Follow Up

I walked the city a bit after work thinking about my situation with the man. I came to the conclusion that if me going to the movies alone bothers him, then I am going to respect that. There is going to come a time when I am not going to like something he does, and confront him on it (the cell phone maybe?) and how can I expect him to respect my feelings if I am not going to respect his.
I texted him "Going home after work to cuddle with my couch"
He texted back "Do you know how much I love you?"

That put the spring back in my step.

I was looking forward to going home and relaxing. Unfortunately, when i walked through the door and saw the red light on my machine blinking, I immediately sensed it was not going to be good. I get those feelings sometimes.

Before I get into the slew of messages I had to endure...I need to give some background info. My ex, I'm going to call him Dick. (short for Richard, right? haha) Dick and I did not have an easy breakup. Not that breakups are easy, but it wasn't a smooth transition. We had no closure after too many years, and we had no closure between our families as well. The one problem though...being together for so long has provided us with mutual friends. Sure, some of those fled just as quickly as the relationship did, but there were still the "loyal ones" that stuck around, and attempted communication with both me and Dick.
I try to keep my contact with them very limited...as the conversations never turn out to anything positive. And right now, I stear clear of negativity.
After the dramatic ending to our 7 year stint, Dick moved as did I. I fled to Florida. He fled to DC. I'm back now...and I had no idea what Dick did, until that red light was blinking in my face.

"Hey Alex, it's Eric. Haven't heard from you for awhile, I hope all is well. I miss you and your goofyness. Hey Ali listen, Dick just bought a house in DC. I talked to him the other day. Wanted to see if you knew. anyway, call me back sometime in the near future. "

This is what I mean. Do you really think I give a $**%^%#$% what Dick does? Why do our friends feel the need to report on eachother?
Messages like these are the ones that send me into a complete meltdown. I withdraw, I regress, I turn negative, which is what I am trying to avoid.

Is the only answer to completely remove myself from these so called mutual friends? and just get on with it?
Is there a happy medium?

Anyway, I deleted the message, and will not be calling Eric back for the time being.

I texted my man. "I hope you are having a nice time, feel free to stop by afterwards if you want."
He brings me an amazing amount of comfort. His arms feel so secure wrapped around me, and I was hoping to use him as my blanket tonight.

I fell asleep sometime around Letterman. But I awoke to a note taped to my fridge.
"I love watching you sleep. I even stole a kiss. Have a beautiful day".

I have to stop letting one person throw me down the dark path. I have something so good here...I need to really embrace that and go with it.

but it's still so hard.