"I made friends with the woman who was dating the guy I was seeing"

It was a normal Friday for me. I woke up happy and after my shower, I went to my closet to pick an outfit and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, smiled then did a double take. I spotted a bite mark on my neck. 

I got upset mainly because the guy I was seeing understood that he was not the only one in the mix and that I was not looking for a committed relationship.

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I called my friend and let her know how disrespected I felt. She could empathise because a few weeks ago the same thing had happened to her. She invited me over for dinner that evening to lift my spirits.

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After a while, a few other guests joined us including a beautiful woman, who I will name Ava*. As the evening progressed Ava asked me if I had a boyfriend pointing to the red mark of regret that was on my neck. As I shared what had happened, I realised I may have said too much.

In that moment, I got a response to the angry text I had sent earlier to the guy. His message read, “I’m sorry, I just got carried away. It won’t happen again.” It diffused my anger but I decided to share a video I had taken of him that night, ‘acting a fool’.

My phone was passed around the room and the last person to see it was Ava who she let out a deep sigh and said, “Oh wow, what a small world,” before handing it back to me. 

Both my friend and I heard the comment but ignored it and started another conversation until some of the guests left to go buy cigarettes. As soon the door shut behind them Ava immediately jumped up and asked, “How do you know Lutho*?” I told her that I was seeing him, and she said, “Me too.”

We spoke openly about each other's experiences with him. I had only being seeing him for a few weeks and he had been seeing Ava for a few months. Ava and I had different relationships with him. I had a casual one whereas hers seemed much more serious. According to Ava, she and Lutho had agreed not to see other people.

As the night ended, we discovered we lived in the same direction and decided to walk home together. As we chatted, we realised that we had a lot in common, it was refreshing to meet someone that could share my love for paranormal cases, cold cases and hiking on Sunday mornings. So instead of heading straight home we hung out on the side of the road and marvelled at how our lives seemed to parallel.

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In the early hours of the morning, we called it a night but not without exchanging numbers first.

In the next few months, we'd spend time going on breakfast dates or dinner parties together.

We both harbour no ill feelings towards Lutho - we're both friends with him on social media and interact with him on occasion. I surprisingly was angrier about the bite on my neck than the fact he lied. 

In a way it reaffirmed my choice of not wanting to be in a relationship at that time.

Ava and I are still friends and we love telling people the story of how we met and some of the reactions we get from people are priceless.