After my graduation, I decided to pursue my Masters abroad, and I got admission in the university of my choice. The world I had to leave behind included my family, childhood friends and a perfect boyfriend. Sameer and I had been dating for a little over a year, but from the very beginning he supported my decision to study abroad – even if it meant us being in completely different timezones. He loved me, trusted me, and wanted to see me succeed. It broke my heart to leave him and go, but, for the sake of my career, I had to.
In the first year, I was an active participant in all the on-campus activities, worked on-campus with my professor, got good grades, and at the end my hard work paid off… I got a job. Cherry on top in my life, my boyfriend and I were going strong; he even visited me while I was in the US. We had a very good time. In the second year, I got a permanent job at a reputed company.
Being the social person, I started meeting a lot of new people from across the world and made new friends. With the beginning of my new life, I started taking my existing life for granted. I unknowingly ignored my boyfriend; he started getting insecure and we often had fights. The frustration led me to do the unimaginable. I hooked up with my best friend in the US. We would hang out, and attend all the parties in town together, and one day we ended up in bed together. We both agreed that we wouldn’t let it affect our friendship, so we stayed in the “friends with benefits” zone. Summer ended, and so did the secret fling. But our friendship stayed strong.
Then I met Rishi. He was popular, talented, amazingly charming, down to earth – all this, and he was also very good looking. The second I saw him walk in, I was attracted to him; I instantly walked up to him and struck up a casual conversation. The next morning I woke up to see a friend request from him on Facebook. I accepted it with a huge smile on my face.
While still pettily arguing with my boyfriend, I chatted with this new boy. We exchanged numbers and started getting to know each other. I knew he liked me, and I had developed feelings for him. Rishi and I hung out, and he made me fall in love with myself all over again. I enjoyed all the attention he gave me and conveniently failed to mention that I was already in a relationship. I knew it was wrong, but I continued anyway because of how much I enjoyed being around Rishi.
As great as it felt with Rishi, Sameer was my boyfriend of 4 years, whom I couldn’t leave. Yes, I was almost double-timing. I wasn’t the kind of person who wanted do that, so I confessed. All hell broke loose; both with Rishi and Sameer, who till a week ago wanted me now said they did not want to be with me anymore.
It’s been a year since Sameer accepted me again, even after all the unforgivable mistakes I made. I cannot imagine my life without him, and I want to settle down with him. Rishi and I have had our ups and downs, and after 8 months of no contact I reached out to him to apologize.
I love Sameer and want to spend the rest of my life with him… I will never cheat on him again.
* Names changed to protect privacy.
Image: Shutterstock
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