I know, right? No rest for the living.
My issue with Purr is that she's decided to resume a relationship with Quiet. The way I found out about this is that she told me that she went camping with him last weekend, got very drunk, had sex, and have decided to start doing a "casual" thing.
How this is problematic, let me count the ways.
She had a good relationship with him for a month, and then a highly tumultuous relationship for months that left her mentally and emotionally unstable. There is no indication that anything has changed, but she wants to jump back on that train? We talked about how he made her less stable. We talked about how uncomfortablehis cowboy ways made me.
For the sake of my own mental health, I can't do this ride again. Purr is a floppy hinge, and her relationship with Quiet constantly bled over into my relationship with her. It made it very difficult for me to deal with jealousy and insecurity. And that was before the WAY this relationship resumed:
She texted me that she'd be camping over the weekend and would be out of communication. She didn't say it would be with him, though I know they are still friends and do paintball together. I asked her why she didn't tell me before hand that she would be camping with him, and she said she wanted to tell me in person.
I think that that is a cop out. I think she didn't want to tell me because she wanted to do what she wanted to do and didn't want me to voice my objections and have an opportunity to talk her out of it. It feels very much like First Fiance, take two: concealing the truth from me "for my own good." When in actuality, it's because of the perception that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I feel like the whole set up was inherently dishonest.
It also tells me that this was not just a "we got drunk and fucked" thing. She must have been considering it a while. But we never had a single discussion about it. This feels like guilty concealment.
For me, polyamory is about honesty and open communication. How am I supposed to have a relationship with someone I don't trust, and who doesn't tell me things out of fear of how I'll react?
Even if she is being completely honest, I feel betrayed and I've lost my trust. I can tell because it's very hard to give her the benefit of the doubt, and benefit of the doubt is normally my default mode. It has to be. My anxiety latches on the cracks and widens them and makes me miserable.
The worst part though is that her way of restarting this relationship just confirms something that's been at the back of my mind for a long time. Because she straight-up said that she's being stupid and selfish and that she has no expectations this with him will work out in the long run. She said that she didn't text me because she knew it would hurt me and wanted to deal with it in person. She knows all this (especially that it would hurt me!) and went ahead and did it anyway.
That just does not feel like loving behavior to me. It doesn't feel like she is giving the kind of weight to my feelings that I expect from someone I've been dating a year. It confirms to me that I think our relationship is one thing (I take it seriously enough that I was factoring her in when I was planning on moving, for fuck sake) and she views it in another way (she knew this would hurt me, but did it anyway).
I made her a card for our anniversary. She made me nothing. We went out for our anniversary and she invited a friend along. Maybe these should have been my signs.
Maybe I've been blind because I didn't want to see.
And now that my trust is broken, I find myself questioning so much more. She knows I've wanted more adult time, but except for the anniversary steampunk party that I pushed very hard for, she hasn't offered any weekend time. If I invite her to something, she never can plan anything with me; but she also doesn't call me up when she finds unexpected free time. I could have been free this weekend, but instead she decided to go camping with Quiet. And this isn't the first time this has happened.
We have talked about it before twice. Each time, it resulted in exactly one weekend date. And if I want to have my needs heard and taken seriously, I feel that I'd have to have another big fight about it. I'm not a big fights person. I do not do nagging. I'm not going to have this talk for a third time. I don't feel like I'm a priority and I'm not going to fight to be one.
She always says such nice words. But the actions keep on not backing them up.
I decided last night to sleep on it, to make sure that I'm not just being shocked and dramatic, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that we have fundamentally different views about our relationship. I don't feel depressed and angry, just very hurt and sad. I love her. I thought our relationship was something more than it is. I'm pretty sure I thought wrong.
I absolutely could have a conversation with her about all this, try to clear it up, rebuild trust. If this was the first time, the only thing, if there was only one thing to clear up, I think I would. But I want us to be something we aren't. I want love and commitment and consideration, not "I knew it would hurt you but did it anyway." I deserve better than that.