“After being single for five years, I recently met a lovely man and things are going really well,” she writes. “I should be on Cloud 9, but I’m troubled by my friend’s reaction to the relationship.
“She has been single for a long time too, so we would have been each other’s right hand woman on nights out, sun holidays, shopping trips etc while all our other friends started getting married and having babies. Obviously, she is one of my closest friends and it’s not like I’ve “dumped” her now that I have a man, but I don’t have as much time as I used to to spend solely with her.
“A while back, I started picking up on “jokey” throwaway remarks she would make like, “Ah sure, now that you have a boyfriend, I’ve been demoted,” but lately, there is more of an edge to her comments. The last day I was telling her what my boyfriend and I did at the weekend, but she started checking her phone, looking around and doing her best to look bored, before blurting out, “God, do you not have anything more interesting to talk about?” I changed the subject, but I was really taken aback by her reaction.”
The reader now feels that she is not even allowed to mention her boyfriend in conversation in case it provokes another negative reaction from her friend. She is also afraid that it might come down to a situation where she feels she has to “choose” between her friend and this new man.
“But it’s not my fault that I have met somebody and she hasn’t. Why can’t she just be happy for me?” she asks.
Miriam will respond to this letter in the next edition of Irish Country Living, on shelves on Thursday 25 September, but what would you do in this situation?
“After being single for five years, I recently met a lovely man and things are going really well,” she writes. “I should be on Cloud 9, but I’m troubled by my friend’s reaction to the relationship.
“She has been single for a long time too, so we would have been each other’s right hand woman on nights out, sun holidays, shopping trips etc while all our other friends started getting married and having babies. Obviously, she is one of my closest friends and it’s not like I’ve “dumped” her now that I have a man, but I don’t have as much time as I used to to spend solely with her.
“A while back, I started picking up on “jokey” throwaway remarks she would make like, “Ah sure, now that you have a boyfriend, I’ve been demoted,” but lately, there is more of an edge to her comments. The last day I was telling her what my boyfriend and I did at the weekend, but she started checking her phone, looking around and doing her best to look bored, before blurting out, “God, do you not have anything more interesting to talk about?” I changed the subject, but I was really taken aback by her reaction.”
The reader now feels that she is not even allowed to mention her boyfriend in conversation in case it provokes another negative reaction from her friend. She is also afraid that it might come down to a situation where she feels she has to “choose” between her friend and this new man.
“But it’s not my fault that I have met somebody and she hasn’t. Why can’t she just be happy for me?” she asks.
Miriam will respond to this letter in the next edition of Irish Country Living, on shelves on Thursday 25 September, but what would you do in this situation?
SHARING OPTIONS