A woman has been praised for correcting her ex boyfriend, in front of everyone at a friend's birthday party, when he said their breakup had been mutual.
The 25-year-old original poster (OP), Reddit user Zealousideal_Board89, dated "Evan" for about two years before she—not they—ended the relationship.
According to the OP's post this week, her decision stemmed from being "uncomfortable" with Evan's suspiciously close "friendship" with his coworker, "Elle."
Hand-in-Hand
That leads to about a week ago, when the OP ran into her ex at a mutual friend's birthday party—and noticed he didn't show up alone.
The "hurt" yet "validated" OP couldn't help but laugh when her ex-boyfriend introduced the woman he was hand-in-hand with as, yes, Elle. Apparently, though, Evan didn't take that reaction well.
As the OP recalled, he shook his head and said something along the lines of, "C'mon don't do this, it's been months and we both decided to break up mutually. Am I not allowed to move on?"
Safe to say, the OP wasn't ready to move on from that claim.
"That REALLY annoyed me and I just said, 'Uhm, no. I broke up with you because I didn't believe you when you said Elle was just a friend and clearly I was right'," she wrote.
"I could tell he was mad that I said that in front of everyone and Elle looked uncomfortable, but I didn't care.
"The conversation quickly moved past the awkwardness and the rest of the night was great. I did apologize to the birthday girl [whom] I'm super-close to, but she said she didn't care..."
While the OP thought that was the end of it, she later heard from Evan, who was evidently furious at her for, "Making things awkward for him and his new girlfriend."
In light of the OP's comment, some of their friends are now refusing to welcome Elle with "open arms," she noted.
Certain friends, she added, are even referring to her as the, "Girl [that] Evan cheated on" the OP with.
"I'm not sure that he really did cheat on me, at least not physically, but the fact that I was right and there were feelings there that were more than just friendship make me feel validated and I refuse to correct our friends or to try to smooth things over," the OP continued in her post.
With all that said, the OP asked fellow Redditors outside rulings on if she was in the wrong here. It soon became overwhelmingly clear that many didn't think so—at all.
In fact, various users commended the OP, whose post accumulated 1,900 upvotes and more than 260 mostly supportive responses in its first day online.
One such user, for example, reassuringly replied: "Your response was great and it was honest. It's not your problem if people dislike how he, at the least, emotionally cheated on you."
A second wrote: "He's just mad he can't spin the truth to make his behavior look good."
'Petty and immature'
Another user chimed in: "He tried to make you look petty and immature by lying and saying it was a mutual breakup. All you did was set the record straight after he lied.
"However your friends are treating him and his new chick are the consequences of his own actions."
This is hardly the first instance of an OP's ex-related drama sparking a spirited discussion among Redditors. Newsweek reported that a man's response to unexpectedly finding his girlfriend with his ex was applauded online.
Late last year, Newsweek also highlighted how a mom was backed by readers for refusing her ex's fiancé's request to change her surname.
'Only one liar here'
A different user among those who rallied around the OP advised: "I would have just texted him back like, 'If you hadn't lied, then I wouldn't have had to say anything.
"Please never contact me again. I really don't care about your new [girlfriend] and have moved on.' Then just block him."
The appreciative OP replied that she should have waited so that she could've copied and pasted that message.
"All I said was, 'There's only one liar here and it's not me', and blocked him."
Newsweek has contacted Zealousideal_Board89 for comment via Reddit.
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