How I Accidentally Dated My Best Friend’s Boyfriend

So, I met Ethan at a coffee shop — classic meet-cute vibes. He was tall, charming, with that slightly disheveled, “I just rolled out of bed looking like this” kind of hotness. He asked what I was reading (it was Normal People — I know, I know), and next thing I knew, he was sitting across from me, buying my coffee, and making me laugh so hard I nearly snorted it through my nose.

We exchanged numbers, and it escalated from there — late-night texts, long phone calls, those cheesy “thinking about you” messages that would normally make me cringe but somehow felt right coming from him. He made me feel interesting and beautiful, like I was the most captivating person he’d ever met.

Our first date? Perfect. He took me to this tucked-away little Italian place — the kind of spot that didn’t have a website and was probably some kind of front for the mob — but the pasta was incredible, and the wine was strong. We sat in a dark corner booth, and he leaned in close, his knee brushing mine under the table.

That’s when he first mentioned her.

“Hey, so… there’s one thing I should probably tell you,” he said, lowering his voice like he was about to confess to murder. “I’m kind of… dealing with this complicated situation with my ex.”

He said she was unstable, still obsessed with him, and if she found out he was dating someone new, it could get messy. But he promised it was over between them — she just wouldn’t let go. He said we should keep things low-key for a while, just until things settled down. It sounded sketchy, but honestly? The secrecy made it hotter.

We started seeing each other regularly, but always under weird circumstances. He’d only come over late at night. He’d say, “Let’s go to this place, no one I know will be there.” He never posted pictures of us, never introduced me to his friends, and always made me delete any cute selfies we took together “just in case.”

I asked why I couldn’t meet his friends, and he said they were kind of involved with his ex. I asked about his family, and he said it was complicated. Every answer was just vague enough to sound believable if you didn’t think about it too hard.

But he was so convincing. He’d look me right in the eye when he said it, hand resting on my leg, and I’d think, He wouldn’t lie to me.

Fast-forward three months. My best friend, Lauren, and I were doing our usual wine-and-gossip night at my apartment when she suddenly got all flustered and weird. She said she’d been seeing someone. I told her to spill, and she pulled up her phone, opened Instagram, and showed me a picture. It was Ethan.

I laughed because it was so absurd. It had to be a joke. But it wasn’t. Lauren said he’d told her the same story about the “psycho ex” and how they needed to keep things secret until it blew over. He was using the exact same lines on both of us. She even said he made her delete pictures too. My stomach dropped.

Naturally, I called Ethan. He answered casually, like he wasn’t seconds away from being exposed. When I told him about Lauren, he acted surprised — like it was some crazy coincidence. He said he didn’t want to hurt either of us, and that’s why he didn’t tell us. He even had the nerve to say, “It was going well until now.”

Lauren and I showed up at his apartment the next day because there was no way we were letting him off with just a phone call. We banged on his door until he opened it, shirtless and looking half-asleep. The look on his face when he saw both of us standing there? Priceless. Lauren held up her phone, showing a picture of him kissing her on the cheek. I pulled up my phone, showing a picture of him in my bed. He rubbed his face like we were the problem. He said we were both overreacting. Lauren threw her drink in his face. I was honestly proud of her for that one.

It gets better. Ethan wasn’t just dating us. He was juggling four women at the same time. He’d been pulling the same “crazy ex” line on all of them. His whole secrecy thing? Not to avoid his ex — to avoid running into his other girlfriends. The craziest part was that at least two of them stayed with him after they found out.

Lauren and I obviously cut him off. We made a joint post on Instagram tagging him and captioned it: “Ladies, if your man says his ex is crazy — he’s probably cheating on you.” The DMs flooded in. Turns out, Ethan had been running this scam for years. He was basically the Tinder Swindler, minus the private jets.

The last I heard, he moved to another city and started dating a new girl. I’m not worried about her though — Lauren and I made sure she got the memo.

Moral of the story? If a guy insists on keeping you a secret, it’s probably because you’re not the only one he’s “seeing.”