He told me how he was looking forward to taking a real estate class and how it was going help him earn a lot of money.

—Jan

Aftermath: Didn’t really see him after that.

2

My boyfriend said, “I think clown makeup is really sexy.” Shortly thereafter, he whispered in my ear “Seriously, babe, it’s a major turn on.” He wasn’t joking.

—Chelsea

Aftermath: I broke up with him that night. For the 4 months that we dated, I always thought he said and did really weird things to be goofy. He was definitely serious about all of it.

10

I suggested to my boyfriend that maybe “I love you” would mean more if we did not say it perfunctorily at the end of every single phone conversation. He flipped out and said I did not love him anymore and that he only says it that often because any moment might be the last time we ever speak to each other.

—farkat82

Aftermath: He grew more insecure and tried to remedy it by teetering between super XXX-rated messages and the sappiest, mushiest text messages ever—about 50 per day. I ended it

3

We had dated a few years in college and were spending a summer week on the coast. We were in love, though very different. There was a billboard with some pro-family message (fine by itself). She asked if I’d want kids. I said not with her since they’d be raised religiously. She was a born-again Christian. We both knew then that this wasn’t for the long haul.

—Never Subtle Enough

Aftermath: We argued about that point, but had a nice week nonetheless. We weren’t a couple after that, though we did have sex a bunch of times. We both loved that part.

3

We had a lot common and he liked to have deep conversations. I was starting to really like him and hoping he’d ask me out until one day he mentioned he hoped to have at least two wives someday. I thought he must’ve meant two kids but he didn’t. He was a polygamist. He tried to console me by promising I’d always be the “first” to him.

—Ali

Aftermath: I avoided him as much as possible from that moment. I left that job as soon as the summer was over.

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