Dumped Online for Having 'Kids'
Chapter 1: Game Over (Or Is It?)
When I was gaming with my online boyfriend, I forgot to mute my mic and called out to my black-and-white cat at home:
"Milo, come here, hop up with me."
As I reached for him, the soft clicking of my keyboard mixed with the distant hum of traffic outside my apartment window. Sometimes, after a long day under the fluorescent office lights, the world beyond my little home felt impossibly far away.
Normally, he calls me 'babe' every other sentence, but tonight he was weirdly quiet.
The silence hung heavy in my headphones—a hush so thick I kept checking if my Wi-Fi had dropped, or if maybe my heart had skipped a beat. I wondered if he hadn’t heard me, or if he was distracted. But even his digital presence felt off, distant in a way that made me itch.
After the game, he suddenly snapped.
His voice hit my ears, sharper than I’d ever heard—like static crackling after a lull. I froze, hands stuck on the keyboard.
"What makes you think I'd want to date a divorced woman with a kid?"
It felt like he’d slapped me straight through the mic. My heart slammed against my ribs; my breath hitched. My hands started to shake, a cold flush of shame and anger racing through me. I stared at the screen, his words echoing around my tiny living room. Then Milo pawed at my knee, completely oblivious to my world unraveling in the digital void. I wished I could swap places with him—ignorance looked so much softer.
I complained to my best friend. She sighed in exasperation and said,
On the other end of the call, Rachel’s voice was warm and a little world-weary. I could hear her flipping through a magazine, probably sprawled on her couch with a glass of boxed wine. "Seriously, Mel, ditch the apps. Date my brother. He’s obsessed with this older single mom—he even Googles how to win over her kid."
She always made things sound easier than they were, like heartbreak could just be swapped out for a new adventure. I pictured her brother, frantically Googling "how to impress your girlfriend’s kid" and practicing dad jokes in the mirror.
