I came home during my last summer of law school and my boyfriend of five years told me he was sleeping with a Hooters girl.

—LL

Aftermath: The next day he asked me for legal advice. I guess that’s not on the menu at Hooters. We haven’t spoke since.

It was over the minute his roommate kissed me. It just took me two years of bulls*** and misery to realize it.

—BlueCanary

Aftermath: Roommate and I have been together for three years now. (He thinks it’s only been two.)

We had a steamy long distance affair for several years. He was brilliant, successful and had a fantastic sense of humor. He would phone me daily and schedule romantic trips. We both had primary partners. Mine had agreed to a polyamorous relationship; his didn’t know. I kept waiting for him to come clean with his wife but he wouldn’t. We were in the habit of writing very personal erotic stories for each other and I would spend days perfecting mine. One day, I realized that his were plagiarized.

—Kira

Aftermath: It lasted three more months. Ten years, and many affairs later, he divorced his wife just about the same time that I married a talented writer who wrote an entire book for me.

He pretended to be the father of terminally ill child to get a free vacation to Disney World out of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

—Bobby

Aftermath: It lasted a week while I figured out the best way to break up with him without him wanting to ruin my life with harassment.

I went out for coffee with a girl from my new job. The first thing I asked after we sat down was how long she’d been working there. Her answer: “Oh, quite awhile. Like a little over a year. Yeah, it’s basically what I’ve been doing since I finished high school.” I’m 29.

—Joel

Aftermath: When I told her I hadn’t realized how young she was she answered, “Yeah, I kind of wondered if you did.” She never really spoke to me again after that, but made sure to tell everyone at work it was me who was ignoring her. Two months later she was transferred to another area and subsequently quit.