When did you realize your “dream girl” was actually a walking red flag?

The Origin of the Conflict

My gold digger girlfriend ruined my life with horrible false allegations after I said no to her. I slammed the door on her, but now, a year later, she’s pleading with me to save her from the consequences. To the outside world, I look like a man in finance who has his life together and goes to the gym three times a week.

But there was a time when I had nothing. I was 17 when I worked at McDonald’s. My teeth were covered in multicolored braces, as if this wasn’t bad enough.

I thought the braces were cool at the time. My sense of style consisted of the biggest hoodies I could find paired with blue skinny jeans.

It’s not like I was fat. All of my weight went to my face because I was yet to discover mewing. So, I basically had a triple chin.

Needless to say, girls would flock to me, but in the worst way possible. I couldn’t even walk past a group without getting laughed at and outwardly ridiculed.

One day when a girl named Camila walked in and placed an order, my jaw practically dropped. Not only did she thank me, but she even sparked a conversation.

“So, uh, what do you want to be when you grow up?” she asked.

“Um, I guess a technological analyst,” I replied, unable to hide my lisp.

I expected the usual response: an eye roll or a look of disgust. But instead she smiled. “That’s so cool”. My heart was already pounding at 100 mph.

It was lunch rush, so I apologized and told her I’d have to take the next person’s order. “I’ll wait for you,” she exclaimed before grabbing her Oreo McFlurry and sitting down in a booth.

As soon as I finished my shift 4 hours later, I walked over to her. We began to play Dungeons and Dragons on our phones.

I had over 500 hours under my belt, and I didn’t want to scare her away from how good I was. When I played badly on purpose, she beat me. And when I played well, she still beat me.

I did the first thing I could think to do. I asked Camila if I could invite my best friend, Andrew, who lived around the corner. She nodded.

That’s how we spent the rest of the day taking turns beating each other at D and D. But halfway through, I noticed something: Camila and Andrew were non-stop stealing glances from each other.

It wasn’t even subtle. I guess Andrew studied a lot of Per because towards the end, I could see Camila throw her head back with pleasure while Andrew’s legs were moving super fast.

That’s when I finally realized that they were playing footsy. Instead of feeling awkward, I felt happy.

Not only because Andrew was my boy and he finally bagged a girl, but also because if he could do it, then it meant there was hope for me, too. Okay, I lied.

I wasn’t actually happy for Andrew at that moment. I wanted him unal alived.

I had already imagined a life where me and Camila get married and live happily ever after. I imagined where I got rich and bought us a huge house and we played D and D with our kids.

When I called Andrew to come, I texted him saying I had a huge crush on her, which meant he just broke bro code. Just 5 days later, Andrew and Camila started dating and ghosted me.

That’s when I finally blew up. I convinced my mom to let me get my braces taken off early, started hitting the gym, and did everything I could to look like one of the jocks in my school, the ones that get all the girls.

By the time I looked somewhat decent, I hadn’t seen them in months. But that’s when Camila came into McDonald’s again.