Doomed

We heard from a reader earlier this week, Stuck-In-the-Middle (aka SIM), who says her two long-time friends gave dating each other a try but, in the end, it didn’t work out. Now SIM is feeling somewhat uncomfortable. She’s not the only one who’s been in this precarious position.

For example, I had two acquaintances in college, Ryan and Mary, who became close friends. The more time they spent together, the more Mary’s feelings grew stronger for Ryan and before she knew it, she viewed him as a romantic interest rather than a platonic friend. You know how the story goes. Eventually, they “hooked up” but in the end, Ryan didn’t have romantic feelings toward her. Things between them and our group of friends became awkward. My friends and I would split our time between the two of them at parties. When Ryan would bring a date out to dinner with the group, Mary became a jealous monster. Finally, tensions quickly spilled over into our video production class, which created a schism between everyone. I found myself stuck in the middle of their relationship and was delivering verbal messages back and forth between them to try to ease the situation. Although my intention was to improve the circumstances, it was futile; they were doomed. When Mary and Ryan crossed the friend boundary, our group became involved. Unfortunately, the group’s close relationship ended and their friendship was never the same. I learned to never again get stuck in the middle of two people in a relationship. Three’s a crowd…romantically speaking.

Weigh in readers by sharing your experiences, stories, and opinions below or e-mail me at littleredbook@northernvirginiamag.com.

-Katie

Tags: Dating, Katie Greenan, Little Red Book, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, nova mag, relationships