Hello, my name is Matthew and I couldn’t get out of a relationship with a girl because this would have affected my family in a reaaaally bad way. So I’ve just been living with my Mom for most of my life, and she has always been a genuinely great person.
She spent a lot of time helping people despite the fact that we ourselves were pretty poor. She would always do some charity work, like work in a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen and I have always looked up to her. But still, she wasn’t perfect – she was always just a little bit too timid or shy, so for the last several years she’s had a lot of trouble finding a job and we’ve been really struggling financially. Around this same time I met Emilia.
We almost immediately liked each other and soon we started dating.
She was amazing at first – very kind and funny.
Everything was going so well that she introduced me to her family almost immediately. It turns out that her father was a successful businessman. He really liked me and was telling me stories about himself the whole evening, so much that Emilia had to stop him because it was getting too late. I realized that he could help my mother with a job, so I asked him about it. He was happy to help and gave my mom a job at his company. It wasn’t anything special, but it was a job.
My mom was very excited about it, but also pretty anxious. Because of her anxiety, she messed up a lot and Emilia’s father wasn’t exactly happy about it. Around this time Emilia… changed. Instead of this sweet caring girl, she became kinda… spoiled and whiny. She would always make fun of people on the street and spread rumors about people we knew and then get upset when I would ask her to stop. So I guess, at first, she tried to show herself in the best possible light, but then she relaxed and showed her true colors. I hated spending time with her and really wanted to break up, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know what would happen to my mom and her job.
So I had to figure out how to make HER break up with me instead.
At first, I just decided to annoy her – Emilia cared about what people thought of her way too much, so I started to wear goofy clothing when we were together, and when we would hang out with her friends I would tell the dumbest jokes ever.
She was EXTREMELY annoyed and embarrassed and acted like she hated spending time with me.
But… for some reason, she wouldn’t break up with me! Sometimes I would help my mom when she was volunteering at soup kitchens for the homeless, and I knew that Emilia would HATE doing something like that.
So I planned a perfect bad date!
I told her I wanted to surprise her and took her to one of those kitchens and we spent around an hour there, working, until she just left, disgusted and annoyed – she really didn’t want to have anything to do with work like this.
I took her home and I had to act upset the whole time, while in reality, I was HAPPY that she would hopefully finally get rid of me.
But something totally unexpected happened. She didn’t break up with me, but she did whine about the situation to her father, and he was impressed by me because I was so “responsible for my age.” He was SO impressed, in fact, that he took me on a fishing trip, together with Emilia. It was so awkward because he was just singing my praises all day.
To him, I was like the son he never had. He always dreamed of the day when he would give his business to his son, who would succeed him. Emilia just sat around next to us the whole day, doing something on her phone, but I saw how annoyed she was, because he never even considered giving his business to her… Okay, I have to admit something.
While I realized how bad of a situation I was in, it was tempting to have a chance to take over someone’s successful business, especially when you were used to being poor… So I was telling myself that maybe Emilia wasn’t so bad and maybe I should stay with her.
But the situation reached its peak of awkwardness when Emilia’s parents had their anniversary party. They had it in their mansion and it was super fancy and official, and I felt sooo out of place there, especially every time Emilia’s father would introduce me to his friends. After a ton of handshakes and small talk, the worst thing happened – they decided to take a family picture, like him, his wife, and Emilia.
And of course, OF COURSE they invited to me to be a part of the picture. I tried my best to genuinely smile, but my eyes were clearly saying, “Oh no, please help me, no, no, no!” I felt like this was the point of no return, and I really didn’t know if I could endure being with Emilia… who disappeared right after the photo. I was looking around for her, but couldn’t find her.
Finally, I decided to look for her outside.
She was sitting in the stairway, crying. When she saw me, she had this genuine anger in her eyes. I asked what was wrong and it turned out that she was upset that her father never paid any attention to her, especially once I appeared in their lives. He never cared about what she had to say.
She confessed that she stopped liking me long time ago, but her Father was always trying to persuade her to stay with me because I was such a “great guy.” We sat silently for a few minutes, and my mind was racing. Both me and Emilia were miserable in this relationship, but at the same time, me and my mom were getting so much from her father…(long sigh) in the end, I decided to break up with her, right then and there.
She smiled with relief when I did and I hoped this would end in a civil way, but no. Her smile of relief quickly changed to something more… devious.
She went back to the house, kinda fake crying and announced to her father that I had broken up with her.
Her dad tried to laugh it off, like it was some kind of prank. I was watching from a distance and I felt like I was going die from shame, right then and there. Her father asked me if this was a joke and I just stared at him. He took me and Emilia to a private room and asked me to reconsider.
Emilia was super mad because she wanted her father to feel sorry for her and, like, comfort her, but instead he was doing the complete opposite. I politely refused to reconsider, he sighed and said “fine,” and Emilia loudly told me to leave, which I did.
Her father asked me if I wanted him to get me a taxi home. I wanted to say yes, but then I saw Emilia’s facial expression and politely refused. After a loooong walk in a two-piece suit, I made it home.
I didn’t know whether I was happy or not.
After a week, my mom lost her job and I had to tell her why it happened. My mom laughed it off and said “Good! I didn’t like that girl anyway.” She was extremely proud of me because I guess I made the right choice, but it didn’t feel like it because she lost her job. But she was sure that there was no point in making money if the way you have to get it makes you miserable.
I guess she’s right! And I think she almost found a new job.
Anyway, she’ll never give up.
Have you had a tough time breaking up with someone?
