The longest was five years. I don't generally date, but I have a couple of times. I don't much like having rules, so dating isn't my favorite, but I'll do it for the the right person.

I stayed with him for five years because I needed stability, and he was kind to me, reliable. I was young and unsure of myself and the last relationship I was in had been very rough. When I broke up with him, it was because I realized I wasn't ever glad to see him. I was happier when he wasn't around. We also had very little in common. He wanted to sit around all day. I was always out hiking or biking with the dog. I became better friends with my dog than I ever was with him, and I felt like that was a pretty clear indicator that it wasn't working out.

I never cheated on him. He supported me monetarily when I had a pretty terrible injury, and even if there wasn't a lot of emotion to our relationship on my end, the gesture was appreciated, so remaining faithful was my contribution.

There were several occasions where I deeply considered it. I kept ending up in situations where I was very close to cheating, but I would just leave. I also wasn't getting laid consistently (once a week if I was lucky), which was driving me up the wall. He had a very low sex drive and it was killing me, because I usually did all the work anyway.

I broke up with him, but we were living together and he was still pretty attached and acting like my boyfriend. I started bringing guys around, but he would act like they were just my friends. Finally I brought a guy home that he knew. They both hated each other. My ex even went outside and helped him with an old parked car we were trying to get running. It was very weird.

Finally I came home really late one night, pretty disheveled. My ex asks me where I've been and I explode. I give him a play by play of exactly what I did with his old high school bully. He starts crying and finally agrees to move his shit out of my bedroom.

You know what the moral to this story is?

Don't date virgins. I've made this mistake more than once, and every time it ended with a bunch of crying and clinginess because people, for some reason, pin every hope and dream on you because you're their first. This goes for men and women. They're equally awful.