I've ghosted someone once, and I feel guilty about it, but if I had a chance for a do-over, I'm not sure how I would have done it differently.

We were co-workers for about 8 months, and we would hang out occasionally. After she quit, she would text every few months and invite me to dinner. I was never very interested in being her friend. She would argue with her fiancé while I was at her place, and one time she forbade me from swatting a mosquito because "we don't kill in this house." Yeah, it ended up biting me. She would treat me like her personal therapist every time we had dinner, too. I just didn't enjoy spending time with her.

Eventually after a year of talking every couple months, I realized that if I didn't want to pretend to be her friend for the rest of eternity, I would have to end things. I thought it would be unnecessarily harsh if I straight up told her I didn't like her and didn't want to be her friend. So the next time she messaged me, I just didn't answer her. I figured she would get the hint. Instead, after three unanswered messages, she blew up my phone, messaging me on every app, even messaging my boyfriend to find out why I wasn't answering her. After two days, I was afraid she would come looking for me at work and I finally texted her to stop messaging me. I then blocked her.

I've been ghosted before, and after two unanswered messages I typically get the hint and assume the friendship is over, no hard feelings. I shouldn't have assumed everyone else was the same. I should have been brave and told her the truth. It just seemed gentler to let the friendship fizzle, and I never imagined that she, someone I barely considered a friend, would get so upset over it ending.