She said Lena had been venting at work about me being controlling and jealous for months. But after I left, the story changed to "He abandoned me for a job."
Jane told me she put two and two together and realized Lena had been lying to everyone, including herself, about what was actually happening in our relationship.
The best one was from Tom, my former roommate from college, who stayed friends with both of us. During one of our check-in calls, he said directly:
"Look, man, I need to be straight with you. A bunch of us have been watching this train wreck happen for months. We all knew she was basically having two relationships at once. Some of us tried to hint to you about it, but you seemed to be handling it, so we didn't push. But now she's posting on Instagram about being betrayed and blindsided, and it's honestly insane. Half the people in the comments are calling her out."
I checked. I know I shouldn't have, but I did.
She'd posted this long thing about how she gave 3 years to someone who threw it all away for a job, and how she was learning to heal from abandonment.
The comments were mixed. Some people were supportive, but a lot of people were asking questions like, "Weren't you spending all your time with Seth, though?" And, "Didn't Peter talk to you about this multiple times?"
She deleted the post 6 hours later.
Seth, by the way, has apparently been MIA since all this went down. According to Tom, once the drama started and Lena actually needed real support, Seth was suddenly dealing with his own stuff and couldn't be there for her.
Shocking, I know.
Turns out the guy who was happy to take her emotional energy when it meant she'd come running whenever he called isn't actually interested in reciprocating.
Lena sent me a few texts that seem like she's starting to realize the situation she's in. Things like, "I know I messed up. Can we please just talk?"
But honestly, I'm not interested. I'm not even angry anymore. I'm just done. I spent 3 years trying to make that relationship work, and I'm not going to spend any more energy on it.
Denver is great, by the way. The city, I mean. I've been exploring on weekends, checking out breweries and hiking trails. Went to a Nuggets game with some people from work.
I'm building an actual life here, not just killing time between Lena's crises.