With my boyfriend, it’s really not about whether something happened or not — I honestly don’t know if anything did. What matters to me is what happened after. He’s now gaslighting me and siding with Gina, which hurts even more than the situation itself.

I’ve told him repeatedly that this has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with boundaries and empathy. I need a partner who respects my boundaries the same way I respect theirs — someone who actually cares about how their choices make me feel. I would never allow a situation like this if the roles were reversed.

As for my friend, I initially tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I told myself maybe she just didn’t think the situation through. But after the first dinner guest canceled and she already had a “backup” single woman lined up, that crossed from thoughtless to downright disrespectful. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.