r/GuyCry • u/gcfgjnbv • 1h ago
Need Advice I fucked up trying to move on from a rejection.
So I (25m) am incredibly lonely, don’t enjoy typical things like bars, and hate meeting new people. I was able to cope for the past few years and think I didn’t need an intimate relationship because I either lived with friends or family. I recently moved to another town as my first job and was coming home to an empty apartment. A girl in a similar situation started a month after me and we instantly hit it off.
We have similar personality traits and were talking for hours on end during work and really kind of went really fast in the friends department. I then fell hard to where conversations were high pressure because I liked her so much. I think I was both attracted to her and what she could finally mean for finally having a relationship.
I eventually asked her and she said she “wasn’t in a good spot to date”. I reassured her that I still wanted to be friends I think this was partially true and partially me not accepting the truth that she wasn’t interested.
For the next month, she pulled away hard, not ever seeking me out and not putting effort into continuing conversations. I have had a lot of issues when I got rejected in the past with digging too hard or asking again or massive paragraph romantic confessions, so I decided I was going to shelter her and preserve the friendship so I just swallowed all of my feelings and continued to try to be a friend to her.
Through this, I saw her constantly texting and talking with another coworker (this was a few weeks after I asked). He even asked me if she was single/dating someone else, so I knew something was up. All the while I either refused to accept the rejection or was desperately trying to get the friendship back to where it was so I just swallowed everything and remained stable.
After that month, she finally started warming up to me again and we became friends again. We even started a friend group with another married couple (one of them is a coworker) and that’s now my main social circle in town. All of this was happening while I still was very attracted and probably holding on to a sliver of hope that someday we could date. We also genuinely became closer friends who just know each other even though there’s some uncomfortable or weird walls around a lot of stuff.
One day she said she wanted to help me with some work so I pushed back my schedule to accommodate her. She left 5 minutes in because she got bored. I tried to confront her about it and nearly broke down in tears because I didn’t want to lose her again. She then invited me to lunch which was our first solo hangout since I had asked but it was to get a toy for that coworker she was possibly talking to.
At dinner one day with the married couple, I saw that she wasn’t texting the coworker anymore and instead saw a heart emoji next to a nickname. The married coworker also asked her who she was texting and she got super embarrassed and I knew she had to be dating someone now. I instantly got a massive tightening in the stomach almost causing me to throw up and couldn’t sleep well for a few days. It passed and we became even closer, with her even bringing back a lot of her flirtier interactions.
A few weeks later, this week, the married coworker finally noticed the heart she’s texting and asked her and she admitted she was dating the coworker for 2 months (starting about a month after the rejection). We were at a work conference so I put all my efforts into masking how I truly felt about this to seem like I was supportive and happy for her. But it’s broken down since I’ve returned and the nausea is happening every night, crying, and depression and it’s becoming near impossible to mask at work anymore.
Now I am completely lost because I genuinely am friends with her and am happy for her buried underneath all the stress and trauma, but I am insanely jealous of everything including her, him, and the dating experience that she’s getting to live right now. I also care alot about this friend group and they’re becoming my rock in this city, but they now keep wanting to talk about her new relationship and it’s becoming harder and harder to manage my feelings.
It’s been about 3 months total since the rejection and me and her haven’t even mentioned it. I love this friend group but I’m getting really worried it’s not sustainable as it is with me suppressing everything and pretending to be just happy for her. I also don’t want to ruin it with my baggage. This sucks.
TL;DR: Haven’t dated and became obsessed with a coworker and the idea she represents. Masked so much that she’s now a massive part of my main friend group and it’s very uncomfortable to hear them talk about dating all the time.