We might be friends, but if I introduce you to a good-looking acquaintance of mine and you start making goo goo eyes and kissy faces, I’m gone.
I had two really good friends once -- people I shared an immediate connection with. After a year, I decided to introduce them. He was smitten. She was flattered. And I got demoted to the position of “Third Wheel.”
My friends often confide in me. But once they enter a romantic relationship, that makes me the bad guy. If I reveal one partner’s secrets, I’m unreliable because I opened my mouth. But if I don’t reveal those secrets, once again I’m untrustworthy, because I knew something and I didn’t warn the other person in the relationship.
I understand that when you’re friends with someone, you have to make room for new people in their lives. But when my friends decide to become involved with each other, it shatters the support and camaraderie I used to share with them.
Because of this, I’ve pretty much changed the way I look at friendships. For now, when my friends get into romantic relationships, that’s my time to put things on the backburner.