But this is where it started to unravel. A few days ago, I introduced my new boyfriend to my sister and brother-in-law, and at first everything was great.
They invited us for dinner last Saturday, we had a great meal and a great time together. They all seemed to get along—that is, until he had to leave. When my boyfriend had said his goodbyes, he then came over to me and hugged and kissed me. It was quite passionate but not in a vulgar way, nor was it for a long period, literally seconds.
As soon as he left, my sister and brother-in-law jumped down my throat. They were talking about how I broke the rules, and how disgusting and wicked I am. I genuinely was shocked, since I had not expected such a reaction for just getting a kiss. I decided not to argue or even get into a conversation with them and just walked home.
I live about a 30 minutes walk away, and by the time I got back home I had an email waiting for me. Its contents made my blood boil. The email contained our original agreement but now it included a section with “No kissing of any kind,” and they want me to sign the new agreement. I don’t want to sign it at all, not in the slightest.
I have been more than accommodating and considerate of all their original requests, and I feel like they are now crossing boundaries and acting as if I am some kind of farm animal they own and control. However, I don’t want to create any further animosity between us. They have been calling and texting me since then and I have yet to answer.
I understand their anxiety and worry from when we originally made the first agreement, and I viewed it and still view their initial request as acceptable. I wasn’t in a relationship at the beginning of all this and they were worried about potential STI, and I understood and I was already taking a break from men at the time. Still, I am doing this completely for free and without any reward other than helping my sister have her first and only biological child.
55. The Back-Up Groom
My fiancee married another guy several months before our scheduled wedding date. For us, she demanded a big wedding, reception, a specific priest and church (she was religious, I am not), and all sorts of other things I didn’t really want. With the second guy, she spontaneously did it on a random weekend. But then she twisted the knife in.
She didn't tell anybody and was out of the country when she did it, so people were calling me to figure out what was going on. She just changed her name and relationship status on Facebook and left me to handle the fallout. Fun conversations always start with, “Did your fiancee get married to another guy?”
56. The Boy Who Cried Wolf
My friend has been dating this girl for a few months now and they're crazy about each other, but right before they were dating, she was going out with this other guy she really wanted to get away from. So she breaks up with him and goes after my friend. A few weeks ago, her now-ex contacted her and told her a chilling story.
He confessed he had attempted suicide and that he was in the hospital under 24 hour care. He knew exactly how she would react, and sure enough she starts crying and blaming herself for weeks. For about two or three weeks, she's completely messed up and full of self blame for what happened, until she starts talking to one of his best friends and discovered that he had made the whole thing up.
There was no suicide attempt, and he had been telling all his friends that the reason he was talking to her was because they were considering getting back together. He also told her a few other lies, like he was going off to college to play football, that he had bought a horse, etc. I don’t know why he lied about that stuff; it doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone.
The story does have a happy ending however. She and my friend, her current boyfriend, messaged and called everyone who knew the both of them and told them the truth about what happened and what he had said. Including his mother. He lost a good amount of friends that day, as he should have, and my friend and the girl are still together.
57. Only Skin Deep
I had a neighbor who was a really good-looking skirt chaser. He spent his teenage years cheating on his gorgeous girlfriends and whatnot. By the time he was twenty-something, he fell in love with some girl and said he was going to marry her. His dad is really loaded, and he was going to inherit his dad's company. Basically, it was all going well for him. Until everything changed.
He got into a car accident. He wasn't driving and he was wearing his seat-belt, but when the car got hit, he flew out the window. He didn't get any ugly-looking injuries, just a scratch or two on his arms and a small bump on his head. However, he couldn't walk anymore from then on. In fact, he could barely move at all.
He spent a couple of years in bed being taken care of by his mother. And then the hammer came down. His girlfriend sued him. He'd been bed ridden for a couple of months when her lawyer started a fuss about how he'd promised to marry her and had taken two years of her life with that promise. She actually sued him for not being able to marry her anymore.
Apparently, she'd been with him those two years prior to the accident only because of his dad's money. When she realized she wouldn't have any of it anymore, she freaked out.
58. One Heck Of A Growing Pain
My mom had an affair 18 years ago, and I am the product of it. My dad just informed me of all this, and told me he will not pay for my college, while my siblings got their college experience paid by our dad. Both my older brother and sister went to the same college. My brother graduated two years ago, my sister is set to graduate in two years.
Dad paid all their expenses, including rent, food, their cars, pocket money, you name it. My brother has a job now, his own place, lives together with his fiancée, and has his life together. My sister already has a good-paying job, and my dad still pays for almost everything for her. I got accepted to the same college, which was always the plan, and was looking forward to talking with my parents about the next steps.
I was going to ask them to help me the same way they did for my siblings. Instead, I was met with a story about my mom's cheating, how I am the result of her cheating, and how my dad is not willing to support me any more moving forward. Dad told me that mom had 18 years to let me know and prepare me for the future, but obviously she never did. I was floored—what am I going to do?
He said it was never his place to say anything since I am not his son, and he didn't want to interfere with mom's parenting. Apparently, my grandparents know I am not dad's biological son, but they haven't bothered to tell me anything, either. My siblings had no idea, and they are as surprised as I am because there was never a hint of anything being off.
I might be naive, but I always thought I had a great relationship with my dad. We go to see sports together, we go fishing together, he tutored me when I had difficulties with math (dad is an engineer), and he taught me to drive. I never got a hint he stores resentment towards me. I mean, he gave me my name, and has explained what my name means, and he was very proud of it.
It's a story he tells from time to time. He likes to talk about stuff like that about me. My mom, meanwhile, has never said a word about anything, and apparently she was supposed to have "the talk" with me, but she never did. I feel abandoned and unprepared for what lies ahead. I am not even sure I will be able to go to college anymore, as I always assumed my parents would pay for it.
I never had a job, and I am not sure what job I can even get to support me through college. I have no idea how to apply for loans. All my mom has done is cry and apologize throughout this. But nothing of substance; she has no idea how to help me. I don't even know if I am welcome at home anymore. It's all up in the air, and I feel shame leaving my room. It's a nightmare.
Still, if they ask me to move out, I don't know where to go. I don't have any savings. I am angry at my mom, and I am confused about where I stand with my dad. There's a man out there who is my father who never wanted to have anything to do with me. I feel rejected and I have no idea what to do to fix this situation. I have no idea how to process all this.
59. Not The Grand Gesture You Want
Two weeks after we broke up, my ex showed up at my house at about 8 am. I woke up to him banging on my window, asking me for a place to sleep. Meanwhile, his hands were covered in black paint and his pant leg was torn for reasons that would only become fully clear later. Apparently, he had slept in a nearby neighbor’s bush.
We had a horrible argument, and finally I called his mom to come get him because it was starting to get out of hand. That night, a friend of mine calls me while walking past a pub near my house, telling me my name had been spray-painted on the wall. Yep, it was my ex. It said: “Screw you [my name]”, "Hope You're Happy" and "You broke my heart.”
I felt horrible every day walking by it, and still feel horrible thinking about it.
60. Doggone It
I have an 11-year old senior German Shepherd. He was hit by a car in 2018 and we went through a very difficult recovery process. He had seizures, urine issues, and a constant fear of anything going fast near him. Like, I couldn't throw a ball anymore. We actually got another puppy, but our senior was so stressed we had to re-home her.
You would have sworn he was displaying rescue dog behavior, but he was just scared. Well, he's moved past all of that now and I'm so proud of him. The vet prescribed zoniamide for his seizures and so far he's been recovering well. My vet and I were discussing ways to improve his "mobility." It’s like a walking cane, but for dogs, and it has sensory objects on the end to prevent him from bumping into furniture.
We tested it in the office and his mood improved instantly, but at that time I couldn't afford more treatment for him so I opted to come back. So I met this guy named Dan earlier this year while walking my dog. He's known since day one that my dog requires special treatment, and that I would absolutely provide what he needs.
Everything went well at the beginning. Until one day I got too comfortable. We were talking about finances and I told him about my debt and the money I was saving up for my dog. After paying off the debt from his previous treatments, I didn't want to open another card so I started saving cash in a little fireproof chest.
Well, Dan took it from me. Yesterday, I went to his place and I noticed he has a new setup. I was asking him where he got the money from, and his response sent a shiver down my spine. We fought, he admitted what he did, and then he said, "He's half gone anyway, you need to let go." My dog is not even close to passing. He's a little older, but he's nowhere near that age.
We go to the veterinarian regularly and everything checks out as well as it can be given in his circumstances. No one has ever mentioned euthanasia; we've only been looking at the future and improvements. We're both students, so I don't want to ruin his future but that was for my baby to get what he needed so he can walk around my home comfortably.
61. The Naked Truth
I've been dating this girl for over five years, and she's very special to me. Even at this point, I can't help but hope she's not too worried about why I've been acting so oddly. I honestly was planning to marry her sometime in the future as soon as we settled into our adult lives. But fate had to go and throw a massive wrench in my plans.
One day, we were chilling at her house when I asked her if she could send me the funny picture she took earlier that day of one of our puppies. She was busy on her computer, so she told me to just grab her phone to send it to myself. When I went into her phone gallery I noticed a "hidden" folder, which I hadn't seen before.
Out of curiosity, I opened it. I immediately regretted looking at it. It was filled with naked pictures of her, most I've already seen. Some of which, however, she's never sent to me before. I thought maybe she was stockpiling for whenever I asked for any…I soon found out how wrong I was about that one. I clicked on a video.
It was an intimate bedroom tape from the POV of the guy, but the thing is—I don’t remember filming it. It 100% wasn’t me, and it was a recent video. For the last five years, we've had a few shares of fights, but nothing too serious. She'd always make me feel loved and I could tell she really cared about me. Or at least I thought she did.
After I returned her phone to her, I quickly got up and went home. I couldn't stay there any longer. And now I'm here. I don’t really know what to do. I'm planning on confronting her and breaking it off, but right now I'm just in shock. Five years down the drain, and I feel like I just lost my best friend. I'm not really sure how to feel. I can't think straight.
62. All In The Family
My wife and I have been together since high school, and married for 10 years. My wife's best friend Megan and I work for the same company, though in different departments. So yesterday, she wanted to meet me after work and told me that she had to tell me something. I met her, and she immediately broke down and started crying.
I tried to console her and asked if something was wrong. That’s when she told me that my wife and her husband were having an affair. According to her, this affair has been going on for years—but that was far from all. She also told me that her husband was my three-year-old daughter's biological father. Apparently, she confronted her husband and he didn't deny anything.
Well, when I confronted my wife, she tried to deny everything. But when I told her that Megan told me about it, she broke down and started crying, too. I really don't know what to do. I mean, everything was a lie, right? My little girl Taylor is not mine and my wife blatantly faked everything for years. What do I live for now? I just don't know what to do.
63. Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
So my good friend Aaron and his girlfriend Mary have been together for almost 7 years. They met in college and are in a very close relationship. Personally, I would call them extremely co-dependent. Neither of them really have any friends aside from each other, and she doesn't let him have guy friends. In fact, she doesn't let him do a lot of things.
He's not allowed to go out past 11, not allowed to drink or smoke, she has to approve of all of his friends, and he's not allowed to be alone with other girls. She's got this guy on a tight leash. The reason why they're still together is that Aaron is completely whipped, and to him she can do no wrong. He talks regularly about how amazed he still is that she finds him attractive.
He's a decent looking guy, but she's like supermodel level good-looking. They post cutesy couple photos every day—I’m pretty sure she makes him post them—and to everyone who sees them, they appear to be the perfect magical fairytale couple. But now I know the real story. A few weeks ago, he told my boyfriend and I that he was planning on proposing to Mary.
Of course, we congratulated him because he seemed super excited. Now here’s the issue: A few weeks prior to this, I hung out with a friend of Mary’s, Alison. Alison told me about a party they went to where Mary got drank too much and slept with her ex. After the party, they began hooking up regularly, and she had a threesome with him and a friend of his.
Aaron has no knowledge of these hook-ups. I told my boyfriend about it because he shares my friendship with both of them, and he believes that we need to say something, but I'm not so sure how to even go about that. It will destroy him, ruin their entire relationship, and maybe a friendship as well. However, I think in the long term he will be unhappy with a marriage where she's so controlling.
Not even that, but if she's completely okay with cheating on her long-term partner it will be the same once they're married.
64. Be My Valentine
I was about to propose to my girlfriend of seven years, but then I discovered something. For the past seven years, we've been really, really happy together. She's sweet, loving, and caring. She's close to my family, and me to hers. We are really connected to each other, same passion, same likes and dislikes, we frequently travel together and all that.
We rarely fight, and when we do, we resolve issues quickly. It's like a perfect relationship. We've been steady, we're genuinely happy in love. Except just when I was contemplating proposing to her, I feel like she's gone cold for the past month. Just this past Valentine’s day, we were on top of the world surprising one another with gifts and sweet nothings.
But the following weeks felt different. Her "I love yous" weren't as enthusiastic. The way she talks and communicates with me feels different. She easily gets upset over trivial things. She seems to be a different person all of a sudden. I actually asked her what was wrong, but she assured me everything was ok and something was just bugging her.
I asked again but it seemed like she didn’t want to open up. She assured me though that she loved me very much. Then, just recently, like four days back, I was reminded that she has a spare phone just sitting in my drawer, though it was out of batteries. So I grabbed a charger, booted it up…and it just so happened that her Google account was still logged in on the device.
Curious, I went to see what she's been up to lately—then I discovered her recent searches. They shocked me. The searches go like this: “I cheated on him,” “I cheated on him many times,” “I cheated should we break up,” “Breaking up a long term relationship,” and so on. The searches were dated just after Valentine’s day and onwards.
Almost every day she looks at the same searches and other related topics. I am devastated discovering this. I cannot eat, I cannot sleep. But I haven't confronted her about this. We are currently far apart now due to work, but we will be seeing each other next week. I am confused, I am in shock, and I just don’t know how to react.
65. The Eye Of The Beholder
I’ve been with my boyfriend for two years, and I thought he was attracted to me, all of me. He’s never called me ugly and always compliments me with or without makeup. That changed last night. He brought his friends over. I’m cool with them, but we’re not that close so usually when they do come over to play video games, I go upstairs.
That night when I was walking past the room to the bathroom, I could hear my name. The door was closed but I stopped to listen. I know eavesdropping is wrong, but c’mon, they said my name! I heard one of my boyfriend’s friends say that they hate that I always leave when they come because I wear shorts and a tank top around the house.
Meanwhile, I usually dress more conservatively when I’m around them in social settings. The friend went on to say that I have a big butt and nice breasts, but I’m a “butterface” without makeup. And my boyfriend laughed! LOUDLY! He didn’t even defend me! His reply was somehow even worse than all that: “Her body is perfect.”
What?! They moved onto a different topic and started talking about other girls, so I gave up on listening and went back upstairs. I don’t think I’m ugly, but I did cry. I’m ashamed to say my self-esteem took a hit but it did. It hurt worse to know that my boyfriend laughed and didn’t defend my looks. I won’t lie and say I’m the best supermodel, but I’m not ugly!
I have shoulder-length brown hair, clear skin, and my features are decent. Maybe my eyebrows could be less sparse and I wear glasses, but I would give myself a solid 6/10 without makeup and maybe a 8 with? Maybe I’m just delusional? I felt sick sleeping next to my boyfriend and wouldn’t let him touch me. He’s attracted to my body and not my face and I hate myself low key.
66. Game Over, Man
My fiancé and I got engaged in December last year. In January this year, we both together decided to save money every month for our wedding and honeymoon. In six months, we saved around $8,000. Last month, my fiancé's best friend bought a new gaming PC, so my fiancé also wanted to buy one. He asked me about it, but I denied it because we both already had laptops.
I told him that he can play games on the laptop that he already has. He repeatedly kept asking me if he could buy a PC and I finally agreed to it. Now I regret it so badly. After a week, the PC finally came…along with a new table and chair. Apparently, he had ordered a gaming chair and a table as well. That night, I asked him how much it all cost.
He was a little hesitant to tell me. After a while, he told me and I was distraught. He had spent our entire savings of $8,000 to buy the PC. We had a very big argument that night and I scolded him for spending all our savings. After all, that savings contained not only his money but my money as well. And we were saving it for our wedding.
After everything I told him, his final reply was, "I will earn it all back soon." I don't trust those words at all. I thought nothing worse than this could happen, but it has. It has been about two weeks since he got the PC and since then, my fiancé hasn't gotten up from his new chair. Ever since he got the PC, he hasn't even seen my face.
The only time he talks to me is when he is hungry, and he calls to me and tells me to get him something to eat or drink. I call him to watch TV and he says he's busy. I call him to sleep together and he says that he'll sleep later. He plays games the whole night, sleeps at 5 am and wakes up at 2 pm. Basically, he's asleep when I'm awake and he's awake when I'm asleep.
For the past two weeks, I've been so lonely that it feels like I'm alone at home with nobody to even talk to. He is ignoring me so much that I think he has absolutely forgotten that I even exist in his life. I honestly feel like his waitress nowadays. He has also 100% stopped doing all the household chores, and it's getting very hard for me to do it all alone.
He is barely even brushing his teeth and taking a bath, let alone doing the house chores. Also, ever since the PC arrived, he hasn't even touched his laptop to work, and he isn't checking his phone to see if someone has sent him something work-related. I'm now genuinely afraid that he might lose his job. Everything that is happening right now is so bad, I called my parents and told them about it last night and they almost had nothing to say.
I'm thinking of calling his parents tonight and telling it to them, and maybe they can knock some sense into him. I honestly don't know what else to do now. I want to burn that PC.
67. Reverse Catfish
I matched with this girl on Tinder. She was significantly bigger than girls I normally date, but we have literally everything thing in common so I figured I’d give it a shot. So after talking for a few days, we decided to meet up at this nerd bar last night. I get there and pick a table. After waiting a few minutes, this beautiful woman comes over and starts trying to flirt with me.
That’s very strange, so I assume she must be after something. Free drinks, my kidneys, I don’t know. So I explain to her that I’m actually waiting for someone and I don’t want to give a bad first impression by chatting up some other woman when she walks in. That’s when she springs it on me that she’s actually the one I’m waiting for.
She told me how she’s lost about 130 lbs over the past couple years and she wants to make sure guys are actually interested in her and not just her body. She was also testing me to see if I would ditch the fat girl if someone hotter showed up. So here’s the thing: I don’t know how I feel about being “tested.” I don’t want to live my life questioning every decision I make like she might jump out from around the corner at any minute.
But she’s also really attractive and very cool otherwise. I’m not sure how I should proceed.
68. Do You Want To Play A Game?
I had major depression, couldn't get out of bed, and used substances to try and feel some kind of emotion other than soul crushing sadness. I had hardly spoken to my buddies at the time; they used to come over and try to get me out of the house, but I was too busy drinking alone. One day, my best friend walked into my house and found me on the floor after I made an attempt on my life.
When I checked out of the hospital, him and my other friend took me for a drink to discuss how I was. While we were at the pub, we met up with some other people. That's when I met my ex. We were together for about a year and a half, and it turned me into a different person. I stopped drinking as heavily and I was getting better, coming out of my depression at long last.
The first half of our relationship, which was kept in secret because she said people would get angry, was blissful. We were perfect and completely in love. We spent hours talking through our problems and our lives, how similar they were and in fact how her life was so much worse than mine. We really understood each other. Then the bottom started to drop out.
She cheated on me several times with my one of my best friends, but I let that slide. After all, I needed her. Then, on New Year 2009, I had a massive party where I invited all my friends and her. She went upstairs with a guy she had brought. I followed them up and told her she couldn’t sleep with the guy in my bed since I had to sleep there, you know?
He left embarrassed when I told him I was her boyfriend, which she denied, and I asked her what the heck she was doing. She started screaming and pretending to cry, then ran downstairs into my kitchen. My best friend came over to me when I walked downstairs and told me that she had told everyone horrible lies about me, like I beat her.
I went to talk to her in the kitchen and I asked her why she was doing all this. Her response broke me into a million little pieces. She told me everything had been a lie, everything she told me about her life, her battle with depression and addiction, her telling me she loved me, it had all been a game to her, for fun.
Except my two friends heard every word, and told everyone else. The tables were turned. Now she's with another guy and I'm with someone who does love me for who I am. Good luck to her new boyfriend and thanks to her for letting me hit rock bottom, because after her, the only way I could go was up. I'm happy again now.
69. For Your Eyes Only
I broke up with my girlfriend in college, and she went crazy. She e-mailed my mother, who thinks I'm a wonderful Christian boy, and gave her very detailed accounts of some of the bedroom acts we tried, and also intimate pictures of me. She CC'd me. But! Since I'm on the computer 100% of the time, I got the email right when she sent it.
Also, since I set up my mom's account, I knew her password. I went in and deleted the message before she ever saw it. I also blocked all my ex-girlfriend’s email addresses at that time. But oy, my heart was a-pounding.
70. Clean Demon
Hi, everyone. This will probably be lengthy as I have nobody in my life to talk to about this. My wife suffers from intense germophobia and anxiety. We have been together for 11 years and married for eight. She has not always been like this; she was relatively normal while we dated, but it started to get so much worse after we got married.
She previously worked at a hotel as a receptionist and was occasionally required to handle and wash guest towels. Well, she ended up contracting a staph infection and had to be hospitalized to have the infection drained. Following this, she had to be on antibiotics for 30 days. Ever since that experience, her anxiety and fear of infection has steadily grown over the years up until this point.
We also have two children—a two-year-old boy and five-year-old girl—and her tendencies affect them, too. The following list is my attempt at a comprehensive germ-prevention "Standard Operating Procedures" of our household:
If I touch a light switch I need to wash my hands
If I touch a doorknob I need to wash my hands
If I go to the garage I need to take a shower before I can sit down or do anything
If I touch her pajamas or I touch towels then I need to take a shower
If I even enter the guest bathroom then I have to take a shower
If my kids enter the guest bathroom they have to have a bath
I am not allowed to use her toilet in the master bathroom
She stops up her toilet every day and requires me to plunge and clean it (she uses 3x as much toilet paper as a regular person would). The cleaning process is 3 Clorox wipes—one for the seat, one for under, and one to use to flush it with. I have to immediately shower after this. If she spills excess water on the floor then I have to mop it up.
She goes through entire loads of her pajamas daily just trying to change her clothes. Every time she uses the toilet, she has to change her clothes. She washes her hands and arms up to her elbows and then her face. If she gets water on her shirt, she will change it. If, when putting on her shirt she touches it to her body, she will change it. If her pants touch the floor when she is putting them on, she will change them.
She discards the top shirts in her drawer every time she gets dressed. She uses 6-7 towels after a shower, discarding half of them because "they touched my chest." As you can see, this adds up and I end up folding laundry for 60-90 minutes every day. This doesn’t’ include the time it takes to actually change it out and take showers.
If I change out laundry and I graze the doorframe when I enter the bedroom with clothes, I have to discard ALL OF THEM. If an article of clothing touches the edge of the bed, discard it. If I even touch the dishwasher I have to wash my hands. If she takes a shower and gets in the bed, she will NOT leave the bedroom or she considers herself dirty and would have to shower again. This means if she is hungry or thirsty, I will bring it to her.
Her showers last around 40 minutes. She bathes 3-4 times and washes her hair 2 times. Our water bill is ridiculous. If my son takes one step outside of his playpen then he has to have a bath before he can go in his bed. This includes naps. If I take him outside (even just for 1 minute), he would need a bath before he can get in his bed. Not even changing his clothes would suffice.
When I clean the house, everything has to be done in a very specific order. No deviations from this order, or it has to be re-done: Change out laundry and leave washer free; Wash hands, face, and arms and change clothes; Sanitize all toys on floor and put away; Pick up all clothes and put in baskets; Sanitize all counters; Clean kids bathroom; Take out master bathroom trash, wash hands, replace bag; Take out kids’ trash, wash hands, replace bag; Take out kitchen trash, wash hands, replace bag; Clean guest bathroom, wash hands, take out trash, wash hands, replace bag; Take shower; Put bathroom rugs in washer; Take shower; Sweep entire house in a very specific order; Mop house in very specific order; Take shower.
I want to make this clear: I have no problem with cleaning, but I often do something in the wrong order or forget to wash my hands and I get berated. My wife has little patience for mistakes that involve germs. Often, I have to clean the house late at night after the kids go to bed so I will be doing it after midnight. Of course I will make mistakes when I am mentally exhausted.
If I bring her water, I have to wash my hands and then hold the cup over my head as it clears the kitchen counter. She thinks that if I hold her cup around my chest that it will touch the counter and be dirty. I do the same thing with plates and utensils. If I have to discard a piece of clothing on the floor in her vicinity, she will change her clothes and get angry.
She thinks that the air created when the clothing hits the floor will blow bacteria all over her. This is perhaps the one that upsets me the most. If my dog gets out, he has to have a bath before he can come back. He gets out often because she won’t close the door. My wife will not touch doorknobs. She uses her foot to close the door and she will just leave it open over actually closing it—even when she leaves the house.
If I leave the house with my phone, I cannot bring it back into the house until I sanitize it. That includes washing the phone case with soap and water. No shoes on in the house, ever. I had contractors over a month ago and they wore shoes. Well, I had to sanitize every object they touched, and mop TWICE where they walked.
Her depth perception is abysmal. We get in so many fights because she thinks that I touched her with a dirty object when I was halfway across the room. When she gets dressed, I have to watch her and verify that she doesn’t touch her body with the outside of the shirt. Same with pants. We never have people over because of her fear of infection.
Plus, I am the one who has to clean and sanitize so I am reluctant to even mention hosting an event or having a party at the house. There are more things I have to deal with, but I cannot remember every situation right now. The worst of it for me is the constant laundry (3-4 loads a day, sometimes more) and showers (4-5 showers a day).
I have taken as many as 9 showers in one day and as many as 35 showers in one week. I wash my hands over 50 times a day. I have gotten to the point where I just pretend to take a shower or wash my hands if she isn’t in the room. I fantasize about just being able to get through my day not feeling like a puppet on a string.
I get no sleep (maybe 4-5 hours on average) and have almost no free time. And this is not because of my kids. You may be thinking, "Dude, go to marriage counselling." We did that about two months ago. My dad may be the only person who really knows what I am going through and he told me to be completely honest—hold nothing back. That is exactly what I did.
I told the counselor everything that I just revealed to all of you. I have had this talk with my wife already, but she says, "You can leave at anytime, if you can’t handle it you don’t have to be here." The counselor was speechless for a second, but then began to address my wife, asking her if it was all true. My wife just shut down and barely refused to acknowledge it.
After the session, my wife got upset at me for "throwing her under the bus" and canceled all future sessions. I want to say one last thing. Before she went deep into this fear of infection, we had a great relationship. We loved each other and felt we were meant to be. I still love her and want it to work. I have been dealing with the worst of this for nearly three years now.
I am physically and mentally exhausted. I have thought of leaving multiple times, but I am afraid of how it will affect my kids. We also bought a huge house and invested sums of money into it that we would lose. My wife refuses to take medication for her anxiety, though I don’t blame her; most of it hasn’t worked in the past.
I talked to my wife a few minutes ago and let her know exactly how I feel—again. She broke down, as expected, and ended our conversation before I could continue it any further. When I get home we will continue to address this.
71. Femme Fatale
This happened in my town. This recently divorced guy went and got himself a crazy rebound girlfriend. One day, they’re drinking and they start arguing. She starts punching him and he's so gone that he falls on the ground. So she just goes and stomps on his face…wait for it... while WEARING HIGH HEELS. The heels pierced through his eye and gave him brain damage. Seriously.
72. Too Close For Comfort
I walked in on my son in bed with my brother’s wife in a cabin, and I think they have been doing this for a while. My brother moved in with us in February with his wife and two children. My husband and I have a big house on a farm, and we thought it would be a good chance to stay together as family and for my nieces to spend time on the farm.
I have three teenage children and all of them live with us. On the day my brother arrived, I went to buy groceries with my oldest son, who is 18, and he went to the pharmacy to get his gym supplements and I bought the food. I saw condoms in my son’s plastic bag when we arrived back at the house. I didn’t think much of it, though—he has a girlfriend.
Everything was fine, everyone got along, and my son and my sister-in-law would often go on an early run around the farm. But then last month, they left on their run while I was up baking. Strangely, I never saw them make any rounds around the farm. I asked about it and they said they decided to hit the road. I accepted that at the time.
Yesterday, I was coming from a friend's house early in the morning. The sun wasn't up yet and it was little dark, but I saw that the cabin we have in the farm was open and the light was on. I thought maybe one of the employees had forgotten to lock up, so I went to close the door and switch off the light. As I got closer, I heard an unsettling sound.
It was of people being intimate. I took a peek, and it was my son and sister-in-law going at it. I didn't confront them, I was so in shock. I still haven't told anyone what I saw and I don't know what to do.
73. Tinder For The Fire
My husband just messaged me on Tinder. I accidentally discovered he had Tinder on his phone, and I catfished him with a fake profile…and he messaged me. We've been together for 20 years and married for 15 years. I don't even know how to approach this with him without crying or screaming. I don't think I can trust him anymore.
74. And Your Little Dog Too
My girlfriend of three years, who was living with me, slept with a guy at her company. I found out through some digging that they were sleeping together regularly from around the time my mom passed. She was upset when I found out and kept me up all night, right before I started a new job. I went ballistic and told her she had to move out of the apartment.
The next morning she attacked me, hid my work computer, and barricaded herself in the bathroom to prevent me from going to work. I kicked her out of the apartment, but later felt bad and let her back into my life. I had bought a condo at this point and gave her a key. I even bought her a dog on Valentine's Day and asked her to get engaged after a while, to which she said yes.
A few months later, I found out the truth: She was sleeping with yet another guy while I was at work, and I later found out she had cheated on me numerous times over the three years. In response, she attacked me physically, wrecked my condo, threw glasses at me, took a knife to my throat, and threatened me. I had to physically restrain her from ending my life.
Eventually, the authorities removed her from my condo and I kept the dog. I hate reminiscing about this she-devil...But there is a happy ending. As I said, I kept the dog. A couple weeks later, I met my future wife. We started off walking the dog and went on trips. I later rescued other similar dogs, and found them homes, and ultimately gave my sister the dog that was meant for my first fiancée.
I got married to this new better, genuine person who has since restored my faith in humanity.
75. You’re A Mean One
She took all of my Christmas ornaments from when I was a kid when she moved out. I didn't know until months later when I gleefully went to set up for Christmas, went to the basement, and BOOM saw a note from her in the empty box that used to hold all my Christmas decorations. The message just said, “The Grinch was here.”
76. The Girl Is Mine
A relative of mine, Ted, is going through a divorce. His ex-wife has been a wreck for several years, regularly telling him and their five-year-old daughter that she hates them and doesn't want to ever see them again. Ted is hoping for primary custody because he dotes on his daughter and wants her to be raised by her competent parent—him.
So, when the lawyers are working out the divorce settlement, the ex starts claiming that Ted is violent, and beat both her and their daughter, and she wanted 100% custody with Ted barred from seeing his daughter. This lead to rare and supervised visits for six months. Ted—who is a counsellor for troubled teens, for God's sake!—hardly gets to see his daughter.
The daughter is distraught, and the ex-wife is grinning like a demon. The good news is that ultimately, Ted prevailed. The social workers and therapists all agreed that there was absolutely no evidence other than the spontaneous accusations of a manipulative and psychologically unsound woman. The daughter repeatedly said she wanted to live with daddy, he wanted her, and could provide for her.
The case isn’t done yet, but all the ex's plans have backfired so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
77. A Change For The Better
When I married my husband, I knew that he was an overweight, lazy video game nerd, and I loved him anyway for his warm heart and kind personality. He detested exercise, stayed a low rank at his career because he put in minimum effort, and we bonded more over other activities like watching movies together at home rather than going out.
He went on this camping trip with his friends two years ago, and when he came home, it was like something had lit a fire under his butt. He completely changed interests—he never played video games again and took up running, reading books even though I'd never seen him read before except for school, and several other completely random hobbies.
He became a vegetarian even though, before, he'd been a meat and potatoes guy. He worked harder at his job, then did an accelerated grad school program and ended up making tons more money. I barely recognize him. We still have a good marriage, and I still love him, and he has motivated me to be better in the last two years, but....
I can't help but miss my husband. I know that people change, but about all that's left of him is his warm heart. No one shares my concerns because all his changes have been positive, but I feel like he's so different maybe we need marriage counseling so I can adapt, at least...
78. Let It Go
This is about my psycho, stalker ex. I’m a girl, and I was 17 at the time while he was 19. I met him through this guy I went on one date with, but there was no connection so we moved on. Me and this new guy started dating a year later. He seemed nice, shy, funny at times, and we just had fun together. I was his first girlfriend.
He was in my life for about two years. But eight months in, I started to notice things about him I HATED. He was a COMPLETELY different person around me than everyone else. He only showed his real personality to me, and it was dark. Everyone else thought he was sweet and innocent, especially his mom. Meanwhile, he would call me horrific names when we were alone.
He would also get mad if my phone ever went off around him, and even more mad if I answered it. This was always followed by statements like, "Who the heck is that? Are you sleeping with someone else?” He would get mad if I ever talked to another male in public, even a waiter or cashier. He would act fine until we left, then he’d start screaming.
He then told friends at his school EVERYTHING about our bedroom life, and he would text me nonstop all day long. If I didn't reply, he would call over and over. I think the record was 40+ calls. No surprise, he was so controlling that I could never see my friends. He could see his, but I couldn't see mine, and he hated all of my friends who were guys.
He would constantly tell me about how he was going to get revenge against them. Revenge for what? I don’t know…So long story short, he's a jealous control freak, and it only gets worse from here. If you’re asking yourself, why did I not break up with this dude?! Well, I did, two or three times. But it wasn't as easy as just saying, "I'm breaking up with you" and having him disappear.
No, no, no. This guy would not disappear. But to fast forward, I was finally at my last straw. I didn't care anymore, and I broke up with him for good. He was so angry, he threatened he would tell my parents all these lies. Still, I cut off all contact with him, and it drove him completely insane. I should have known what was coming then.
One night, I was hanging out with this other guy I had been seeing. We were sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store at the time, which is two minutes from my home. All of a sudden, I see my insane ex drive by our car. No mistake: It was definitely him, even thought he lives a 30-minute drive away, and there was no reason he would be on this side of town.
It was also after 10 pm, so he's truly a creeper. Then he started doing even stranger stuff. He made a fake profile on Facebook and browsed for girls who went to high school with me, then added them. He tried to become their friend, then would badmouth me to all of these girls from my school. Honestly, I thought it was hilarious.
Who knows what he told all his friends about me, but he's had them all gang up on me since. His guy friends threatened to beat me up, come to my house and trash everything inside. I even had to park my car at my dad's place for a week, and I actually moved there for a while too. I was sure they would slash my car's tires or put sugar in my gas tank. But the worst was yet to come.
After we had been over for a while, I was still with that other guy, and one night we had been hanging out and he was driving me home when my phone rang. It was my psycho ex. Since he calls me non-stop, I picked up out of anger. Blah blah blah blah. Then he heard my boyfriend say something in the background. "Who the HECK is that?! Who are you with?!"
I said, "Anthony,” and hung up. He called back over and over, and it was basically a bunch of yelling. He said he was driving to my house now, and I had to be there. Then I started freaking out. We got there, and he pulled up. He ran up to my front door and proceeded to open it. I yanked him by the shirt back outside and the fight continued from there.
He finally got into his car and started to leave, and he almost ran over my foot with the car. I haven't seen him since, but I recently got a disturbing text from him: "Your tail light is out." I'm sitting there thinking...WHAT. THE. HECK. Apparently, he had been driving behind me, or following me. I also learned that he has moved out of his mom's house and is now living up the street from me.
I'm still thinking, WHAT THE HECK. That's no coincidence. FREAK! I still get letters from him in the mail occasionally. They were long letters. One was creepy, all it was was a piece of copy paper with pink hearts drawn all over it. Most are about how he realized what a jerk he was, how he never treated me right, and how he knows he will never have me back.
Darn straight. I don't read them anymore, I just put them straight in the trash.
79. Collateral Damage
Around eight years ago, my then-girlfriend tricked me into getting her pregnant (sabotaged the birth control), and as soon as she got pregnant she cut off all contact. I tried to remain civil with her, and I have been up to this day, but she quite clearly told me that the only reason she started dating me in the first place is because she wanted a child.
I had simply never factored into her plans. When my daughter was born, she didn't put me on the birth certificate; the father was "Unknown." I took her to court multiple times, but she denied paternity was mine and the courts could not force a DNA test. She eventually moved away and completely disappeared off the radar.
I have an eight-year-old daughter out there somewhere who I have only ever seen once. I think about her every day.
80. The Ghosts Of Exes Past
My ex-fiancée ghosted me before our wedding. It's been 16 years and now she wants to talk it over again. I was never given an explanation. She just left and told nobody. It was literally right before our big wedding ceremony. She didn't leave a note, nothing, just left. Even her family were left baffled. We had dated all through high school and all through college.
She eventually returned, but not to me. I had to learn via her parents that she had no intentions of coming home. She wanted nothing to do with me and told her parents to avoid having me around. I never got a choice in the matter. So, I respected her wishes. I never understood why she did it; my only guess was she had a mental breakdown because she cut off all contact with everyone.
We were both young and still growing. I don't know, but I've struggled with it since. So now out of the blue, she messages me on Facebook after all these years and wants to meet up. I'm an influx of emotions right now. Angry, nervous, hopeful, sad. I...I still have feelings for her. Still, I don't know if I could take her back.
But, looking at her Facebook makes me miss her. She's even better looking than she was before and SINGLE. I'm conflicted. She won't talk about anything as to why she left. She said it's best to do so in person. The only thing I can tell from her Facebook is a bunch of stuff about her being weak and living a life full of shame and regret and being lonely.
She ghosted me and I should want nothing to do with her but, darn, I still have feelings for her…I never stopped thinking about her.
81. Tragic Payback
I started dating a girl when we were just out of high school. Her ex-boyfriend was a loose cannon, and when he found out that we were dating, he tried to “befriend” me. I was unaware of his horrible habits until one day, he tried to beat me. When that didn’t work, he called the authorities on me for a trumped-up charge. But his final “screw you” was horrifying.
He put my girlfriend’s little brother in the car with him and drove off a bridge, killing both himself and her little brother. It’s still a tragic legend in my town, and no one has ever been able to forget it.
82. No “I” In Team
My ex called me up after we had broken up for about a week. She told me that she had done a pregnancy test and she was pregnant and the baby was 100% mine, since the guy she cheated on me with always used protection. Being a bit dumbfounded, I asked "So... what do you want to do?" This was the wrong answer, as I found out.
She raged at me, called me a no-good guy who didn't deserve her, and hung up on me. I called her back and she said, "I don't need anything from you! I wanted to see the kind of man you are. You didn't say ‘What do you want us to do!’ You asked me what I wanted to do! I never want to hear from you again!’ Oh, but she wasn’t done yet.
Two days later, she calls me up again and tells me that she's not pregnant, she was just testing to see "what kind of man" I am and judging whether or not to take me back. It didn't even cross her mind that maybe I didn't want to get back with her, but I guess that was besides the point in her head at that moment. So... yeah...
83. All's Well That Ends Well
My ex hunted down my next girlfriend on Facebook through their mutual friends, then told those friends they needed to meet because she was worried for the safety of my current girlfriend and needed to tell her some things about me. My girlfriend at the time decided to meet up with her, and broke up with me that night after. I soon discovered what had gone down.
My ex told her I used to beat her and that I slept around all the time and cheated on her. She even said that I'd cheated on my current girlfriend by sleeping with her (my ex) only a few weeks prior. Not only did I lose my girlfriend at the time, but a lot of my friends heard all of this and avoided me afterwards. I lost a lot of people who I thought were good friends.
Then, my ex called me like a week later, saying breaking up with me was the biggest mistake she ever made and that she wanted me back. It was all a ploy to get me single again...like...she thought I'd just take her right back since I was single. WHAT? The next girl I dated, I told her right away that I had a crazy ex. She said she was more appalled that my girlfriend at the time even agreed to meet her. We're getting married in a month. :)
Unspalsh
84. This Was A Test, And You Failed
I need some help processing this. The person I'm dating (together 3 months), I'll call him “Dan,” recently invited me out to dinner to meet some of his co-workers. The first red flag was he invited everyone out to a Hooters, and said they chose that restaurant because it's close to where they work and is easy to get to.
Which is true, but there are several other restaurants nearby that offer better food and a better atmosphere. Before he invited me out to dinner, he half joked that his co-workers (all of them are male) didn't believe that he was dating a "hot girl" who is into the same hobbies as them—that these are hobbies that are considered to be primarily for men.
I was a little irked at that comment, but he said he was "just joking around." This pretty much became the catch phrase for the men that night. When everyone arrived at the restaurant, Dan and his co-workers were making comments about the girls who worked there and their physical appearances. This made me a little uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything. I quickly wished I'd done differently.
Once everyone ordered their food and drinks, his friends started to quiz me about my interests. Many of them share the same "male dominated" hobbies I'm interested in, and they more or less just tried to see if I knew facts about the hobby, as opposed to asking me questions about what I like or don't like or what I'm currently doing in said hobby.
For example, if my hobby was American history, one of them would ask an esoteric question like "Oh, so you like American History? How many one-dollar bills are currently in circulation? How old is the French Broad River!?" I also work as a junior automation engineer at a start up software company. I haven't been writing code that long.
I'm really green and I know I still have a lot to learn. The projects I'm working on are small and I'm getting help at work. All of his friends are senior level software engineers and were quizzing me about my work and trying to see how much I actually know. They were asking about advanced things I did not know about, and were asking me technical questions that don't even apply to my job.
But, they were all smiling and laughing, and would frequently say something like, "Aw we're just kidding!" At one point, I felt like I was at some weird interview and was taking one question at a time from each jerk at the table. I know I stopped fake smiling at some point and just emotionlessly answered their questions.
I think one of them became self-aware, because he just looked down at his phone for the rest of the evening, didn't ask me anything else, and just looked uncomfortable. When they weren't asking pointed questions at me, they were talking to each other and ignoring me. I'd be interrupted if I tried to include my thoughts on the subject, or nod at me and look away to someone else.
I should mention that all of these guys were 5-10 years older than me. I'm 25, the guy I'm dating is 29, and his co-workers are in their early-mid 30s. I don't have as much experience as they do, and part of me was hoping I could meet peers who could have helped guide me or answer my questions about their careers. They all kept saying they were just kidding around or just joking and laughing about it, but it was so cringey.
Dan was sitting beside me and wasn't stopping this behavior from his co-workers. He was coaching me, I guess? Saying things like, "Oh! You know this one!" or "Come on, you got this, we talked about this last week!" Dan also made the comment of, "See, she's really smart too!" to one of the guys at the table. That whole night was just awful. But his response was somehow more chilling.
He was actually irritated at me because he saw my whole mood change while I was being quizzed by his friends. He said he noticed me having an "attitude" with his co-workers, when they were just having fun and trying to get to know me. That it was immature of me to have been so obviously annoyed and that I "audibly sighed" multiple times when one of his friends spoke to me.
I can't stop seeing Dan as a super cringey dude now. I thought he was acting ridiculous and seemed more like a 13-year-old boy as opposed to someone who is supposed to be turning 30 in a couple of months. I'm pretty sure I can't go on with the relationship at this point. I don't think this is an overreaction on my part, if I were to break up with him.
Everything was going fine before this happened. But now I just feel gross. The dinner happened last night and I haven't returned any of his texts today. I know ghosting is wrong, but I don't want to look at him or speak to him, the thought of him just kind of disgusts me at this point. I've never felt like someone's show poodle before.
I don't know if I'll feel differently in a week or if I'm unjustified in my anger.
85. You’ve Got Mail
Let's see…she sent bizarre postcards under random people's names with gibberish written on them. Three postcards to my work and three to my apartment manager's office. She also sent adult magazines to my landlord and called Pizza Hut to deliver $100-worth of pizza to my work, leaving me to cover the bill. She also got me on a mailing list for Victoria's Secret, which got sent to my work. And as a final "screw you" she also took a ton of stuff out of my apartment, claiming they were hers because she bought them…you know, using my money.
86. Message Received
My girlfriend decided that the best way to break up with me was to make out with her ex… right in front of me. I did not see that one coming at the time.
87. Show Me The Money
My ex girlfriend and I shared a bank account after living together for two years. I know, the groundwork for a happy ending, right? Well, the entire time she was lying about having a job, all while I was working every day. So I broke it off with her and moved out, then went to the bank to close our account. That's where my problems really started.
I was told that both parties had to be there to close the account, but she wasn't coming around for a while. So I just took my name off the account and opened my own new one. Fast forward three months later: I had a few grand saved up and was doing well. At the time, my ex actually wanted to get back with me, even though she now had another boyfriend.
I had no interest in her anymore, and tell her no. The next night, I go out to get something at the store and none of my cards are working. I call my bank, and they tell me that there is suspicious activity…on my joint account. Yep, in a fit of what I can only guess was revenge for my refusal, my ex had written $40,000 in bad checks from our old account.
The bank saw that I used to be on that account and drained it completely to cover the $40k. I am not a guy who has credit cards so this was my only source of money, period. I was flat broke.
88. Case Closed
I'm pretty sure the day I broke up with my ex, he went through my apartment and tightened the lids on everything I own—nail polish, jars of food, bottles—because I'm a fetus and can't open anything on my own. It was mean...but looking back, it was probably the cleverest petty revenge act I've ever seen.
89. You’re Cooked
My girlfriend and I have been together since around March 2019. I love her with all my heart—but an issue has just arisen. Her grandfather is coming to dinner, and he is a Michelin Star cook, and said I would cook something. So, yes, I am a 21-year-old man, but look, I just cannot cook. Sure, I can make something like very basic pasta, a boiled egg, etc.
However, I absolutely cannot make anything where you have to prepare multiple ingredients. When I cook, the food is either done or it’s not done. I have no experience with "doneness." I do have my redeeming skills, but cooking is just not one of them. I have tried following recipes word for word, but just have had no luck.
My girlfriend and I are both rising seniors in college, and I have my own apartment near campus where we will be meeting for dinner. When I agreed to make something, I thought I could just mess around with something because I didn’t know the details. But then when I mentioned it to my girlfriend’s brother, who I'm friends with, he told me that their grandfather was awarded a Michelin Star some time ago.
I asked my girlfriend why she didn't tell me, and she said she didn't want me to freak out. I never cook in college. I've always just relied on dining hall/eating out/Uber Eats. I don't even have dishes! The only thing I can possibly think of is that I know a fair bit about wine, so I could definitely get something good on that end.
I really, really don’t know what I'm supposed to do. I feel like my options are: Push as hard as I can for eating out, or pull a Seymour and buy takeout from a steakhouse or something and pass it off as my own cooking. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm panicking. I just love this girl so much, and I don't want to leave a bad impression on someone she's very close with.
I talked about it with a close friend, and we want to try a test run. If the test fails, then we’ll have to just accept that I will have to say something. So the plan we thought of would go like this: I will invite a professor (who’d we’d let in on the plan) and a friend of his who is a foodie for dinner at my place with my friend under the guise that I just want to test my cooking.
We’ll order takeout from a top nearby steakhouse, and keep it under heat lamps so that they 1) stay warm and 2) maybe slightly decrease in quality to make it more believable. I’d also have to buy some cheap steak and just throw it on my stove to get the “smell” in the air and have dirty cooking dishes. I’d also have to memorize the recipe for a steak, and watch some YouTube videos to understand the nuances of jargon and cooking.
Then we see if it works. I also have decent enough experience with wine (mostly red though not white) to be able to properly taste and describe without having to fake it. If that doesn’t work, Plan B would be to straight-up tell him I’m not very experienced, and maybe ask if he can give a demonstration of some dish from his restaurant, and I’d happily pay for whatever ingredients.
He’s coming all the way from France. I’m a big fan of Kitchen Nightmares and keep imagining this is going to be like Gordon Ramsay or something like that.
90. The Cat’s Out Of The Bag
A month ago, my wife gave birth to a black baby girl. There’s one enormous problem with this. We're both white, so she was forced to admit that the child was a result of a one-night stand last year. I've started divorce proceedings, although we're still living together for now, partly for our two boys—aged 2 and 4, I've had paternity tests for them and they came back positive.
Naturally, I have no ill will towards the baby, but my family members do. What really worries me is that my two sons might pick up on these narratives. They're too young to really understand what's happening now, but I'm worried that as they grow to understand the situation that they might grow to resent their half-sister for "breaking up their parents' marriage."
91. She’s A Man-Eater
I got screwed over by both my ex and my $5,000 divorce lawyer. During negotiations, we reached an agreement that she did not want anything from me except $1000/month in child support. By the way, this is after I came home from work a couple of months previously to find nothing but an old chair in my house. She had movers come and take everything while I was at work.
Still, I said OK, and we left it at that. We were now just waiting for the court date, when her lawyer was supposed to bring our agreement to the judge. Anyway, I show up in court with my lawyer, we go in front of the judge, and her lawyer goes: "We want child support, alimony, and we want the husband to pay the remainder of the car loan. We also want the husband to pay for my services, because he was the one who filed for divorce.”
Judge goes: "Sounds good. We are done." Meanwhile, my lawyer did not open his mouth or look up from whatever he was reading during the entire court session. And this jerk had the audacity to mail me a card later, congratulating me on the positive outcome of my divorce case. So for the next year I paid 75% of what I made, leaving me with nothing.
I sold my car, moved out of my apartment, and couch surfed for a while. The day the ex received her last alimony check, she got her final revenge. She married my ex-best friend, which was why I filed for divorce in the first place. It took me five more years to pay off her car and her lawyer, and she is currently on husband #4.
92. Savior Complex
This was pretty narcissistic and ridiculous: My ex broke up with me and took our jointly-owned car to another state. He proceeded to lose a series of jobs and failed to help pay any of our joint debt, when the agreement had been that he would pay it all, as I was a poor grad student and he was supposedly walking into a six-figure salary.
I had to track down his mom to get my name off of his car loan as he wouldn't answer my emails about it. I then had to slowly pay the remaining joint debt off myself to preserve my credit. Then he had the gall to make a post on social media about how he purposefully left his high-paying job to follow his dream and become a penniless writer.
He brought up our relationship in the comments and mentioned how he had paid all of our joint debt himself when he left since he could afford it and I was just a student. After all the time and saving it took me to get rid of that debt myself, that was pretty awful to read. Pretty much the whole post was very self-congratulatory like that; a lot of people bought into it and stroked his ego, too.
93. Three’s Company
So my wife and I have been together for eight years. We have a little girl who is five now and a baby boy who is two years old. I love both of them more than anything and I finally feel like I have everything. A beautiful wife, two healthy kids, a great career, and a big house. The token "American Dream," minus the dog, since I'm allergic.
When we talked about kids before, my wife always said she wanted two. I only wanted one, since it would be easier and we'd have more money for vacations and stuff, but my wife maintained it's important for a child to have a sibling. I grew up with four and my wife with none, so I guess I understand where she's coming from.
After our son and getting through the baby years and sleepless nights for the second time, I didn't want to ever go through that again. Both kids were very fussy and colicky. But when he was a year old, my wife began casually mentioning that she wanted a third. I would laugh it off, but finally, she sat me down and gave me a cruel ultimatum.
She said we have to have a third. I said no, we agreed on two, but she said she wanted four, so three was actually the compromise. I refused and said I wanted one, and we have two. She then got angry and called me selfish for taking away her dream of wanting a big family. A couple days later, she apologized and we were intimate.
In fact, over the past little while, I noticed her drive increased exponentially, but so did mine and I was happy to engage with her. After all, she was on birth control, I had a condom, and it was all good. Thinking back on it, I probably should have figured something was up. Still, I was barely handling two little kids and work on top of housework and yard work and everything.
I came home from work one day while the kids were at their grandparents. My wife had a huge smile on her face and she sat me down and showed me a positive pregnancy test, literally dancing in joy. My first thought was, "oh God." My wife noticed a less-than-happy expression on my face and started screaming at me. She berated me for not being supportive and this was a "miracle from God" and I should be grateful.
I said I was sorry and hugged her and said I was super excited for the baby. My wife was delighted, and later that night she was calling all family and friends to happily tell them the news. When she was talking about the nursery and how we'll convert my office into a room, I started to get a little suspicious. Everything was so well thought-out and it seemed like she'd been planning this for a while.
When she was asleep, I took the condoms out of the cupboard and ran them underwater. Holes. I nabbed her phone and saw she'd set a password. That was odd. Nevertheless, my wife has a terrible memory, so I tried her birthday and it opened. I saw texts that made me go white as a sheet. They were of her best friend of my wife complaining how I wouldn't come around to a baby.
Her best friend suggested to "arrange an accident" with a winky face. My wife agreed and said she was going to come off of birth control. It went on for a little while, ending with my wife saying that yes, we were going to have a third. So I woke her up immediately and asked her if this had really been a "miracle"? She got that deer-in-headlights look and burst into tears.
She wailed and then she got angry. Through tears, she screamed how I had no right to go through her phone and it's her choice whether or not she wants to take birth control; the side-effects are bad and she was sick. She also brought up that if I really didn't want a third kid, I should have had a vasectomy. She told me to go sleep on the couch.
I laughed out loud and said no, I'm sleeping here, you're leaving. So while wailing, she packed a bag and left to her parents. When she called the next day, I told her I just need some time to myself. She said that's fine, but I need to come around for our child. I told her I wasn't sure if it'd be "our child" and she cried more.
It's been two weeks since then. We're back in the same house, and she constantly keeps on stopping me and trying to get me excited for our kid and planning the nursery and names and how happy our kids will be to get a younger sibling. I've been ignoring her entirely. I don't know if I should leave her over this. I don't trust her anymore.
She entirely betrayed me. I'm angry. But I have another child on the way.
94. The Bigger Man
Me and my girlfriend split a few months ago. Out of nowhere, I get a random text from her—I immediately wished I could erase it from my memory. It happens to be an “intimate” picture of her with a gorgeous, built man. She began to explain how thankful she was I broke up with her so she could find a man like this. I wanted to be mad, but couldn't.
I just kind of stared at the picture for a while thinking, "Good for her."
95. Ashes To Ashes
During my friend’s divorce, his ex took him to court for everything she could get, including his dog he had had since he was 15. Somehow, she was able to get the judge to give her custody of this dog, Alice. A week or so later, a box is mailed to his parents’ house with his name on it. When he opened it, his blood ran cold.
The box was full of ashes. This witch had the dog put to sleep at a vet, cremated it, put the ashes in a box, and mailed them to him.
96. Caught Red-Handed
My then boyfriend had let me use his iPad to watch a movie on Netflix. He had his messenger account linked to both his tablet and his phone, and messages kept popping up on it while I was watching without him realizing I could see. I got to watch in real time as he got his best friend's wife to agree to sleep with him over the coming holiday weekend; with the promise that he'd get rid of me for that weekend so they could get intimate in our bed.
97. It’s That Time of the Month (For A Divorce)
Had a soldier stationed at Guantanamo Bay who met a local. Fell madly in love. They decided to get married so she could come with him back in the States once his tour was done. She was working on American dishes and was making spaghetti. He comes home from work one day, and she's making it. She puts the meat in, puts the canned sauce in, and then pulls an unlabeled bag out of the freezer and adds it to the sauce.
At this point in the session, she's hysterically crying with broken Spanglish. She's trying to explain she didn't know any better. Through the hysteria he informs me her mother and grandmother told her if she wanted to keep her man, she needed to put her menstrual blood in his food. It was so hard to keep my composure. I was trying to hard not to gag.
They both described they were madly in love, but he couldn't let it go. They ended up getting a divorce. Having done this for 14 years, I have found it 100% accurate that truth is stranger than fiction.
98. Musical Urinals
We went to a movie. During the movie, she got up to go to the bathroom. After she left, I thought I could run to the bathroom myself, and be back before her (for some reason, I thought it would be rude to leave her alone). When I came back to our seats, she was already there but I didn't give it much thought.
I hung out at her place for a bit afterward, gave her a kiss goodnight, and went home thinking that I just had a pretty nice date. A week later, after she wouldn't return any of my calls, I asked our mutual friend who introduced us what the deal was. Turns out that when I went to the bathroom, I accidentally walked into the women's room.
I peed in the stall next to her, and she recognized the boots I was wearing. She was totally freaked out. When I finally got a hold of her and tried to explain myself, she told me she was moving to Turkey to get back together with her ex-boyfriend.
99. Taking The Fall
So, I work in a workshop, and we often engrave stuff for customers. This particular guy wanted a nice wooden jewelry box for their wedding anniversary with a custom message he emailed me. For some reason, he chose to give the box to his wife at the workshop. Not the most romantic place I can think of, but whatever.
The guy's wife starts to look confused and tear up: "You don't remember the date?" Guy turns pale, looks at me with a deep stare, says: "No, I'm sure it's a mistake." Me: "No, I've copied it straight, can't be wrooon...waaait a minute, oh my god, it's my fault, I'm so sorry, I will redo it right away, no need to pay, please accept it as a gift..."
Wife gets angry a bit at me, but they leave with a different box and the correct date. But that wasn't even the best part. Guy comes back next day and pays triple the original price without a word.
100. So Much For The Language Of Love
Friend of mine divorced his then-wife because she would only speak French when her family would come over. She was Spanish, as was her family. To add, her family spoke English, French, and Spanish; he could only speak Spanish and English. She got bored of being married to him, her family basically talked smack about him while he was there, was only when he recorded a conversation while they were there and got it translated he found out what was going on.
101. Eating For Two
I chatted a girl up online for about a week or so, and things went pretty well, so we decided to meet up. I asked her out for dinner, and said that if things went all right we'd go grab a drink. Let's just say her photo didn't match her appearance. Her excuse was that she had a crazy ex who was stalking her, so she used her sister's photo and name.
HER NAME!!! SHE LIED ABOUT HER NAME! Anyway, come to find out through our "interview" that she was an only child. She didn't catch her slip up, but I sure did. She rambled on and on and on about stuff I really couldn't have cared less about. Then came the food. The waitress may as well have brought it out in a trough, as this woman didn't use her utensils.
Did I mention we were at a steak restaurant? That's right folks, she picked her steak up and ate it with her hands. Let's not even get into the potatoes. It was the worst date of my life. I couldn't eat my meal. I told her I wasn't feeling well and that I was just going to get my food in a box to go and I'd eat it later if I felt better. Her response: "Would you mind if I ate it?"
She proceeded to devour my dinner as well. The waitress comes over and says "Goodness. When is your due date?" So she says that she is due in two months. First off, I couldn't believe the waitress asked that, but then I was floored at the girl's response. Unbelievable. Being the gentleman that I am, I picked up the check because hey, it wasn't going to pay itself. I kindly said it was "nice to meet you," got in my car, and went to the bar. Well, she followed me.
She followed me to the bar, and when I got out of my car, she proceeded to berate me over why I was going out instead of going home. Now she's calling me a liar in the parking lot of the bar I frequent, and my work buddies are starting to roll in. I never heard the end of it. I said to heck with this, got in my car, and drove home.
102. Missed Encounters
At a wedding of a college friend of my husband’s, we learned that the bride (his old friend) had been in love with him for over a decade. We learned this from the women at our table at the reception. We introduced ourselves while we waited for the bride and groom to arrive. They were horrified that we were there—and extremely worried.
My husband had NO idea that she had feelings for him. She bee-lined right for our table after the "introducing Mr & Mrs" thing—ignoring her family and leaving her husband standing alone. She clung to my husband and sobbed—lifting her head to glare at me. She had to be pulled off of him.
She repaired herself, then followed us as we tried to leave quietly—her parting shot was to stare at my chest and say, "Well I guess I know what I was missing all along!" Her new husband was in shock and my husband was horrified and embarrassed—he was completely clueless and would never have gone to the wedding if he'd know she was obsessed with him. It was bizarre.
