The Bitter Single Guy’s Relationship Advice

Friends With Benefits Not So Beneficial.

Dear Bitter Single Guy: At a party, I hooked up with a guy. We knew each other through our social circle and found each other attractive. We started hooking up every time we got hammered together at parties.

We had a talk, and established that we are just friends with benefits and have no romantic goals with each other. We hung out and did friend things and talked about girls/boys. Recently, we hung out by ourselves, we got drunk, cuddled and talked and he opened up a little bit about his own issues which surprised me, he’s not the type to do that. He initiated the cuddling/make out that ensued afterwards. I should have said no, but I mean, I was drunk, whatever.

We fell asleep cuddling, and when we woke up we hugged goodbye and went our separate ways. That night, we were hanging out with a group. He went out of his way to avoid me. In fact, he spent the entire time gushing about another girl he has a huge crush on. When I finally got him alone and casually brought up the night before he dismissed it saying “Oh, I blacked out, haha, I don’t remember anything”. He was perfectly coherent. I know he didn’t black out.

I get that he probably felt a bit overwhelmed. We were gushing about all sorts of issues and he’s usually pretty emotionally stoic. I’m hurt because, though we established ourselves as friends with benefits, we DID talk about that stuff, and we’re friends first. I think he’s used to hooking up with girls and ignoring them, except I’m in his social circle so he faces a conundrum. He feels pressured to show that nothing has changed emotionally between us. He chooses to just pretend nothing happened. It stings.  He’s very touchy-feely with the rest of our group, even the guys, but he shrinks away from me. We’re housemates next year.

I don’t know what to do about him. I want him to accept me as a friend and not see me as just some dismissible chick. What should I do? Talk to him? Let things run and next time we’re in a situation like that, establish the no-more-benefits-because-you-treat-me-like-crap-afterwards boundary?  I don’t have romantic feelings for him. It just hurts because our group is very open about that sort of thing, and we’ve all hooked up at some point or another, yet I’m the only one he gets weird about it with afterwards? What’s your take? ~Tired of Being Dissed~

Dear TBD: The Bitter Single Guy first wants to point out that friends with benefits rarely seems to work out for many people. Intellectually we all love the idea of sex without strings, but in practice the strings may be hidden, but are usually there.

The BSG thinks you should go with your ‘no-more-benefits-because-you-treat-me-like-crap-afterwards boundary’. Particularly since this group of friends is apparently open and particularly since you’re planning to be housemates next year.

The BSG’s guess is that Drunken Cuddler has some feelings coming up for you despite his best efforts and rather than dealing with them openly, he’s choosing to act all frat-boy-ish and pretend it’s not happening. That means setting the boundary is up to you and the BSG thinks you’ve got this well in hand. Go get ‘im. ~BSG~

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