Being Friends with Your Ex

For the full backstory, check out Dating Your Best Friend Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

A brief followup to Dating Your Best Friend Part 3, we never had our conversation about setting rules to fighting. The fighting settled down immediately as we began to realize that our time together was finally nearing an end, and we focused on enjoying what remained. The final goodbye, held in the street outside our depressingly empty apartment, was teary.

So what follows? An awkwardly close friendship that has our friends and families skeptical that our involvement is strictly platonic. In truth, they are right to be skeptical as we have had sex a few times since then, but we are trying not to be romantically involved. She went so far as to go on a date with a coworker of mine, despite the fact that she now lives over 200 miles away. That was a rough week for me, but after a solid 5 days of steady drinking, I managed to pull myself out of the funk and begin to cope in a more healthy way.

The fact that it hasn’t worked between them so far is probably helping, but I do feel like when the next romantic interest manifests in her life I will be better prepared to handle it. And this is a good thing because it helps me maintain a friendship that is very important to me. She’s the type of friend who will kick my ass if I need it, and in a world of pushover laissez faire friends it’s nice to have someone looking out for your best interests without regard for immediate pleasures. It’s also frustrating.

Case in point: I have a crush on one of my assistants at work. The Ex helped me get the job through a family friend of hers. If I behave unseemly it not only jeopardizes my job, but also reflects poorly on the family friend. So my hands are tied ethically, as well as through fear of retribution from the Ex.

But this isn’t messy enough! How about this past weekend when the Ex met the Crush and determined that the crush is mutual. Excellent. It wasn’t bad enough dealing with the growing infatuation with this young, attractive, fun, cute, genuine, sweet girl. No, now I have to deal with the knowledge that the Crush is apparently a viable option. She sends me messages on Facebook all the time. I associate with her too much at work. Today I found out she lives less than a mile from me. And I really want to call her, invite her over, put on some anime, and see what happens.

Messier: I still love the Ex and I had sex with her over the weekend. Fun times.