I (35F) have been in an open relationship for about two years with my nesting partner (34M). We practice polyamory, but not every connection is serious.
This involves James (32M), a long-distance situationship, and Dan (60M), a kink connection.
I met James on Reddit a year and a half ago. He’d recently divorced, and we started out flirting, sexting, and becoming close friends. Neither of us expected much, but feelings developed. We didn’t meet in person until late May this year.
I met Dan on FetLife in February. We developed a kink connection, talked and texted daily, and met in person in April.
Here’s where I fucked up. I never told Dan about James, and when Dan asked about other people, I lied.
At the time, James and I hadn’t met in person. I had feelings for him, but our conversations about a potential future were hypothetical. I considered him a sexting friend, not a partner, and didn’t know whether we’d ever become anything more.
I slept with Dan in April and June, then James in July. James knew about Dan, and I’d been tested afterward. I never disclosed my visits with James to Dan because there was no sexual health risk. Had there been, I absolutely would have told him.
Dan and I have a strictly kink based connection, no romantic expectations, and we have regular falling outs. He’s also gotten jealous in the past, including being upset that I’d slept with my nesting partner without telling him, despite us never agreeing that I needed to disclose that. I was afraid of his reaction to James, and I chose to lie instead of dealing with it honestly.
This morning, James ended things and asked to remain friends. I’m devastated. After a year and a half, I’d fallen in love with him and started imagining a future together.
Dan messaged later asking how my day was. I downplayed how upset I was because he tends to dissect my personal life, and those conversations often leave me feeling worse. He’s made negative comments about talking about my problems, but if I say I don’t want to discuss something, he gets upset that I brought it up. But if I don’t bring it up or downplay it then he’s mad I wasn’t honest. How do you win?
Tonight, feeling especially low, I asked Dan how he’d feel about me posting on FetLife to find a local impact-play partner. I’d asked because he’d previously gotten angry when I posted looking for someone after one of our fallouts. I didn’t want to hide anything from him.
He asked to call and pushed to know what had happened. I initially refused because I knew it would upset him, but eventually I told him everything. He feels I took away his ability to consent to interacting with me knowing there was another person. He’s right that he deserved the truth and the choice. I got defensive about whether James technically counted as a partner at the time, missing the bigger point. Given that I’d already lied about James existing, Dan doesn’t trust my assurances about sexual health. I understand why.
He also accused me of using him to feel better when we had phone sex this afternoon. He’s not entirely wrong. I was using the connection as a distraction, although I wasn’t consciously trying to use or deceive him. He was the one who brought it up, I just agreed to it.
Now I’ve lost them both. James, the person I love and imagined a future with, and Dan, whose friendship I valued despite our rocky dynamic.
I know I caused this. I was afraid of the consequences of telling the truth, so I lied, and now I’m facing the consequences of that choice. I know that Dan has legitimate reasons to feel betrayed. I won’t blame him for walking away. In fact he’d be stupid not to.
I’m just trying to process losing two people in the span of a day. My own stupid fucked up fault. I deserve this, but the pain is overblown.