Subject: My boyfriend is a show off
Dear Steve and Shirley, I’ve been married for almost 9 years to a man that would rather buy me things than talk to me and spend time with me. We have a boat and other water toys and that’s how he spends his time. I can only imagine how women must flock to him when he’s at the lake because I can smell their scents on him whenever he does come home. It’s all fine and good because I’ve got a maintenance man on the side and he keeps me occupied if I need company. I am growing really fond of this guy but I’ve had to pull back from him a little bit. He calls himself my boyfriend and I’ll always correct him. He has hinted that my husband is probably a cheater, in hopes that it will make us closer. I can see through the BS and I don’t like when men gossip, but this guy is special to me so I overlooked it. What I can’t deal with, is how he tries to one-up my husband in everything he does for me. It became obvious over the Christmas holidays when my husband sent me to the spa for an entire day. I was unavailable to my maintenance man for hours and he was losing his mind. So, a week later, he sent a massage therapist to my house, while my husband was there! My husband gave me a diamond pinky ring for Christmas, so he turned around and got me a bigger diamond band for Valentine’s Day. I can’t tell my husband where the gifts come from and I can’t explain to my co-workers why my office is always full of fresh flowers. I’ve asked my maintenance man to stop being a show off and stay in his lane and that really hurt his feelings. I think he’s hoping he can woo me away from my fabulous lifestyle and marriage, but that will never happen. How do I tell him he’s ruining the fun in our relationship?