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I met a guy online over the summer. We had three PG dates and had a really great time together. We went away for a weekend on our fourth date, and he asked me to be his girlfriend that weekend. Four weeks later, after lots of relationship talk and his being super keen, he called to say a friend had declared her love for him. He felt confused and so ended it with me. Three weeks later we started talking again; he told me nothing happened with the friend and he wanted to rekindle our relationship, so, after telling him how much of an idiot he was, I agreed. Three months later,…

Advice for a woman whose boyfriend won’t let her travel without him.

I went to my aunt’s funeral last week and ran into a guy I hadn’t seen since high school, 26 years ago. We talked for a minute, and he asked me to lunch so we could catch up on everything. When I passed my phone number over to him through my mom, he immediately gave me his number as well. After the funeral that day he began texting me. Long story short, he sent me a pic of me out of his yearbook where he had written: “We had crushes on each other.” I couldn’t believe it, but I also wondered if he had just written it that day to impress me?…

My husband and I have been married six years. We are happy and have fun together. However, off and on over the course of our relationship he has chatted with women online behind my back on various hookup sites. He has even texted a friend of mine flirtatiously, and she immediately told me. Now he dislikes her and thinks she blew it out of proportion. It has escalated from chatting (which I still think is wrong but not as egregious as real life cheating) to attempting to meet up in real life. He sees nothing wrong with his behavior and has dismissed it as “just looking around,” which he didn’t think I’d…

It’s time again for Shortcuts. For every question, I’ll give my advice in just a few sentences because sometimes the answer to a person’s question is so obvious and the need to hear it so great that being as clear and frank as possible is simply the best way to go.

Advice for a woman married to a deadbeat dad whose friends don’t like her.

I have been married for 28 years but the love is dead. I have been having an affair for two years and am madly in love with this woman and she with me. We were making plans on one day getting married after my divorce. I have been going to school full-time along with working full-time to prepare to provide for her and myself. I met this woman as an escort (I am not proud of that but it’s the truth). We hit it off immediately, and I persuaded her to stop doing what she was doing and I eventually got her enrolled in a medical assistant school, which she loves. Recently…

She moved in with her boyfriend after dating five months and now wants him to kick out his mother who has lived there, rent-free, for three years.

My fiancé and I have been together for two years and got engaged six months ago. He’s from a different state, and, to be near his family, we moved from my home state to his right after we became engaged. All I have received since living here for the past six months are a lot of mean stares and cold shoulders. I’ve never done anything to these people but be helpful, polite, and friendly. It’s recently come to my attention that rumors have been spreading around my fiancé’s (very large) family about me, but, unfortunately, no one will tell me what has been said or who said it. All I came here…

It’s time again for Shortcuts. For every question I’ll give my advice in just a few sentences because sometimes the answer to a person’s question is so obvious and the need to hear it so great that being as clear and frank as possible is simply the best way to go.