Breakups are really messy things. As much as it’s common knowledge that chasing after a girl can be hard, breaking up with her is even harder.

 I mean, this is the same person you once told you loved more than anyone else. And you told her countless times how she was the center of your world. Well, breaking up means that either your center has shifted to someone else, or you were a liar.

But for Diane, I didn’t break up with her, she broke up with me. She started the whole process of leaving me. One day, out of the blue, she told me she wanted space. I have heard that line several times before, and it really doesn’t mean anything else besides "let us end this relationship”. For a few seconds I was too surprised to say anything, so I just continued staring at her. Assuming I hadn’t heard, she repeated her sentence; we should give each other space.

Now the statement had changed. I didn’t really need space from her, but clearly, she wanted to be away from me. But why? Alright, I wasn’t the perfect man; I am just human after all. My indiscretions, I went to great lengths to ensure that she never got to know about them. And as far as I knew, she thought I was the most faithful guy. So, why would she want to leave, when everything appeared and seemed to be perfect? She didn’t want to talk about it.

But a little research got me the answer I wanted; two days ago, she had met a friend of mine, a man. This man definitely had no idea that a man’s girlfriend shouldn’t know certain things about her man. He told her things she probably hadn’t even thought I could do. He even told her about my ex who I had started hanging out with recently. Whatever his purpose was, I couldn’t figure it out. And that guy also calls himself my friend! Now at least if he had warned me about it, but he didn’t. If he had, I would have found a way of handling Diane when she brought it up. But when it came, she caught me off-guard. It was a total shock.

And she is good at reading reactions, so she must have known from the way I responded that it was true. I mean, she was telling me about my ex, my other friends, house parties I went to, and lots of other things she wasn’t supposed to know about! I couldn’t even start to understand how she knew all those things, besides being a really good detective. But the answer was simpler than that. At the end of it, she told me who had told her. And I laughed out loud. Not that I was amused that this guy had just ended my relationship... with a girl I really liked, but because the other alternative was terrifying. It involved me going over to his place and hitting him with the first big thing I landed my hands on.

I didn’t deny anything. I came clean and told her it was true, but I was going to stop. And she asked me, are you going to stop because I found out? Or because you think it will make me change my mind. And I told her I loved her, really loved her I didn’t want to lose her. But of course she wasn’t buying that story. She left after telling me not to call her. Not a happy ending, believe me.

Now, three months later, and I am here confused about my neighbour Clarisse, her sister Dalia, with whom I had a not-so-pleasant past. Diane also perfectly chooses this moment to add to my confusion. She wanted to talk. I tried to pretend she wanted to talk about something else, but of course when we finally met, it was what I had known all along; she was wondering if we could try again. Looking at her, studying her, I was caught at crossroads; Diane was a nice girl. The kind my mother would want me to date. And I liked her greatly too. But there was the question of my neighbour; my married neighbour called Clarisse. Logically, the solution was simple; get back with Diane, forget about the neighbour woman. But, like we all know, a human being is not a logical being...

Ends