I pit my roommate, redux

Some of you may remember this thread from last September, wherein I discussed “Dee”, my roommate/girlfriend, deciding to have loud sex with another man while I was trying to sleep in my adjacent bedroom. We worked things out to my satisfaction after that and since then it seemed like our relationship was going pretty well, up until last week.

Last Friday (the 11th), she and an old female friend of hers went on a ladies’ night out. This is nothing unusual, and i’m perfectly fine with it. She didn’t come back that night, which is a bit unusual, but sometimes she stays over with her friend after a night out, so everything still seemed fine. When she came home the next afternoon, however, the problems started. Accompanying her was a man i’ve never met before, who we’ll call “Sam”. Aside from introducing me to him, she didn’t tell me anything about him at the time. Later conversations with her similarly gleaned little information - he’s from Alaska, he’s in town visiting his parents, and he’s “a friend” of hers in some way. I got a strange vibe from the situation right away, but he seemed like a nice enough guy, and after I hung out with them for a few hours I had to go to bed early in preparation for an early shift at work the next day.

I woke up on Sunday morning, and as I was going about my morning victuals, I noticed Sam’s shoes were still sitting by the front door. Our new guest room (which Dee just set up and is very proud of) was empty, which could only mean one thing - he was sleeping in her room, in her bed. (Cue groaning.)

It gets worse.

Over the past week, she’s since spent pretty much every minute of her day with him. He leaves with her when she goes to work in the morning, he comes home with her in the afternoon, and goes to sleep in her bedroom. During this time, she’s been avoiding me whenever possible and brushing me aside when not,
she’s cancelled plans to see her other friends, and she generally spends as much of her time as possible locked in the bedroom with him. One of our mutual friends had an online conversation with her today where she was nothing short of cavalier about the entire thing, referring to Sam as “her penis du jour” and telling our friend that I could “cry in my cheerios” if I wasn’t happy about it.

It gets still worse.

I had a conversation this morning with a second mutual friend of ours, who i’ll call “Greg”. I met Greg through Dee about two years ago - she’s told me of him that they’ve known each other for years and they have a completely Platonic relationship, and that he’s slept in her bed before but she’d never think of having sex with him. Greg also knew Dee was spending all her time with Sam and was pretty agitated about it as well, and told me that he felt hurt and insulted by the whole affair. His words were so emotional and heartfelt, I asked him if he had romantic feelings for her. His response - not only did he, but he’d been dating her on and off for the entire time her and I have had our relationship! When I asked him if he knew about Dee and I, he answered in the negative - she’d also told him, apparently, that she and I were platonic friends who liked to have dinner and play laser tag sometimes.

That’s the story.

WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?!?!?!

I could dismiss the incident with Scott last September as a drunken mistake and a misunderstanding of boundaries, but this is just plain beyond the pale. Who the fuck invites a perfect stranger into the house one shares with a significant other and then spends a week having sex with him, while ignoring and mocking that SO for feeling slighted by it? Who the fuck has two simultaneous long-term relationships with people who know each other, lies to each of them about the other, and acts totally oblivious to the fact that they both have romantic feelings for her? How can ANYONE be so oblivious, capricious, and fickle?

I’ve known Dee for years and in all this time I never thought her capable of something like this. I know we’re not married or even engaged and we don’t even sleep in the same bed most of the time, but goddamn it I feel like i’ve been cheated on in the worst sort of way, like i’ve been treated like a plaything and tossed aside when something new and exotic came along. Have I never been anything more to her than a “penis du jour”? Do my feelings not even matter? I’m through playing these games and i’m through with her, and if she thinks i’m going to be there for her after her little fucktoy flies back to Anchorage she’s sorely mistaken.

Wow. That’s fucked up.

Look at it this way: Now, it’s not a matter of speculation. You know what she’s up to, and what to expect. Move on. Out, if you have to.

Get out now.
This can only end in tears.
And vomit.
And possibly blood.

I don’t quite understand. Were you two once dating and now just roomies or are you now (or up until now), uh, ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’? In an open relationship? What did your friends think? Don’t they gossip? I can’t figure out how you and ‘Greg’ didn’t figure things out beforehand. What a mess. I just hope you’re under 25.

You know, I’m going to go way out on a limb here and speculate that she just might not be that into you.

But then again, I think a whole bunch of people already told you that the last time.

Sorry for your pain, and if I were you I’d get my shit tested.

My thoughts exactly. WTF on all accounts. Get out and forget you ever knew her. And get checked for STDs, STAT.

A friend’s wife cheated on him. She lost her job, and her boyfriend lost his job, and since they had nowhere to go, my friend let them move in with him. He said nothing kills love quicker than listening to your wife have sex with another guy.

Everyone thought he was nuts for sharing his home with them, but he said if he hadn’t, he might still be pining for her.

Make of that what you will.

We were dating for about two years before I moved in in August. Our relationship wasn’t a steady boyfriend-girlfriend one in the typical sense, but I didn’t see anyone else during the time, and (so she told me) neither did she. I only met Greg through Dee and we don’t really interact much aside from when the three of us are all hanging out together.

And for the record, I’m 25 exactly.

This could be quite tricky but you may be able to determine the real problem with a quick examination.

Check the base of your penis and see if there is a fleshy part just below it. It you fondle around with that fleshy part you may discover that it has no hard sections. There should be two lumpy, solid pieces floating within the fleshy part. Yours are probably missing. They are known as stones.

If you can somehow get them to grow back, you will realize that it’s time to move on.

I think Smapti wins the award (it’s a bronze doormat) for Most NonConfrontational in an Exclusive Relationship. So, your girlfriend is cheating on you right IN YOUR OWN HOME and you put up with it for SEVEN days without any sort of nuclear-level showdown?

There’s a missing memo between that last thread and this one. Maybe Dee didn’t get the memo either.

Here’s you in the last thread:

ETA: oops, forgot to mention . . bold added

Here’s you in the current thread:

Not married or engaged? According to you in the last thread, you’re not even dating. You’re just friends-with-benefits. If you’ve moved past that to the exclusive stage, you need to send out a loud and clear message that you would like to change the nature of the relationship and see if she agrees. If that hasn’t happened, I’m not sure why you’re upset. If that has happened (which I doubt), then you need to ask if she’s changing the nature of your agreement. But you can’t have it both ways–expecting her to be exclusive without making a commitment yourself–it doesn’t work that way. But if she has made the commitment and broken it, then I can see why you’d be upset. But then I’m guessing she’d see why you were upset as well.

I remember that thread very well. I remember thinking that you’re much more emotionally involved than you want to admit. This last incident seemed inevitable.

And btw, the fact that Dee hadn’t been seeing anyone in the two years that you hadn’t been seeing anyone doesn’t make the commitment. A commitment is NOT a default position just because people haven’t slept with others it means that they’re committed to you.

After the incident in September, she told me that she hadn’t been with anyone else during the period we’d been seeing each other. We agreed (at least I THOUGHT we agreed) not to see other people after that.

Call me stupid (you’re stupid!), but I didn’t confront her sooner because I thought there wasn’t any sex going on. I hadn’t heard any sounds of sex coming from her room and, given the lack of information she’d given me, I considered there might be platonic reasons for their sharing a bedroom. It wasn’t until I saw the “penis du jour” remark that I was sure.

Oh, and by the way, it’s OVER.

This is why roommates with benefits is a bad idea. It is way too easy for one person to use the other as a fallback emergency screw. And it’s far too easy for the other person to think that they have some sort of meaningful arrangement. You participated in this as much as she did, so there’s not much point in getting pissed. You live and learn, so it’s time to move on.

I know you didn’t ask for my advice, but I soooo love giving it.

I see three basic choices for you;

1.) Move out and move on. Look for a more satisfying relationship elsewhere.

2.) Bring home your own “vagina-du-jour” for a week or two. Make sure she’s noticeably hotter than “Dee”. Never sleep with “Dee” again and start cultivating new friends with benefits. Move out at the end of the lease.

3.) Put up with her shit.

She told you what she thought you wanted to hear. Or maybe you heard what you wanted to hear. She’s been using you, she’s been using Greg, and she’s been using the guys she brings home.

Don’t just say it over, make it stick.

You need to go to your doctor, or the Health Department, and get a FULL checkup for STDs, NOW! Mention the names of the ones that you know she’s slept with, because if you did catch something from her, they’ll want to know who else has been put at risk if it’s bad enough.

I think this whole OMG STDs! thing is a little overblown. Smapti is no more likely to have caught an STD from this woman than from someone he picked up in bar. I would assume that he would practice safe sex with anyone outside of a committed relationship. You should get checked for STDs out of concern for your own health, not as some moral judgement of someone else’s behavior.

Remember though, he thought the relationship was exclusive after the drunken incident.

Smapti, I have known girls like that in the past. They are bad news. You definately need to make a clean break from her and move out as soon as you can. If you can move out now, do it. And don’t talk to her at all, don’t even give her the time of day. She will manipulate you if you let her. If you have a lease you cannot break, or if there is some other reason that you can’t move out right now, you should still start looking for a new place to get ready for when you can leave. And DO NOT get/stay involved with her, or all of this stuff will just happen all over again someday.