For as long as I can remember, I have always been determined to leave my parents’ house when I turned 18. After college, I wasn’t prepared to leave right away, but just a year shy of my goal, I found myself moving into my own place just a few miles up the road. I was elated with the move, and the level of independence I was demonstrating was celebrated by my family.
So, when I started to struggle a bit, I did everything I could to hold onto my place, but eventually, it proved to be too much for me to handle. One of my coworkers at a neighborhood restaurant where I was waitressing suggested that I move in with him because he had lost his roommate. Initially, I was hesitant because he was a male, but I quickly got over it, packed up my life and moved in with Justin.
Living with a man with whom I shared a platonic relationship meant there was no pressure coming from him, and I was able to avoid the messy pitfalls of living with another woman. Justin and I would stay up late watching movies, playing video games, and just entertaining each other when we didn’t have to be up for work early the next day. I was having a blast with my new roomie.
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That is until I lost my corporate job last week. I was affected by a wave of layoffs, and the devastation was crippling emotionally. Justin was extremely empathetic. He, too, had been laid off due to cutbacks at his company and was just bouncing back and rebuilding his life around the time I moved in. He offered to let me miss a few months’ rent on one condition. You guessed it: I would have to cross the platonic lines with him.
I couldn’t believe it! Justin, who had come across as so innocent and harmless, was all of a sudden coming off as a predator in my eyes. How could he think that it was okay to take advantage of me at such a vulnerable point in my life? I felt like prey like he had been stalking me all this time under the guise of being ‘just a friend.”
Maybe I have been naïve this entire time, but now I’m in a bind. I don’t want to ask my parents for help because they will try to make me come back home. I’m really committed to staying out on my own and am considering Justin’s indecent proposal.
Should I take one for the team and go through with what Justin is asking of me or suck it up and move back home?
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