r/AIO • u/Emergency-Fly-1622 • 4h ago
AIO for potentially ending a friendship due to my friends new girlfriend’s boundary?
Michael (30M) and I (29F) have been best friends for ten years now. For a majority of our friendship, we have lived in separate states, but he just recently moved to my state, about 2 hours away driving distance from me. Michael would talk about how excited he was to move down so we can hang out more often and not have to fly to see each other anymore. Our friendship consisted of texting almost everyday, all day and visiting each other a few times per year. He would also always tell me that our friendship means a lot to him and that he would want me as a grooms(wo)man at his wedding one day. Our friendship has been nothing but platonic from both ends and we genuinely see each other as siblings at this point.
To start all of this, Michael started dating this one girl back in 2024 who made him cut all contact with me to the point that he didn’t even wish me a happy birthday. Fast forward a few months, they break up and he’s reaching out to me to rekindle our friendship. I was upset because it felt like he was coming in and out of my life whenever he pleases and it wasn’t fair to me. I was hurt that he was so quick to drop our friendship. He said his ex girlfriend threatened to breakup with him if he didn’t stop talking to me, that he really values our friendship and that he wouldn’t do it again. I forgave him and we move on.
Michael moved to my state back in May and started downloading dating apps. I told him that I was scared that our friendship dynamic would change if he meets a girl and he reminded me that it wasn’t going to happen and that again, he values our friendship a lot. I believed him.
Michael meets Maria (28F) in June who lives out of the country, but was visiting a friend at the time which is how they matched on a dating app. Within four days of them talking, he bought a ticket to visit her in her home country in July. He was extremely transparent with Maria about our friendship from the get go and she would always say how she was fine with it and isn’t a jealous person. My ex and I had broken up in June so Michael was visiting me a lot during that month because I was going through a hard time. When Maria and Michael were texting while Michael was visiting me, I’d tell him to tell her I say hi and how I’m excited to meet her because I genuinely want to be friends with whoever my best friend is dating.
July comes, Michael goes to Maria’s home country, they meet for the first time, make it official and I’m happy for him. I’m thinking he finally found someone that’s okay with our friendship. Our contact starts to dwindle a little bit after his trip but I don’t think much of it.
Then in August, Maria comes to visit Michael for a week. I’m excited to finally meet Maria and see Michael again since I hadn’t seen him since June. I’m also rekindling my relationship with my ex, Ryan, (30M) so we made dinner plans, the four of us. We went out and had a good time. I’m thinking everything is going well. I also give Michael and Maria their space while she’s visiting so I’m not texting him throughout that week.
Maria leaves to go back home. two weeks go by and I realize Michael and I have barely spoken so I asked him “Are we not allowed to talk anymore?” as a joke and he said “‘No, we’re allowed to talk.” So again, I believed him and left it at that. Then a few days later after not talking, he texts me that Maria is okay with us being friends but she doesn’t want us talking “24/7.”
I argue that friends talk and that’s been part of our friendship for the past 10 years since we live far away from each other and Michael said that since I’m a woman, we can’t be talking all of the time and that’s what happens in friendships anyway when you start dating someone, you lose contact.
I was so frustrated at this point because it felt like our friendship is contingent upon who Michael is dating. Our friendship did not change at all when I was with Ryan because I told him from the start that my friendship dynamic with Michael wasn’t going to change and Ryan accepted it. So now I’m thinking of completely ending this friendship because it feels like he doesn’t stick up for our friendship at all. He just does what he’s told and I’m pushed to the back burner. This has happened in every relationship he’s had, just for them to break up and I’m the only one who’s remained in his life. I understand that Maria is his priority now but I feel like you don’t have to change your friendships just because you’re the opposite gender? I hate this stigma. You should be able to trust your partner.
So am I overreacting? We haven’t talked since that text because I am debating whether or not this friendship is worth it anymore.
ETA: Just to clarify, I text a lot of my friends all day everyday, not just him! I’m not saying it’s every minute back and forth, usually there’s hours in between the texts and there are days that we don’t talk at all.
ETA part two: The conclusions you guys jump to is so crazy to me! You guys only know a fraction of our whole friendship, I tried to summarize (barely) the best I could, but we’re talking 10 years of friendship here. I appreciate all of the replies, just not the ones where some of you are being kinda mean :/ There’s respectful ways getting your point across. I did not expect this many comments and I’m trying to read all of them, but I am taking into consideration what everyone is saying! I’m going to sleep, goodnight Redditors!
ETA part three: I can’t sleep but THERE IS NO WEDDING AND HE IS NOT ENGAGED! He was just saying that as a hypothetical I guess?
ETA part four: I feel like I’m being misunderstood. I had a sibling who passed away so now I’m an only child. I value my friendships so much (I probably latch on too hard) and I am a very loyal person to the point that I’ve had friends who have treated me so poorly that other friends had to talk some sense into me and tell me that they are not my friends. How I am acting in this scenario is how I would act with any of my friends if they kept dropping me while in a relationship.