So long story shortish, my boyfriend has a single, female friend who is his age. They “almost got together” one summer, but I guess they never actually slept together so he thought all was fine. I’ve always been uncomfy with her because… idk I guess in my mind “pretty much dated but never had sex” is still kind of weird to have as a best friend that you let sleep over. If she was appropriate, I wouldn’t care, but she loves being naked, posting topless pics of herself, and showing off her body. I asked him to his face if he’s seen her naked, which he said no, so I let it go. Then she asked him to stay at our house over a holiday while she was visiting, making it sound like the tickets were bought and she just needed a crash pad. He said yes which killed me, so I was like “fine, but you need to get concrete dates from her. I don’t want to spend my entire holiday mentally preparing for her to show up at any random minute.” She DRAGGED her feet for three weeks, being weird and wishy wash. I finally said put her on speaker, I want to understand. It was WEIRD. Long pregnant pauses after he asks, “when do you get here, when do you leave?” She baby voiced to him about “realllyyyyy want to beeee there. Would loooove to see you. Don’t wanna miss out, just gonna be so pricey to get there, teehee Do you want me there?” She hung up and I looked at him and said plainly that it’s really weird when she won’t buy plane tickets or give us the date that she arrives. It’s really weird that she wants you to really want her here, when it’s just supposed to be a crash pad, and it’s really weird that she’s started heavily hinting that she can’t afford to come and wants you to buy her way. She texted him later with the stupid ass “You still want me to come right? Is it okay if I just give you no dates and no plan, and just maybe show up, maybe don’t? 😉 ” And he just said the couch was going to be offered to someone else who had actually bought their tickets, so find a different friend to crash with if you do come.
Then all the other mutual friend arrived for the holiday weekend, and started asking what was happening with the single friend, because they were very confused. She literally was going to people’s houses and telling them that he was begging her to come down, and how badly he wanted her to be staying with him and his girlfriend. My boyfriend asked one of them what was wrong with her and why she was acting so weird. That’s when it came out that she has brain damage from a head injury, and when she woke up, she was hypersexual and disinhibited. She now enjoys getting naked randomly on camping trips with other people, and gives other women’s husbands naked hugs because she doesn’t have a real concept of healthy boundaries left. They said it would have been a very bad thing for everyone involved if she had stayed with us, because she is friend’s with most of the wives of the guys she’s done that too, and they’re more understanding and cool about it. Well I guess I’m not as “cool girl” as the other women in this friend group, because I would kick her fucking teeth in if had come into my home and done that. She would find herself naked, outside in the dust, with a second bump on her head.
Now I just feel a little weird about his single female friends. I don’t like toxic shit like that, but I can’t help but think about my friend group and what we would just NEVER do to each other or each other’s partners. I think about what I would never do to any woman, regardless of who their partner was to me. Is it normal to have a lot of single friends of the opposite sex? He has other female friends that are married and he’s friend’s with that couple as a unit, and I think they’re really lovely. I hate and am exhausted by the concept of being the friend police, but this isn’t even the first single female friend that has been inappropriate when she thought I wouldn’t find out. I already had to ask him to hold one of his female bartender friends at arms length, because she liked getting him drunk and going home with him to “cook a meal” in our kitchen. After she served him until he blacked out one night, she took him home from the bar, PUT HIM IN OUR BED AND TOOK HIS PANTS OFF. He woke up all upset and disturbed. He knew someone had been in the house and undressed him, because he knew he wouldn’t have even take his shoes off before crashing in bed if he was that drunk. He went down to her bar that day and asked her what she did, then he called her “fucking creepy” in front of all of her patrons, which… good. I hope she was embarrassed. I was literally stuck at a 12 hour night shift. It’d been the first night in forever that he went out without me, and she knew I wouldn’t be home when she teste his autopilot as a confidence booster. She should have felt embarrassed. But yeah, it was bad. So bad I knew he’d yelled at her and knew that we weren’t drinking at that bar anymore, but I didn’t even know the details until a couple weeks later when he had some distance from it and talked about it with me. I wasn’t mad at him. Like, I pointed out if I went to a male friend’s bartending shift, was overserved to the point of blacking out, and then woke up to realize he pulled my pants off, there would be a police report. And I would absolute expect him to believe me. I hold that same energy for him. So, I don’t blame him for it, but I see his lack of pattern recognition in what these “friends” are doing and what they want from him. I keep saying “those aren’t your friends, dude. A friend would never do that.” Idk… advice is needed. I don’t think there’s much I can do except point out the oncoming train wreck and bite back the “I told you so’s” when history repeats itself. I just wish he’d wake up a little bit. I’m so aware of when a guy is violating my boundaries. But then… That why my only male friends are gay. I just wish he would flex his imagination a little bit. I don’t want to be being the insecure, jealous partner until I’m proven right. I wish he would see what seems so obvious to me so early, and not get himself in so deep into the situations. Idk if that’s just asking him to develop a skill he doesn’t have or not, but I hate the thought of being the negative bitch like, “Oh she wants you. You shouldn’t be her friend, I can tell.” Like, I want him to have better discernment.
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He needs to drop these friends who ignore boundaries because they clearly bring drama. I’d tell him this is toxic and he deserves mates who actually respect his relationship.
I find it difficult to believe brain injuries could elicit a hyper sexual motivation for a singular person, but hey that’s just me. Your boyfriend needs to stop being weak and set boundaries for HIMSELF. If he doesn’t, he’s no better than her. What a headache.
How old is he? Seems too old to not find all of this odd. He might enjoy the attention. (The bartender friend was super weird)
You sound insecure. Just talk to him about it. If you don’t trust him enough to set boundaries with her then dissolve your relationship with him. Simple.
Men are not that oblivious.
There’s a fair chance he likes the attention they give him. Even if he’s not 100% aware that they don’t respect his relationship
My ex was similar. Ultimately I think she was at war with herself. She wanted the comfort of a relationship and the excitement of being wanted/ being single. It’s not the worst thing ever, it just means that she couldn’t be in an exclusive relationship like I wanted. If she wants to settle down someday I’m sure she will become monogamous or find someone who is cool with sharing.
Having close single friends of the opposite gender is fine as long as it’s strictly platonic. It’s just so rare in my experience though. The times I’ve had newer single female friends they’ve been more like acquaintances. Or they’ve been actively flirty and it hasn’t worked out.
The only ones I feel 100% secure in are my high school friends that know too much about me, and have never had interest in me.
As much as it sucks it sounds like a compatibility issue between you two. You shouldn’t have to police your partner’s behavior. You deserve to be with someone who has the same ideas about love and partnership. Choosing to keep people who don’t respect his relationship in his life is disrespectful to you.
Stopped reading. You can’t control her but your bf is an adult who controls his own responses.
Tolerating this behavior is an immediate dismissal from the screening process.
You either let him go or deal with this forever.
This may provide some clarity. None of this behavior surprises me as someone who has worked with TBI for 15 years and have several friends who’ve experienced it. It can be devastating, but also very frustrating for loved ones with what it does to memory, executive functioning skills and just social engagement in general. My only advice is to try to approach with empathy and knowledge, don’t take things personal.
Here’s a resource that may help:
tbi behavior
It sounds like you know the correct response already. If she doesn’t have healthy boundaries, y’all have to create the boundaries that are healthy. Brain damage doesn’t make her her unlovable. But it is a real problem for you. So the boundaries have to be ultra high and very different than they would be with other people.
It’s like having an alcoholic in the house. It’s not that it’s wrong to keep alcohol in your house but when you’ve got an alcoholic living with you, you just can’t have it. No one would ever judge someone else as being toxic for not keeping alcohol in their house when they cohabitate with an alcoholic. This is the exact same kind of situation.
Lmao they’re all the same. Homewrecking whores who prioritize ruining a relationship instead of finding their own and working through their own issues.
They’re literally all the same — also how poly/open relationships work.
Being friends with someone with a TBI or any type of injury that changes the brain requires so much patience and understanding. It’s honestly not for everyone.
First you need to report that bartender “friend” for intentionally over-serving a customer. That’s illegal and her license should be pulled. Second I would have him cut off his friendship with Head Injury girl. She is not going to change her behavior and just because others tolerate it due to them feeling bad for her or whatever doesn’t mean you have to, especially if it is putting a strain on your relationship. And if he refuses to remove these toxic women from his life. you need to do better for yourself and remove him from yours.