Page 21 of Blurred Lines

Violet

Was that meant for me or Theo?

Shit!

Me

Sorry, sorry, it was meant for Mario.

Violet

So he didn’t take Gym Guy’s hint?

Me

I guess not.

I typed out the GFY message again, and this time, I made sure I sent it to the right person. I was done with being passive.

Violet

Just be careful.

Me

I’m watching my back.

But the bullet came from the side. If I’d known what was about to hit me, maybe I’d have jumped off the damn yacht and kept on swimming.

I was so over men. On Friday morning, two days post-Theo, I signed up for a ladies-only boxing class at Planet Health. The instructor had been through a bad breakup or two of her own, I could tell. As we practised our left and right hooks on heavy bags, she yelled encouragement.

“Just imagine the bag is your ex. Hit him harder. Harder! Lauren, turn from your hips—it’ll give you more power.”

I left the class buzzed, and also a tiny bit apprehensive at the thought of another encounter with Cristian. Last time, I’d had the safety of a steady boyfriend to fall back on, but now I was unattached with a proven track record of impaired judgment. I also had seventeen messages waiting for me, and I groaned when I saw the phone screen. The new phone screen—Hakeem had brought a replacement cell, and that had been on my nightstand when I woke up in the morning too.

Of course, Mario had made an appearance, this time reclining on a furry blanket with everything hanging out. But there were also texts from Violet, Brax, and Kane, all saying essentially the same thing. Have you seen Facebook? If not, it’s probably better not to look.

Naturally, I checked my notifications right away. Had someone caught the potato chip incident from a different angle?

No.

It was worse.

Much worse.

Theo wanted to know whether he was an asshole. The answer was obviously yes, but he’d decided to ask the world by describing our relationship issues—from his point of view, clearly—in horrifying detail.

Am I the Asshole?

I (30M) have been working hard to get a new business venture off the ground, and my girlfriend (26F) of three months refuses to support me. I only asked her to post a review of my app on social media and maybe get her friends to do the same, but she flatly refused and said I was being unreasonable.

At this point, I began to suspect our relationship had no future—not only did her lack of enthusiasm for a project that means a lot to me hurt, but I’ve also had to deal with her constant fantasising over other men. She wrote the details down, and some of these were very graphic (see examples).

I ended things right then on the phone, but should I have given her a chance to come around to my way of thinking? It’s possible she felt threatened by my imminent success and the prospect of my career overshadowing hers. Am I the asshole for finishing with her immediately?

He’d included photos. Images of my notebook, page after page of my café- and gym-inspired stories. Although I wrote professionally, those were my raw thoughts, my rough drafts. My freaking name was in them. And now they were splashed all over the internet for people to read.

My friends.

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