I have more than I can count.
This story has a strange dynamic to it. I'll tell the first part so you can fully appreciate the second.
Very recently I was 'dating' a 4th grade school teacher for several months, I will call her Jamie. I say we only dated because the whole time I was with her I had the feeling there was something wrong with the girl, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Curiosity is my best friend and worst enemy so I stuck with her until I figured out what was wrong with her, I have issues. However, I will say this, having these issues has taught me many lessons that I would have otherwise missed.
Jamie was really pretty, she had a great smile, and an ass you could bounce a nickle off of, seriously I think that thing was fake, it was huge.
Off the bat I realized Jamie wasn't so sharp, but she seemed like she had potential. Jamie was teaching the 4th grade, so she can't be that bad.
Over time she would say things that baffled me. There were common things that many people deal with on a daily basis that she was completely clueless about, such as mailing letters, or paying bills.
Jamie asked if I would like to teach her class art lessons some day. I make art as a hobby and second job and she thinks I would enjoy teaching a little. I actually love kids, teaching, and I cherished my time in the 4th grade, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Days building up to my teaching, I would pry for information about her class to get a feel on how I should approach my subject to get the most attention out of the class.
Most of what she would tell me is, "Don't give these kids an inch, they will walk all over you." "You have to be stern, these kids are bad."
I used to lifeguard and manage several public pools over the years, so I know kids, how bad could these be?
Long story short, I get to the class at the end of the school day to teach and Jamie introduces me to the class as I walk in. All of the children are paying attention to me, and everyone is quiet.
Jamie yells, very loudly, "ALRIGHT EVERYONE! PAY ATTENTION TO MR. ADAM! IF YOU ARE BAD, YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH ME!"
...the class looked at her with a blank face as if they have been dealing with this yelling crap for ages.
I had never seen Jamie yell like this.
I go on to teach Jamie's class and the kids really love me. No one spoke, they asked a million questions, everyone wanted to show me their work, and I literally signed 20 autographs, I'm not kidding.
The day is over, and as usual, I reflect on every detail. It's a sickness. I come to realize that Jamie has a pretty mean side... but it doesn't end there.
At this point we had been dating for maybe 4 months. It came to the point where I should either keep going or turn away. I pry again to find out what the deal is with Jamie, why am I getting these strange feelings? One day I harmlessly look at her snapchat 'best friends.' Two guys that aren't me take the top spot. Interesting.
Me being in a small town, it is definitely not hard getting answers about locals. I normally ignore this truth because I really don't care to know about the personal details in people's lives that don't concern me, but this time it concerned me.
I had a buddy go talk to "number 1" on her list.... Come to find out, they were dating too, and he had no idea about me. She had been living a double life, hooking up with both of us.
So now I have to figure out what to do at this point. Keep in mind Jamie is a confirmed ass to children, and she has been sleeping around on two, maybe three guys.
When you've been cheated on like I have, and seen what I've seen, it really changes you. In the past I was not in the position where I could actually think about what I should do in response to the cheating. I usually just addressed it, kicked the girl to the curb, and tried to move on, which proved to always be really hard. Usually when you get cheated on, the girl just ends up with the other guy and you're all alone watching from the side lines. It sucks.
A couple weeks later I invited her, and a bunch of my friends down to the family beach house for spring break. She was the only girl down there. The second night of the four days we were down there, Me, Jamie and a buddy of mine were coming back from a night on the town. The buddy in the car was the one who found out she was cheating for me. I broke the silence of the car ride and addressed the issue. She had no where to escape, and she didn't bring her car to the beach so she was really stuck. I started to ask her questions, these questions would seem really random to anyone, but they had purpose, to make her sweat. "Do you know .....?" "How good of friends are you two?" "You two known each other for a while?" Then I would sprinkle in a completely unrelated question, "What are we doing for lunch tomorrow?" to really confuse her. Every time I asked a question it would be unassuming, almost playfully asked, which made her answering the question even more painful.
After going back in forth a bit, I changed the subject, only to return back to it once she probably thought all was clear, "How long have you been hooking up with cliff?"
...the next two days consisted of Jamie wallowing in her sorrow. Who knows what she was thinking, but she was mostly all alone during those two days.
Part of me still feels bad about doing all of this, but I in no way feel as bad as I did the first two times I was cheated on and never did anything about it.