My name is Madison and I'm 28 years old. Three months ago, I thought my life was falling apart.

My name is Madison and I'm 28 years old. Three months ago, I thought my life was falling apart. Today I know it was actually coming together. I met Derek at a coffee shop in downtown Portland. He was sitting alone typing furiously on his laptop, and when I accidentally bumped his table while carrying my.
#reddit #radditstory #askredditstories #redditstories #storytime
 Latte. He looked up and smiled like I was the only person in the world. That should have been my first warning sign. When someone seems too perfect, too charming, too attentive, right from the start, there's usually something hiding underneath, but I didn't know that. Then we dated for two years. Two years of my life that I thought were building.

Towards something real. He moved into my apartment after six months. My apartment, the one I had worked three jobs to afford. The one bedroom in the Pearl District that took me years to save up four. He said his lease was ending and it made sense financially. I said yes because I loved him. The problem started small.

He would comment on what I wore when we went out, not in a controlling way at first, just little observations. That dress is pretty short, isn't it? Or you're wearing that top dinner with your friends. I would laugh it off, change it to something else, tell myself he just cared about me. Then came the phone checking.

He never asked directly. He would wait until I was in the shower or cooking dinner, and I would catch him scrolling through my messages. When I confronted him, he said he was just making sure I was safe, that there were a lot of creeps out there, that he loved me and wanted to protect me. I believed him because I wanted to.

The breakup happened on a Tuesday night in March. I came home from work early because I had a migraine. I worked as a graphic designer for a small marketing firm, and we had just finished a huge campaign that had me pulling late nights for weeks. My boss, Jennifer, actually sent me home at three in the afternoon and told me to rest.

When I opened the door to my apartment, I heard it immediately. The sounds coming from my bedroom at. First, my brain couldn't process what I was hearing. Then it clicked. I stood in my own entryway, frozen, listening to my boyfriend, having relations with someone else in my bed. I didn't scream, I didn't cry.

I just walked to the bedroom door and opened it. Her name was Brittany. She worked at the gym where Derek had a membership, the same gym he went to every morning at six. The same gym he said was helping him work on himself. She was younger than me, 23 long blonde hair. The kind of girl who probably never had to work three jobs to afford anything.

Derek didn't even look ashamed. He looked annoyed that I had interrupted. We need to talk. He said pulling on his jeans like this was a normal conversation. We were about to have. Brittany grabbed her clothes and ran past me. I heard the front door slam, get out. I said my voice was. Calm. Too calm. I was in shock.
#reddit #radditstory #askredditstories #redditstories #storytime