Has my honesty or dishonesty bitten me in the ass?
I’ll try and keep this brief and concise without going in to how I’m feeling too deeply, as I’m a bit fragile at the moment.
I started chatting to a girl a little over 5 months ago who I’d met through Tinder. I’d obviously matched and chatted with a few girls on Tinder but no one was like this girl, she was hotter, smarter, held better conversations and showed more genuine interest than any other girl I’d spoken to – she was, and still is, in my eyes perfect. We clicked, we hit it off and got on like a house on fire. We didn’t get to meet until April of this year due to living on separate islands, her in Jersey and myself in Guernsey and both of us having relatively busy schedules, since then we’ve meet every 2 weeks with one of us making the journey to stay with each other for 2 to 3 nights at a time. Everything was as perfect as can be despite living apart, except one thing, the truth about my past.
I’d been in a long relationship, close to 9 years, and had spent the vast majority of my adult life with my previous partner. My previous partner and I were invited to a wedding in Jamaica, we were invited a good 9-10 months in advance due to it’s location. However in the 9-10 months before the wedding our relationship had started to break down in my eyes and wasn’t something I’d wanted to continue. The fact we had this holiday/wedding booked so far in advance had stopped me ending our relationship sooner, as the groom was my best friend from school and the bride was one of her close friends all through school too - it would have made the whole situation awkward. I ended our relationship on 7th March, just a week after returning from our holiday / wedding and 10 days after I’d started chatting to the perfect girl.
This weekend whilst visiting my girlfriend I decided to come clean and tell her that when we first spoke I was officially in a relationship. I tried to assure her that my relationship didn’t end because of her, it was dead long before it died. We had only been chatting 10 days, we’d never met before I was single, we’d never spoken on the phone before I was single but understandably she feels betrayed. The only reason I came clean to her was because how deep my feelings for her had become, and I needed her to know the truth before we could progress. I wasn’t expecting her to brush it under the carpet, I wasn’t expecting it not to hurt her, but I’ve severely underestimated how much it was going to hurt her, she’s heart broken.
I’ve done my best to explain everything to her, but she’s asked for space and to be left alone to think about everything, which I’m finding extremely hard to do, but I have to do it out of respect for her choice of asking for the time and space. She’s my best friend and not speaking to her all day throughout the day is hurting me like hell, and the thought I might have lost her because of a 10 day overlap has left me feeling heart broken too.
Has my honesty or dishonesty bitten me in the ass? My heart is telling me I should have told her, the truth is always the best option in my opinion, however if I’d kept it quiet the chances of her finding out would have been slim to none because of how small the overlap was and I’d still be enjoying the bliss of having her in my life.