An invented girlfriend as an excuse to say "no" is in no way LESS of an impediment than an actual jealous girlfriend?
Category: Reader Questions
#1348: “How to tell an ex you’re pregnant when it’s not theirs and not your ex”
Your partner's ex, your partner's friend group, your partner's life choices are your partner's job to manage.
#1347: “My friend asked me if we could add ‘benefits,’ I still feel weird about it, am I justified in ending the friendship?”
"Good news, I finally persuaded my fiancée to let me sleep with other people, now we can finally act out all my fantasies about you over Zoom!" Whoa, seems sexy!
#1346: “My new ‘friend’ has alt-right skeletons in her closet. How do I nope out?”
"Inside this lady are two bigots, one is capable of acting nice sometimes and the other is not, don't feed either of them with your time, sympathy, or attention."
#1345: Newborns, vaccines, and visiting relatives.
Wear a seatbelt! Where's your helmet? Will there be parents there? Parenthood requires willingness to say no to lots of fun stuff in the name of safety, there's no time like the present to get started.
#1344: “How do I end a marriage less than two years in?”
All those guides for how to say "I do", you'd think there'd be way more advice on how to undo it.
#1343: “How do I make myself stand the person in the friend group I can’t really stand?”
It's okay if someone you strongly dislike gets an inkling that the feeling is mutual.
#1342: “Please help me stop people from assuming that my best friend and I are a couple.”
Like the creative writing workshop advice goes, if one person tells you a piece of feedback about your story, that's just their opinion, but if ten people give you the same note, there's probably something worth paying attention to on the input side.
#1341: “How to keep the DRAMA out of drama?”
"Why is EVERYONE creating so much DRAMA?" -The Hot Mess Who Both Smelt It And Dealt It, usually
#1340: “I sat for my friends’ cats for years, but they won’t return the favor now:” Friendship, Favors, and Reciprocity
There is "what might be technically owed" and "what is realistic and workable now." In general, don't try to extract the former at the expense of the latter with people you'd like to stay friends with.
