I REJECTED my childhood friend…because I don’t want his mother as my mother-in-law! - r/AITAH | Reddit Stories | EP2078 - ok storytime

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Sam, this is John, and we are
the founding hosts of Okay Storytime podcast and we have
some foundational stories coming up for you. But the thing
is this foundation needs a little support from these sponsors.
So stick around two minutes we'll get into the episode.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I rejected my childhood friend because I didn't want his
mother as my mother in law.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's not your mom, Yeah, not the mama.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Don't marry your friend. I twenty female, have grown up
with my childhood friend twenty two male who will call John.
John left for the army when he was eighteen, but
despite that, we stayed in touch and I even visited
him once or twice where he was boasted by the way.
This comes from user lazy Present twenty three eighty two,
and if you want to submit your own stories, go
to the r slash Okay Storytime subredit. I used to

(00:47):
love John's mother who will call Amy, when I was younger,
but when I was fifteen, I overheard her say some
mean things about me and my siblings behind our backs
to John, who she knew I liked at the time.
She said some nasty things like I might become a
gardening tool because my birth mother was one, and for context,
me and my siblings are all adopted, as well as

(01:08):
all of Amy's kids. Or my father told her I
don't clean myself, which I know isn't true because my
father often complained to her that I showered too often.
I like feeling clean and always have, so I might
have STDs. Since overhearing these things, I couldn't really bring
myself to remain as close to her as I was.
A few weeks ago, John came for a visit and

(01:29):
his mother, Amy, invited my family, as well as a
few other friends over for dinner. I was pretty excited
to see him since I hadn't seen him in over
a year. During the visit, I needed to take a breather,
so I stepped outside to get some fresh air and
calm my nerves. John joined me after a while, which
was perfectly fine since it allowed me to be able
to finally talk to him one on one. We mainly

(01:50):
just caught up with each other and talked about random
things until he asked if he could court me. It
took me quite some time to reply, but I did
eventually tell him that I didn't want to have his
mother as my mother in law, and I didn't want
to ruin his relationship with his mother, especially since they're
so close. John seemed very disappointed, but he just said
okay and changed the subject. I thought that was the

(02:13):
end of that, but apparently he told Amy that he
was going to ask me out beforehand, and after my
family left, she asked how it had gone. John of
course answered truthfully and told her I said no, but
had also told her what I had said as to
why I wouldn't let him court me. And the next
morning I woke up to a bunch of mean voicemails
and texts from John's mom and a few mutual friends

(02:37):
calling me and ahole for refusing to court John because
I didn't want Amy as my mother in law, and
that I was a little witch for not liking Amy
even though she's been nothing but kind to me, and
so on and so forth. I haven't responded to any
of the calls and messages, and frankly, I don't know how.
I didn't wish to upset anyone, but I do feel

(02:58):
my reasons are valid. So am I the a hole
for telling my childhood friend I wouldn't court him because
I don't want his mother as my mother in law,
and we do have an update. But Angie, what do
you think?

Speaker 4 (03:08):
I think?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Not at all.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
She literally just proved his point. Fact literally just proved
o his point.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
I'm gonna answer some questions I got on my last
update before the actual update itself. All right, Yes, I
liked John romantically. The reason for me saying no was
not because I didn't like him. It was because I
didn't want my mother in law to be someone who
talks bad about me or my family. I decided to
have the meeting for a few reasons. One I wanted
to know where me and John stood and whether or

(03:33):
not I'd be able to even stay friends after this.
And two I wanted to finally confront Amy on her behaviors,
not just towards me, but others as well. And three
I needed to know why John never told her whether
or not it was like some of you thought that
he might have done it to confront her or to
confide in her. I didn't expect Amy to ever change,

(03:53):
or for her to apologize, at least not an honest apology.
I also thought I would give you a bit more
information about me and John's real life relationship up until
this point. Like I said, before. Me and John are
childhood friends. Our fathers are also childhood friends, and our
mothers met in their twenties and became friends. Me and
John did pretty much everything together up until he left
for the military when he turned eighteen. If I wanted

(04:14):
to go to the movie theater, I'd invite John and
we'd go together. If John wanted to go camping, we'd
go together. We have a lot of the same hobbies
as well. We both like hiking and mountain climbing, as
well as swimming and going on runs. Like I mentioned
in my last post, me and John stayed at ems
Mary's house during our summer break. Mary taught us how

(04:34):
to cook clean so and how to bake. But she
did that because she didn't want me being lazy and
laying around all summer, so why not put me to work?
At least that's how I see it. Who is Miss Mary?

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Who's this random homec teacher that they're staying with.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
She also put John to work too while we were there,
so it wasn't just me. John used to help Miss
Mary's late husband with yard work and garage work. Okay,
so here's the actual update. Miss Mary sat in a
different room from John's home with my father at first,
without Amy's knowledge. That was my father's suggestion, and my
brother recorded the initial conversation to share with everyone else.

(05:10):
I spoke first and explained my side. She tried to
interrupt me as I spoke, but John shut her down
every time I told her how I didn't like how
she reacted after hearing that I didn't want her as
my mother in law, and that her having her friends
gang up on me and also say rude things was
completely inappropriate. And this is to Amy. I then mentioned

(05:30):
what I had overheard her saying about me when I
was fifteen, and that's when she started yelling at me.
She was saying things like I never said anything mean,
and you made that up as well as I don't
understand why you're bringing that up now, and didn't I
help your brother get into college as well as wasn't
I there for you when your mother passed away? Didn't

(05:51):
I comfort you? Which no she didn't. John did that,
as well as Miss Mary, John's older brother and cousin,
as well as some of my other friends and of
course my family. John did stand up for me, but
Amy just got more upset and started screaming at John
until Miss Mary had had enough and made herself known.

(06:11):
Amy pretty much immediately shut up. Miss Mary immediately started
scolding Amy for her behavior. Miss Mary wasn't yelling, she
stayed calm, but man, I've never seen her so upset before. Honestly,
it was scary how calm but angry she was. Have
any of you heard the saying nothing scarier than calm anger?
I have not, but that I feel like that's accurate. That.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, I totally agree with.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Just calm, cool, collected.

Speaker 6 (06:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Amy did try and make excuses for her behavior to
Miss Mary, but immediately stopped after John showed her the
messages I had sent him. She didn't apologize, which I
didn't really expect her to anyway, and pretty much immediately left.
After that, Me and John did talk things out and
decided we should just remain friends at least for the
time being. I did ask if he's going to keep

(06:58):
contact with his mother, and he said yes, but minimal
for now. I also asked why he'd told Amy what
I said, and he told me he had been upset
and she had started nagging him for answers on how
his proposal had gone, and he pretty much blew up
at her, and that had just slipped out. He apologized
again for that. And by the way, you don't have
to apologize to us for listening to full episodes with

(07:21):
stories like this. All you gotta do is go to
iHeartRadio or Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen
to your podcast and search, okay, storytime, and there you
will find the complete archive of our discography, so to speak.
Do it, And so we have a little bit of
story left. But let's chat for a second on miss Mary.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
This is so much information. Okay.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
First of all, I'm imagining everyone in like old peasant clothes,
like I'm fully imagining, like there's courtship involved.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
There's miss Mary.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
We don't know who she is, Miss Mary.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
She sounds like like the town's governess.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Right, Yes, she's clearly an authority over Amy. Right.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
I'm imagining just an old lady that everyone in the town,
in this small town of forty people, yes, respect.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
It's like the town matriarch.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yes, yes, exactly, that's who I think Marry is.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah, and I agree.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, so much has happened.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
So John didn't mean to tell this stuff to Amy, right,
John was just upset on his own and.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Then because Amy's being like, well what'd she say?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
What'd you say?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
And John's like, I don't want to talk, just just
leave it alone, and well what did she say? And
then He's like, she said that she doesn't like you.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
Mom.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, she said that you're the problem.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
I really wonder how John feels about this. Is John Madden?
Is John just sad.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
About the whole. I'm sure John's mad at some extent.
It's like, yeah, it's like, so this was gonna work
if it wasn't for you being like a mean, rude lady,
which now Miss Mary knows all about exactly. I also
had a one on one talk with Miss Mary. She
apologized again for Amy's behavior. We ended up catching up
and discussed John. She did say that she kind of

(09:02):
always hoped I'd end up with John or John's cousin.
Miss Mary did say that I needed to think long
and hard about the kind of man I wanted as
my life partner, and to never settle for anything less,
because if she settled for less, she would have never
had such a great marriage with her late husband. She
also invited me to visit her if I needed a vacation.
She lives six hours away on a beautiful lake?

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Who is this woman? Who is he?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Who is Miss Mary? Who is she? That's pretty much
everything that happened. And I will be going no contact
with Amy, and my father has decided to do the same.
I will, however, still be continuing my relationship with John
as friends and see how it goes from there. Thank
you all so much for all the advice. And that
is the end of that story.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Wow, that was very interesting, my story.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
I gotta say, Yeah, my money is on miss Mary. Grandma.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, that seems to me the most sense.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
I'm about to I'm about to do a little search
right now just to see. I'm going back to the link. Okay,
here's part one, but there is there is nothing in
the first part of this story about Miss Mary. It's
got to be in the comments. But yeah, I think
we can assume Grandma. It's got to be Grandma.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Makes sense.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
They stayed there during the summer, Grandma. That's the end
of the story. But we got another one coming right up,
So don't go anywhere.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
My best friend announced her divorce during my wedding, so
I ghosted her. Yeah, there's a time and a place, people,
So background I twenty nine male. Have been friends with
my best friend Katie twenty nine female for almost ten years.
We've done everything together. We went to the same college,
hung out in each other's dorm rooms, and generally did
everything together. By the way, this comes from a Glooby

(10:43):
Smile forty twenty six and if you want to submit
your own stories, go to the our slash Okay story
time subpredit. When I left college, I moved back home
while she stayed and finished to go into her profession.
She dated and got engaged to John, who I thought
fitter really well. She is very ecstatic, impulsive, and kind
of does whatever. He on the other hand, is very quiet, reserved,
doesn't speak a whole lot, and also lets her do

(11:05):
whatever she needs to do. I ended up moving across
the country and we talked through Snapchat, but other than that,
not a whole lot. She told me multiple times she
was in love with me, but I kept saying.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Hey, you're married to John and doesn't feel right.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
I didn't want to ruin our friendship that we've had
for so long just because we caught feelings. It always
came back to the fact that she was married and
I wasn't okay with that. Part of me still believes
that she's in love with me and won't drop it.
During my time across the country, I met and got
engaged to the love.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Of my life. Thirty females. Oh, I know, I'm did
you connect my time?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I know? I see where it's going.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
I do too.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Literally, I was reading that and my heart sank because
I just connected. She ultimately is the best thing that
happened to me. We planned to get married last year
and moved home to have our wedding. In the midst
of finalizing our wedding plans, a year in advance, Katie
was trying to get John to open their relationship. According
to her, John stopped caring and doing anything to support
her emotionally or intimately. After seven months, he reluctantly agreed

(12:02):
to open the relationship, and she took that opportunity to
date an x from high school. John, in response, decided
that if she was gonna mess around, he would too.
He started dating different guys and girls, and even went
to a poly convention to immerse himself in it, thinking
it would help their relationship. I met her ex now boyfriend,
and admittedly they are so different from her and John.

(12:22):
He has a very right wing political stance, while she
is very left focused. The only activity they do together
is bowling. He is patient and I like that, but
I don't think they work well together. During our wedding planning,
Katie was my.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Best woman and was over a lot to help us.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
She helps pick out clothes, watched our kid, and helped
me pack up the day before our wedding so I
wouldn't forget anything, my wife's makeup, hair stuff, flowers.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Rings, literally the whole nine yards.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
I thought I had everything all set, so we all separated.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Ways and went home for the night.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
The next day, my wife, Katie, John and I all
met at the wedding venue and started setting up. Admittedly,
I did very little, considering how nervous I was. Katie
told me she would do so much, but did nothing
and hardly talk to me. My wife, being the rock
star she is a finished decorating the cake with help
from John. Katie always said how John wasn't social, but
during this whole event, not only was he helpful, but

(13:16):
he was also social the entire time, talking to my parents,
my in laws, and other family and friends. He helps
with the cake setup, tear down, and even helped my
parents with the food. Meanwhile, Katie sat on her phone
almost all day, ignoring my wife and me boo.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
This woman, boo boo.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
When it was time to get ready, Katie shower, did
her makeup, and went upstairs. My love was getting ready upstairs,
so I needed to stay downstairs. Katie, who has been
with me through breakups, life changes and everything, left me.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Alone on the most important day of my life.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
I got myself dressed while nervously going between inside and outside,
smoking to calm myself down. My wife's dad, who doesn't
really like me, came down to check on me and
helped calm me down because he noticed I was alone
talking about myself. I had my phone shut off for
most of the day. When I turned it on to
write a little love note to my wife, excited about
starting our life together, I received four texts from Katie

(14:10):
about how she was divorcing John because he couldn't do
anything right. I chose to ignore it because it was
my day and wanted to focus on my wife and
our love. I wrote my note, shut off my phone again,
not wanting to hear about her divorcing John. The wedding
started and went off without a hitch. It was perfect
for my love and me. We danced saying cake at

(14:30):
each other's faces and ultimately felt incredibly happy. Katie was
supposed to take us back to our place, but we
changed plans and had my brother in law to take
us instead. On the way home, I received multiple messages
about how she was divorcing John, and not only did
I receive them, but so did my wife.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
During our mini honeymoon just a day and a half.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
Because my wife can't be away from our kid for
too long, we continued to get bombarded with messages about
the divorce. I felt like such a terrible friend because
I wanted to be there for her, but also I
never do anything for myself. My wife and I never
have alone time and couldn't even take advantage of that time.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
With hundreds of.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Calls and texts from Katie to both my phone and
my wife's phone. In the coming days, I learned my
wife had walked into our bathroom not knowing Katie was
in it, and found her trying on my wife's makeup,
lotions and perfume.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
No no, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
This is weird. Side note my wife is black and
Katie is white.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
Oh no, oh, no, Oh my god, no, whole another
issue on level to it.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Ooh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
I noticed the constant buying of gifts from my kid,
even when we blatantly expressed that she didn't need more.
She ignored my wife and constantly flaunted over me. I
can't pick up social cues at all, so I never
would have noticed this had another friend not pointed it out.
She would get upset when we had other friends over.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
She would tell my kids she.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Would play with her, then suddenly decided to leave with
no reason, especially when we had people over every day.
There was a literal crisis over something her boyfriend or
John did, and I couldn't mentally handle it anymore.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
I felt crazy attack because I wasn't sure if I
was reading any of this right. Besides the blatant disrespect
at my wedding, part of the best man slash woman
duties is to be there for me on my day,
not ignore me and disappear. I definitely feel like Katie
is still in love with me. I'm stuck feeling like
a terrible friend because I could care.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Less about her divorce.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
She also didn't have to announce it to my wife
and me on our wedding day and basically ruin our honeymoon.
Yeah you think, you think, you think, but you know
what I know is that you can find full episodes
with more stories just like this. Just go to iHeartRadio,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever your favorite podcast app is.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Search up. Okay, short time, we'll be read there for you.
Oh my gosh, there is a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
This woman is still in love with ople absolutely, like
she got divorced at your wedding to one to try
to ruin your wedding. Yeah, and also be like, yes,
who's single?

Speaker 5 (16:59):
Yeah, yeah, I need to know what Opie's wife thinks
about this, regardless of what you need to cut her off, yes,
cut her out.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yes she is not. She's going to actively try to
ruin your marriage.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Absolutely, she's already started. Day one, Day one, she's begun.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
I feel like a terrible friend and an even worse
husband because I couldn't even enjoy our honeymoon with all
the phone calls and texts.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
I finally gave up and stopped all contact.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Wait, brother, good, she's the bad friend. You are not
the bad friend.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
We still do a daily snap, but that's mainly because
I'm not sure if I'm the a hole in this.
Oh my god, I don't invite her over, talk to
her past the daily snap or update her on my
child or job.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
So am I the a hole here? We do have
some comment?

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Okay, but before we do that. Yeah, and my brain
might be changing in real time.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Whoa we're seeing it happen?

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, no, it's like, sure, you block you right, It's
but I feel like that that single communication through snapchat
is like going to keep her like potential unhingedness at bay.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
So comment number one divorce announcement at weddings. That's a
bold strategy. Con Let's see if it pays off for
her in the friendship department. Spoiler alert, it won't.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Common.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Number two says, she told you that she loved you
while being married, and you just stayed friends with her.
Why if you want to keep her options open? You
are not a bad friend, but you are a moron.
Screw the ten years of friendship. No friend acts like that.
You should have cut her off a long time ago.
How I Number three says, I see people here that
have so little respect for themselves. That makes me wonder

(18:31):
if we're even the same species in the rare case.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
This isn't a troll.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
Why in the world you didn't tell her to stop
messaging you on your honeymoon. Why didn't you tell her
that she is being a horrible friend, neglecting her promise
to help as the best woman. Why didn't you tell
her to f off when she was making your wedding
about herself?

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Grow a spy? Okay, we still snap daily, have some
self respect?

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Maybe facts maybe facts there, Maybe he's honest side, maybe
a little bit of fact there. But and he can't
read any social cues.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
Yeah, so usually if that's the case, it is also
the case that confrontation is very uncomforting.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah. But but also come on, dude, both yeah, come on.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Also those facts.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
I was waving the red flag earlier, not because of
this friend, but because of the husband, like.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
The refusal to cut off. Yeah, the friend.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
Well just because I mean, if you are dating someone,
whether it's new or not, and they have friends who
are cheating on their husband or boyfriend or whatever, that's
a that's a red flag on your new partner's.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Like fault, you know what I mean? Yeah, And so
if well, I mean, I guess depending you know, I
guess how you go about it with the friend.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Your partner is actually involved in their best friend of
ten years trying to cheat on their husband and they're
not like shutting it down, then that seems like an
issue to me.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:51):
That does that does feel feel like a bit of
an issue, doesn't it. And little man so, I don't know,
hopefully their marriage, which is still going strong. Yeah, because
that's all we got. Because that's the end of that story.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
That's it. That's its. Please tell us in the comments
when you think that was a that's a controversial one.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Oh my god, No, I think I'm you know, I know.
I asked like, what would you do? I think it's
very I don't know that last comment made it pretty
clear to me. Or it's like okay, yeah, I know
you definitely cut this person off. That's absurd.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, I need I need the wife of op
to comment on this. That's the end of that. Sorry.

Speaker 7 (20:27):
I defended my wife against the rude coworker. He quit
right after.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Oh that's good defense.

Speaker 7 (20:33):
Alpha Mill. This situation happened in the summer, but it
got brought back up recently, so I wanted to get
an unbiased opinion to see if I cross the line
by the way this comes from you has meegzeki and
if you want to swing your own stories, go to
our social Okay story times. Right, there are three important
points I want to stay for background purposes before I continue.
I thirty mail have my own business. I've also been

(20:54):
very fortunate that it's doing amazing and I'm very thankful
and blessed that it's growing. My wife, twenty eight female,
works in a corporate job at a well known company,
which is also her first job out of college. She
was recently promoted to director. She has people who report
to her and she reports directly to the senior director.
My wife and I bought land and had a custom

(21:15):
made Forever home built in the summer of twenty twenty three.
We were involved in the whole process, from designing the
house and choosing what furniture we would get. The entire
process from house being built to.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Having it fully furnished took a little over a year.

Speaker 7 (21:28):
We're extremely proud of how it turned out. We loved
a host gathering, so once the house was done, we
threw multiple parties throughout the year. My wife wanted to
have a barbecue slash pool party in the summer and
wanted to invite her coworkers. Because she was inviting a
lot of them around fifty. We decided to cater food
and set up out directivities like a bouncy castle, since
some of them were bringing all their families. Overall, a

(21:51):
lot of planning and thought went into this, but my
wife was happy doing it. A couple of days before
the party, she gave me some background on coworkers I
had never met. She got to a person named Johnson
bake but suitable, and also told me he was her
old boss, a director of a different department, that he
had always treated her like crap. My wife was moving

(22:12):
up the corporate ladder pretty quickly, and for some reason,
he wasn't a big fan of it. She started out
in his department but eventually became a director and his
equal in terms of position. Asked her why she was
inviting someone like that, and she said she didn't want
him to feel left out and made their work relationship
even worse. I guess she wanted to try and work

(22:33):
things out outside of company hours to see if anything changed,
But regardless, she asked me to be on my best
behavior around him and if he made any snide remarks
and assured me people to handle it. I'm already over
protective of my wife because she's extremely nice and can
be a little the one towing bag for people, and
I told her I'd try my best. On the day

(22:55):
of the party, everything was going smooth. Everyone was having
a good time by the playing backyard games and using
the bouncy counts. Johnson arrived thirty minutes length, and I
greeted him at the door while my wife was busy
with the guests. I introduced myself and ushered him to
where everyone was. Who's actually nice to talk to? At first,
all demeanor change when my wife walked over. It was

(23:16):
like lip switched. I ignored it, but my wife offered
a tour of the house for the guests to arrive late.
As we went through the house, Johnson kept making negative
comments about every room, for example, and we showed him
the living room.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
He said, the.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
Ceilings are too high? Did you guys do that kind
of pointless to have? No, it's not what if someone
wants to put a basketball goal up there and they
want to shoot their phone ball with it. I wish
I had Tyler ceilings, so I.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Could do that. Literally, I've never heard anyone go, oh,
your ceilings are too high. Vaulted ceilings are like a luxury.
Oh did you ever think about, like maybe working on
your vertical so you could touch them? Or is that
a skill issue? Man? Oh, Johnson's got a tiny little
micro vertical. Confirmed. He jumps like half an inch off
the ground. He's like Nikola Jokic, that's right.

Speaker 7 (24:03):
When we showed the guest slash poolhouse in the backyard,
he said, why did you guys build a guest house.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Your house is big enough.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
It's like you want to show off. He kept making
comments like that, making other guests feel uncomfortable. I count
my mouse shut at my wife's request, and she awkwardly
laughed to move the tour along. After the tour, we
led everyone to the backyard where the rest of the
guests were. Everyone except Johnson stayed and he started talking
to us. He began asking invasive questions like how much
was the house and who paid for most of it?

(24:33):
I told him that was information I wasn't comfortable sharing,
so we moved on a little after. While we were
eating and talking with other guests, the topic of the
house came back up.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Just can't leave it alone. Kenya Johnson.

Speaker 7 (24:44):
Someone mentioned they loved the backyard layout and asked her
designed it. My wife answered that we designed it ourselves.
While she was talking, guess who in the world interrupted.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Her long long john Johnson.

Speaker 8 (24:55):
Johnson interrupted in a very sartastic tutang WHOA be careful
not to ask them how much it was barely it's
private information that only the elite share with each other.

Speaker 7 (25:06):
There was an awkward silence.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
At this point. I had enough.

Speaker 7 (25:09):
He was clearly trying to embarrass her for no reason.
I responded, it's a problem her ever since you came here,
you've been rude. He just scoffed, said he just wanted
to know, and then kept silence. I pressed to him
and asked why he didn't even know. He didn't say anything,
just stared. I told him, next time, when people are talking,
you don't need to involve yourself. When I said that,
he suddenly went on a rent. I don't know who

(25:31):
you think you're talking to you like that, but I
thought it was odd and wanted to know how wife
was able to affoid this house on her salary. There's
no way she makes enough for this house. Let me,
guess you pay for most of it. Cut him off,
min Rent and said, I can talk to you however
I want. I don't work for you, and neither does
my wife. This is also our house and if you

(25:51):
don't get to disrespect us here. I don't know what
issues you have with my wife, but they end here
at this point. I'm not proud of this. I just
started in his face and continued, just because you're jealous
of my wife and how she's progressed in her career
while you've stayed in the same position forever long doesn't
give you the right to be the a hole. You
can get the f off my property before I have

(26:12):
to force you to whoa Yeah, I would say, ley, alright,
sorry I was some character.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, that was a good character. I can't scene.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
I kind of feel like the right move was like
to remain calm, but like the calm anger, because calm
anger is the scariest kind of anger, the silent anger,
right where it's like just right behind the eyeballs anger.
And you tell this guy you're like, you're leaving my
house and it's like, no, you don't get to talk
like that. You're leaving my house, and he goes blah
blah blah blah. He says, you're leaving my house in

(26:41):
the next thirty seconds, or the police are going to
be involved and they're going to drag you out of
my house.

Speaker 7 (26:46):
I don't know if he's gonna involve the police, That's
what I would say. He looked dumbfounded because he didn't
expect me to get this close. Then he responded by
saying something along the lines off, your wife slept her
way to her position, into an easy life where she
doesn't have to pay for anything, and you're just flaunting
your own money in people's faces. That was my breaking point,
and I grabbed him by the collar and started dragging him.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
So I was pushing him out of the house.

Speaker 7 (27:09):
When I came back, my wife's close co workers were
consoling her. The other decided it was time to go.
After everyone left, my wife told me I didn't have
to defend her like that. She's more than capable of
taking care of herself. She said that because of my outburst,
it's going to make things awkward at work for her. Now, okay,
now I kind of feel bad.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I told her.

Speaker 7 (27:25):
I knew I shouldn't have done what I did, but
he was crossing the line. There's only so much I
can take. She was upset that I didn't listen to
her one request and I let the one person ruin
the party, and that now she's worried there will be
issues at work. She also mentioned that she's concerned I
could get arrested for it. I told her there's nothing
to worry about because she did nothing wrong. She just
got up and walked away, saying, I don't understand corporate culture.

(27:47):
Am I the a hole in this situation? You're my hero,
but you are the corporate a hole?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
I don't think my hero a hole. I'm pretty sure
if she went to HR right now, HR would take
her side. I like it in terms of like Johnson's
the a hole and she's like right next to him
now she's the director and he's a senior director, and
saying that she slept all the way to the top.

Speaker 7 (28:09):
I understand, but like it's just gonna ruffle some feathers,
like in the corporate world, so she's gonna have to
like go through and we have, we're like halfway done.
So I just think corporately, it's gonna be a lot
if you have the witnesses, though Kimberly says, because got
a point. Thank you feel like having other coworkers there
who can corroborate everything is gonna really help you out.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
There's no way it can't. Not sure how to.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
Properly update, So sorry for the rambling on my post,
although I did add some useless info. I'm a better
speaker than writing dude, you're fine. I mean you spoke
really well to Johnson.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Update.

Speaker 7 (28:40):
My wife and I read all the comments and we
actually enjoyed reading them, even though some were kind of mean.
She came to the realization that she needed to be
more assertive and not to be spineless, as some people
so generously call her. As I mentioned before, this happened
in the summer. The day after everything happened, we both
apologized to each other and asked her to give me
a full rundown of Johnson from when she used to

(29:02):
be in his department, because there's no way someone has
that much hatred for someone else without reason. So he
did try and make advances on her when she first
joined Johnson, but not only her, but a bunch of
other female coworkers, some who were at the party. Oh,
she shot him down multiple times and went to HR
with her coworkers to final complaints, and Johnson's behavior DIDs not. However,

(29:26):
he was now having her manage, giving a ton of
work to do. She was working long hours, but it
ended up working in her favor because the other department's
manager noticed her workload and her ability to finish it
without mistakes and pretty much post her to join her team.
So from then till she got promoted to direct her
about six years ago, she had very few interactions with him.

(29:46):
It's only when she got promoted to director she was
forced to interact. My wife, Johnson and the senior director.
Tim would have meetings every morning.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
She said.

Speaker 7 (29:56):
She never really acted badly towards her, but he would
always downplay any suggestions she had or outright ignore it.
She thought if she invited him to the party, maybe
that would change his behavior and bury the hatchert. She
realizes that it was really stupid to assume that that
would happen, you.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Know, like, shame on this company for keeping this guy around.
This guy's a known problem. He was harassing women in
the office. He's leveraging his power and his ability to
make decisions to target employees who have spoken up against him,
and he's still up there in the senior director position
being outright disrespectful to one of his other directors and

(30:36):
also not being held accountable for that behavior. Shame on you.

Speaker 7 (30:39):
So my wife did tell me that when she saw
everyone at work, they told her not to worry, and
a bunch of them were happy someone finally did something
to him. Ah right, ah rash. Some were hoping for more,
but happy regardless. She said that made her feel better
because she thought they would see her in a bad light,
which I don't know why, but my wife is an overthinker.
She wrote a complaint to HR for harassment against Johnson,

(31:02):
and he did the same thing, but against me. HR
didn't do anything for either of them. She got an
EMO saying, because this happened off company property and this
was not a company sponsored event, no action needs to
be taken by the company, and he disputes that happened
needs to be taken care by the individual. She was
worried that Johnson would sue her or call the cops,
but nothing happened in a month, so we assume he

(31:23):
just gave up on it. During meetings, Johnson would just
stay quiet After my wife spoke as opposed to giving
condescending remarks like he usually did. Bro he's got his
tail tarp with betweenty the legs.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I mean, I guess that's better than being actively one
of the most annoying kind of people you can be.
You're just going okay, anyway, the adults are talking now,
It's like, ugh.

Speaker 7 (31:43):
I haven't seen or spoken to Johnson since the party,
but my wife asked me to come to the company
Christmas party where I saw Johnson, but he ignored us.
I met Tim and when my wife introduced me, he
said something along the lines of thanks for coming, Please
don't drag me across the room. I'm very nice to
your wife. Who hilarious. My wife and I burst out laughing,
and I realized Johnson had become the butt of the jokes.

(32:05):
Apparently people at work started doing a collar grabbing motion
behind Johnson's back.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Dude, nice, emasculated by the whole company. Let's go.

Speaker 7 (32:13):
The reason I got brought up again recently was because
my wife told me a couple of days ago that
he put in his two weeks nice okay, sick. By
the way, you can never put in your two weeks ever.
At all because we want you to go to your
favorite podcast platform. Search up Okay Story Tom, Apple, Spotify,
iHeart who knows What? You listen to search us up

(32:34):
Okay Story Tom and listen to us. Please go do that.
You can never quit. You can never quit on us.
Don't you quit on us? Please? Don't you ever quit
on us again? Okay thumbs up really badly. Yeah, I
just want to say that sentence for some reason.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
You just want to be able to say, somebody, do
you know I just got on the phone with you
know what?

Speaker 7 (32:51):
You know what I just heard and from who?

Speaker 2 (32:53):
You know what I just heard about? Should you should know? Wow?
I'm probably get a dog and say that to him.
You know what. I just got a phone with you
know what has heard about the president of dogs and
he said, you're the best dog ever.

Speaker 7 (33:06):
I joked we should throw a party. But she felt
bad because she feels like he quit because of her.
I told her that she didn't do anything wrong, and
that happened to Johnson after the party was on him.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
That was on him.

Speaker 7 (33:18):
Nothing would have happened if he just kept his mouth shut.
She understands, but she still feels bad. My wife is
a very empathetic person, even to people who don't deserve it.
So it might not be the ending some of you
were hoping for, but it worked for us. We still
joke around being dragged across the room here and there,
but overall everything ended in the best way for us.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
And they kept the house, and they kept the house,
kept the house that Johnson never got his grubby little
mits on the price of and he got fired instead.
That's right, what a little just a little chef's kiss
of his story right there, hey, John og host, We
don't get back to the stories, but a quick free
minute break of ads from our sponsors.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
I invited my brother to stay at our house for
his vacation. My wife got furious.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Is the brother's family.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
So I thirty four male, my wife thirty nine female,
and her daughter thirteen female, all live in a house.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
That I rent.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
My wife and I recently traveled to Florida for vacation,
and while we were there, my brother drove ten hours
straight to see me and meet my wife, as I
had not seen him in a little over five years. Unfortunately,
my wife ended up catching livid while we were in Florida,
so she never got to meet my brother. By the way,
this comes from over Librarian seventy three sixty seven, and
if you want to submit your own stories, go to

(34:34):
our slash joke storytime sub rend it. Oh, here is
the issue.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
My brother and I are close.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
We have always called each other once a week and
text almost daily. A few days ago, he told me
that he would be coming through Hawaii for vacation in
about a month and asked if he could stay with
me for five days. Of course, I said yes, as
it's not a problem. I rent a five bedroom house
and the spare bedrooms are on the first floor. I
came home on Thursday and told my wife and she
was incredibly mad. She told me that my brother is

(35:02):
a garden tool and that she can't trust him around
her daughter because he's always posting photos of different girls
on his social media. She then doubled down, saying that
she and her daughter would get a hotel for the
entire time my brother is here because she thinks he
would do something to her daughter.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
She has never met anyone on my side of the family. However,
I asked her as calmly as I could why she
would think that about my brother, whom she has never
met before. All she could say was it's Pikatis that
garden tool. All wow, I would be really angry. I
would be really angry about this.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
After she said that, she stormed away to the master bedroom. Currently,
my wife and I aren't talking or sleeping in the
same room. So am I the a hole for saying
my brother could stay with me? And there is an
update now. Literally, the only thing that I was gonna
say that she was mad at is that you didn't
like run it by her.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, but clearly that's not the issue here, not at all.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
She's just like from what I can see, from what
I've gathered well I know and their Instagram pages, I
can tell that this is gonna be a dangerous man Beze.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
A garden tool through and through.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
I wasn't expecting for this to blow up like it
did in the past hour. As this is my first
time writing, I will try and address some of the
questions that are coming up. My wife has never met
any of my family. My older brother, the one coming
to visit, is forty two, and he does have a
lot of girlfriends, but as far as I have seen
on social media, they all look as old or older
than me. My younger brother I haven't seen or heard

(36:30):
from in tennish years. Last I checked, he was in
the Midwest hitchhiking, and my sister is a traveling nurse.
Both my parents are deceased. They passed away when I
was fourteen. Yes, I pay the rent, However that is
not to say my wife doesn't contribute to bills at all.
We try and split the bills fifty to fifty whatever possible. However,
I do mainly cover the rent and Wi Fi, while
she covers utilities and groceries. I didn't mean to type

(36:52):
it in a condescending tone or manner, but that's how
it is.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
I guess.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
My wife and I normally don't communicate whenever we have
guests over. Just last week, I hosted her father and
mother at our house without an invitation. That is actually
like really relevant information because that was the only thing. Yeah,
that was the only thing that I was like, Oh,
that was kind of weird, right, But apparently that's just standard.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
So yeah, Kat commented his wife had him or wants
him or has had him before. That's well, according to Ope,
she's never met him before, but maybe she's like she
saw his Instagram and she.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Was like, oh my god, I know that man.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
To me, family should never need it unless they have
done something crazy like I'm alive, or they are a
pedia file, in which case I wouldn't talk to them.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Ever.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Currently, the wife is sleeping and I plan on having
a heart to heart with her later. I do understand
why some of you feel like there's a lot being
left out, but this is everything. Also to everyone saying
I should have defended my brother's honor, I understand where
you're coming from, but I didn't want to make the
situation worse by throwing gas into the fire. And there
are some comments comment one with this the matter is clothed,

(38:00):
not the a hole and your wife is batcrap crazy
and a disrespectful witch, accusing your brother of being a
pediaphile and being mad because you invited family without her
consent when she would have done the same thing. Send
her to f herself, grow a parent.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Stop with that. I don't want to throw gas in
the fire.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
She is your partner and she must show you the
same respect and consideration you give her. If she invites
her parents to your house without telling you, why do
you have to ask her when doing the same and
there is a second update. But man, oh man, that
was an aggressive comment. God would say, I don't care
about throwing cash in the fire. Dump the whole thing
on there. Do it make that fire ginormous?

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Why not?

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Rag ming Ming says the wife is scared, she can't
control herself and jump the brother's bone.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
She's like he is too hot, hot hot. Interesting.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
So, after reading most if not all, of the comments,
I had a list of the things the wife and
I had to talk about. Yesterday, when everyone's heads had
cooled off, the wife and I had to sit down.
I did oologize for not telling her that I had
one sidedly told my brother he could stay at her house. However,
I also told her that going forward, her family and
friends are not to be invited to our house unless

(39:09):
I'm told in advance. She was fine with that decision. Secondly,
I also showed her this post that I made. Secondly,
I also showed her this post that I made. She
was very apologetic for immediately exploding and calling my brother
a possible peto without any evidence or backing. She has
also opened up about her past and the reason she
was so uncomfortable. According to my wife, her ex husband,

(39:31):
who I have never met or even seen a picture of,
was very controlling, and she also said that her ex
husband and my older brother look alike. Whoa oh, which
was the biggest reason why she exploded.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Whoa.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
The wife finally showed me a picture of her ex husband,
and he definitely looks like my brother if my brother
grew out his beard. For those of you thinking, then
shouldn't I also look like her ex Well? Thankfully I
got most of my mom's genetics and skin color. Most
people think my brother and I aren't even related due
to him being quite a few shades darker than me.
Her ex husband is currently in prison for a while,

(40:05):
so I assured her that he and my brother are
completely different people. I'm glad she opened up about her
past relationship, which I knew nothing about, which is kind
of shocking. It is pretty surprised because I think they've
been together.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
For a while and they're married. Is their daughter his
or is this the ex husband's daughter? Do we know that?
I assumed it's theirs.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
That's what I assume, So they've at least been married
or like together for thirteen years. Yeah, so it's shocking
that he didn't know any of this. Yeah, it's a
long time, but I mean maybe it's just just never
come up before.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
I understand why.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
A lot of you may think it's weird to not
know about your wife's past, especially if you're raising someone
else's child. But to me, it didn't really bother me. Okay,
so it's not his kit. Also, her ex husband is
not in prison for domestic for violence, but for something
totally unrelated, wasted driving. It happened last year, according to
police reports, when my wife left her ex. They were
living in Colorado at the time, her father came and

(41:00):
pretty much snuck the wife and daughter out of the
house while her ex was away.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
The wife was too.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Scared to even call the cops, as she was told
she would have to fly back and possibly meet her
ex again. I don't know what to think of that,
but I'm glad my wife is in a better place
right now, as you couldn't even tell that happened to
her in the past. For some of the most asked questions.
When the wife and I went to Florida, the daughter
was not with us. It was our anniversary and vacation.
We asked daughter if she wanted to come, but she

(41:25):
flat out said no and that she would stay with
her grandparents. I checked my wife's phone just to make
sure that there weren't any private messages between her and
my brother. Okay, wait with her permission, did you just
like snoop in her phone? Oh that's not good.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
That's bad.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
There wasn't anything I could find, including in her pictures
and all messaging apps. The only people she talks to
are her two friends and family. A lot of you
asked how my wife could have never met my brother
or anyone in my family before we got married. Like
I have posted before, my parents have already passed away.
My youngest brother is actively being a bum. According to
my oldest brother, who emailed him last year, he was

(41:59):
somewhere in Alabama, so he is probably still in the
southeast United States. My sister is currently living in New York.
The last time I talked to her was back in November.
My oldest brother is always traveling and working. My wife
has been included in facetimes with my older brother and
younger sister, so she knows what they look like. It's
just that none of them have ever met in person. Lastly,

(42:19):
the wife and I came to the conclusion that my
brother would get a hotel room while he is here
visiting us next month. I have informed my older brother
and he is perfectly fine with that, as he doesn't
want my family to feel uncomfortable in their own house.
And by the way, we wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable.
And the best way to feel comfortable is to listen
to full episodes with stories just like this. Just got
a Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app and

(42:42):
search a bookay story Time, and you'll feel so comfortable.
But there is a little bit left of the story.
What thoughts do you have?

Speaker 5 (42:49):
Bob said something interesting about like bobla daughter might be
afraid of the uncle too.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
That's true, I mean if that was her dad, Yeah,
there could be something there. Yeah, and so her mom's
trying to make her feel comfortable, like they might just
feel uncomfortable around other men too. Yeah, seems like they're
kind of figuring out like I've been around and trying
to like, you know, talk about it around these issues.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:10):
Well, I think it's important that they have this conversation
that seems like it, you know, hasn't happened for years, right, But.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
There is a little bit left to the story.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
The wife and I are going to start attending couples
counseling sessions next Wednesday, and if the wife thinks the
daughter should join us, then we will move to family counseling.
The wife and daughter are excited about meeting my brother,
as I talk about him a lot. Of course, I
will introduce him slowly so it's to not add.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Pressure to everyone involved. And that is the end of
that story.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
Wow, it sounds like everything's working. Yeah, that's very interesting,
just that that is something that he didn't know. I'm
sure that this is how it came out. Yeah, yeah,
it's pretty wild.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
I mean perhaps for like being able to handle herself
and not like, you know, being healed enough for it
to not come up.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Yeah, but also I do think that's like a pretty
important thing to happen. I don't know, I think it
should have maybe brought up.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I'm shocks that it didn't come up ever, But but
now it is.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
I married a man child with baby mama drama and
dragged my sister into it. Well, drag yourself at there.
Please please strap in, folks, scrap a beverage and a
snack and hold on to you butts.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
It's a long one and a doozy. This is me
holding on to your butts. I'm holding on but of mine.
A little backstory for you.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
I forty five female, got married to someone I shouldn't
have my mad and I literally chastised myself every day
for it. By the way, this comes from Simone's Treasures,
and if you want isn't in your own stores, go
to our slash Okay storytime step credit. We will call
him Aaron, forty four male. We were friends in college
and reconnected years later. He was charming, handsome, had a

(44:53):
good job, and I thought had a good head on
his shoulder. Unfortunately, Aaron came with a lot of baggage.
To be fair, at his age, we all do as
we have both been married before and have children. I
have a fifteen year old female and his his four
year old female, so please know that I'm not knocking that.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
But the problem right away was his baby mama.

Speaker 5 (45:12):
We'll call her Connie, and she is bad, crap crazy,
and I'm not talking about someone who has good and
bad days.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
I'm talking about someone who should be locked in a
padded row.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
I flat out told Aaron that if she brought me
into it, I wouldn't back down like he had basically
the whole time they had been apart.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
That was red flag number one.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
OO.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
They were never married. She told him she couldn't get
pregnant like she.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
Told the father of her other two children before this
one PSA wrap your tool. So I started asking myself self,
do I really want to deal with this for another
fourteen years? I had previously told myself I was not
going to get involved with anyone who had small children
my own red flag.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Oh well, but.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
Because of who I thought he was and how he
assured me everything would be just fine, I decide I
could deal with it. We got engaged in February twenty
twenty four, and he wanted us to get married pretty
quickly reach lag number two. I actually wanted to wait
until at least the fall.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
He wanted June.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
He said that way we could work on selling my house.
Since he lived in the neighboring state thirty miles away.
He said it would be better for me to sell
and use the money I made on the house to
pay off debt, et cetera, which sounded good to me
since I was struggling financially and he knew that he
knows I'm hyper independent and won't ask for help. However,
I did bring up the fact that my house is
almost twice as big, and with our animals, I have
a dog and two cats, while he has two dogs.

(46:33):
I would have to uproot my daughter while his child
wasn't even in school yet. Keep in mind, there aren't
any stipulations about distance in their court agreement, so.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
He could easily move, as could I.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
But of course he had an excuse for that red
flag number three. Oh No, after going rounds about it,
I gave in dang it again. I pushed aside the
flag because of who I thought Aaron was.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
So we set the date. My family, including my sister
forty one female daft.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
He thought it was a bit quick, but they had
grown to like him and supported us as we crept
closer to the date, and Connie found out via his
oldest daughter, twenty one from a previous relationship.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Seriously, dude, wrapyard, who you hear that? Everyone? We got
two warnings. Now that's two warnings. If we get to
a third one, you're going to prison.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
WHOA.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
Things started to seem a little off. Connie started making
absurd accusations against Aaron, and thus began a heated custody battle.
While that was starting, our wedding came and went in June.
Everything was fine. My house wasn't selling, and we were
still living separately because I didn't want to pay for
something I wasn't living in, as well as drive twice
as far to get to work appointments. Like I said,
I was struggling financially, which he knew, and he knew

(47:41):
I wouldn't outright ask for help, and he makes almost
three times what I do.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Not once did he offer to help me financially.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
He did, however, give me eight hundred dollars of the
fourteen hundred dollars we received from our wedding to pay
for tires for my vehicle, not his money though red
flag number four. Of course, some would argue that I
should have just moved and left my house empty, but
my gut told me not to.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Now Here comes August.

Speaker 5 (48:04):
Aaron tried to keep me out of the custody stuff
as much as possible, until Connie tried to bring me
into it by having her equally psycho guardian ad litem
order a psych evaluation for me at ten thousand dollars.
What Aaron had to get one as well as Connie,
but for some reason, I was named a party in
funny considering Connie always said that she had no idea

(48:25):
who I was, yet she named me in a document
as well as blocked me on social media. Aaron so
that he would pay for it, and this and that,
again not standing up to Connie. Wait, I'm cond flat
number five. Is Connie paying the ten thousand dollars or
is she making them pay the ten thousand dollars to
get a psych evaluation? It sounds like OP would have

(48:46):
to pay the ten thousand makes zero sense. Yeah, I
could just like be like that.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Person needs a psyche val and they have to pay
for it, right, So that's red flag number five. I said, nope.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
I told him I am not the little one's mother
or guardian and should not be pulled into this. Keep
in mind I was actually out of state of this
time on a mini vacation with my daughter. Because I
was so stressed out. I told him he'd better fix
it and tell them no or I'm out. So he did,
which was good, and I think.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
It was the first time he had ever pushed back
on her in almost four years.

Speaker 5 (49:17):
A couple of months go by and my house still
hasn't sold. The custody battle was getting uglier by the day,
and I was at the point where I couldn't handle
the drama anymore or the red flags I had pushed aside.
I decided to express my feelings to Aaron and he
basically told me to get up and be a good
wife and mother. Ooh ooh boy, oh boy, stop not
looking at the red flags. He followed up by asking

(49:39):
what I could do to make my husband happy? Literally
the words he said to me.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
Wait, Aaron was like, well, maybe you should be asking
what you can do to make your husband happy, or
with someone else saying that, I think.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
That might be what it is.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
Or he's saying like, what could you do to make
your husband happier? Yeah, or just maybe he's just like,
ask yourself what you could do to make your husband?

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Ask yourself how you can go look at the heir
and say self, so, well, can I do what can
I do to help my hands?

Speaker 5 (50:04):
That's absolutely crazy. Aaron would always say I could come
to him and lean on him for anything. That day
he proved that that was not the case. He was
not a safe place for me. And he never would
final red flak, so I decided this was not going
to be something we could work through like others urged
me to do. The drama would never stop, and I
am too old to wait around to see if it

(50:25):
got better, both with the Baby Mama drama and with Aaron.
Aaron had the nerve to suggest that I give it
a couple of months and get into therapy to see.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
If it would change my mind what. Apparently he didn't
like that. I stood up for myself, so I said,
heck no, leave him.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
Then he reached out to my brother in law and sister,
telling them I was texting all these guys that he
spent so much money on me and that he had
fixed up my entire house all lies. For one, he
didn't help me when I needed it. Two I paid
for about eighty percent of the wedding and the honeymoon.
And three he helped me paint three rooms in my

(51:00):
two thousand, eight hundred square foot house.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
I had previously painted everything a year before I reconnected him.
Final Nail in the Coffee.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
I later heard from his first ex wife that he
had tried to do a similar thing to her and
her family, labeling her as crazy and greedy.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Will he try to do this to Connie or someone else?

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Connie's one exist right, yes, okay, okay, okay, but.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
He has one first ex wife. I think Connie's the
most recent one. How many xpyses? Okay, that was another
red flag. If you've got like three ex wives. Yeah,
that's too many ex wives. That's kind of hard.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
I think also too, if you're dating someone and they're
just like, oh my god, like my ex was just crazy.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
I think it's more so like when you say all
of your exes were crazy.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
Now the texting all these guys thing is most definitely
not true. But this is where my sister goes off
on me. I have kept in contact with a male friend,
Guess for the last few years. Long story short. We
were friends and I wanted more, but he wasn't in
a position to do so. Cool, but we remain friends
as he trusts me with his life. I've always had
male friends, just like Aaron has always had female friends.

(52:02):
When he was in the military, he served with several
females and still talks to them occasionally, even the one
he said he may have knocked up.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Cool.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
Now, Daphnie doesn't think that's okay, as does some other people,
I'm sure, but she's a very insecure person and it
isn't her life. She doesn't even want her husband to
watch movies that have hot girls in them.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Serious, Okay, that that's crazy. That is pretty crazy.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
That's wild.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
That's where I draw the lie.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
What am I supposed to watch?

Speaker 2 (52:33):
I can't watch my anime anymore.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
I can't watch anything.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
You tell me, I can't watch Arcade? You watch your kne.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Get out of here, you stick up?

Speaker 7 (52:43):
Tell me I can't watch the Golden Girls?

Speaker 2 (52:45):
What the heck?

Speaker 5 (52:47):
Daphne confronted me about it and said I was deceiving everyone,
especially Aarin, for talking to this person. I said, I
will not ever give up a friend who trust me
with their life journey, because Aaron would be furious if
I did that to him, and quite frankly, I'm not
deceiving anyone he knew about, and I'm pretty sure it's
none of anyone else's business. I don't sit and pester

(53:08):
Aaron about who he's texting because I'm pretty secure with thing.
Daphne says she loves me and only wants the best
for me, but she's keeping me at arm's length because
she thinks that.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
My friend was the reason I wanted a divorce.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
Remember that Aaron got into their heads and they took
his side before they knew I was in contact with
the friends and not mine. They tend to drink made
whenever anyone says anything. I even went so far as
to send her screenshots of conversations I've had with Aaron,
showing him belittling me and ordering me around. I kept
telling Daphne me deciding to divorce was truly because we

(53:40):
weren't right for each other.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
And he wasn't the man he painted for me in
the beginning. Also, like, why does it matter what Daphne thinks?

Speaker 2 (53:46):
You know?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Yeah? Who is also? Who is Daphne?

Speaker 5 (53:50):
So?

Speaker 3 (53:51):
Meaning that she.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Literally has no relevance to your decision making. Yeah, just
because I forgot. Yeah, she doesn't exist too exactly, and.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
She should be happy for me figuring that out now
instead of years down the road after my house is gone,
my mental health is failing and I have to start over.
She has continued to keep me at arm's length because
I did the best thing for my and my daughter,
and all she can fixate on is I was still
friends with someone. Again, none of her business. My mom
wants us to sit down and hash it out. I said,

(54:22):
I'm not going to do that because Daphnie already has
a preconceived idea of me in her head instead of
listening to the truth, and it would be like talking
to a brick wall. Now, am I the a hole
for doing what is best for me and for my
own reasons and not giving a hooked about what my
sister thinks because it's none of our business and we
have to shut your.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Mouths sister, Hey, it's Sam. We're gonna get back to
the stories. But here's three minutes bads from her sponsors.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
My friend went too far. She harassed my mom in
the hospital.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Boil boy. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
But before I get into the thick of it, here's
some background. I'll call this ex friend Carol. We are
both in our mid thirties. She has a child of
whom I was the godmother. She is a cancer patient
slash survivor. By the way, this comes from user dig
a freak, And if you want to submit your own stories,
go to the r slash okay storytime subreddit and submit

(55:21):
them there. I am undiagnosed but I'm almost certain I
have a touch of the tism. I do have major
anxiety depression and was diagnosed as borderline fourteen years ago.
So basically I am not a people person, but not
by choice. It's extremely hard for me to maintain friendships
when I'm in a constant state of panic or in
a large amount of pain. This bit of information will

(55:42):
be more important when I get to the why I'm here.
I want to reiterate that this woman has known me
longer than anyone else aside from my parents. So I
trusted her with my life. I trusted her with all
of my problems, and she definitely trusted me, or I
guess used me to cover for her more time than
I can count. She knew I'd have her back no
matter what happened in her life. I would be there

(56:04):
if she needed me. This is also important later now
the reason I'm here. My life since about mid July
has been a absolute crap slide through a cactus field
on fire while being thrown through the air repeatedly from
the invisible land mines of crap that just keeps happening.
I was involved in a car accident three days ago.
Six days ago today, is the twenty first My mother

(56:24):
was put into the er. In February slash January, my
house's furnace gave up the ghost and it was going
to cost upwards of fifteen thousand dollars to have it replaced. Thankfully,
we found a cheaper company two weeks prior. On the
third week of January, we had to borrow money to
replace our washer that gave up a week before that.
The second week of January, I had to have two

(56:46):
thousand dollars worth of work done on my car's engine.
I still have to get one thing done, but I
can't because finances. Two days before Christmas, my aunt passed
away unexpectedly from a blood clot. Three days before Thanksgiving,
my wife's grandmother was found passed away from internal bleeding
and an unrelated lung illness. Oh my god, this is

(57:06):
just the six months of hell.

Speaker 6 (57:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
In the second week of October, I had to borrow
money to replace the control arms on all four of
my tires. Unexpectedly, in September, I was officially diagnosed with
eelers dan lows. I could keep listing stuff, but I
think you all get the idea. Because my mother is
in the hospital. And I can't speak to the parent
of mine, who has always been the one to take
care of these types of things. My panic was at

(57:31):
a level I have never experienced before. So I reached
out to Carol and confided in her that I think
I'm not being told everything. Basically, I will add that
she and I have been distanced since before her son
was born, about eight or nine years. He got cancer
when he was I think four or five, so it's
been a couple of years. I have proof that I
was always the one reaching out and that I would

(57:54):
always get one word responses. Typically, this isn't an issue,
as I don't pick up on social cues like at all. Carol,
I thought was aware of everything I was going through,
considering we had been friends for so long. Now, I
reach out to her and let her know my mother
was in the hospital. She gives very short answers, but
I believe is showing concern for my mom. I admit
I don't ask her how she is, but I am

(58:14):
obviously overstimulated, and I even say as much, which is
completely different from how I typically am. As the days progress,
I keep her updated as she asks. Then the possibility
of surgery was mentioned so I update her, tell her
I'm headed to my parents to grab stuff for mom,
and that i'd let her know when I got to
the hospital. Well, I never made it to the hospital.

(58:34):
I got in a car accident. I reached out to
her to let her know I won't have an update
because of the accident, so she wouldn't worry about why
I was an answering. The accident happened at six twenty
five pm. She asked me to keep her updated again,
so I do. I get out of the er and
back home at midnight. The message I got from Carol
was at twelve forty eight am and nothing was wrong.

(58:56):
My wife has to be up at six am to
be at work. We finally lay down after my anxiety
finally relaxes. I have my phone turned all the way
up in case my mom needs me. My phone starts
ringing at one forty eight am. We had just gotten
to sleep. I freak out, grab my phone and see
it's Carol. After I put my glasses on, I see
she sent me a paragraph basically telling me that she

(59:19):
hates me and she wants to give me the old
one two combo. I have screenshots for Messenger going back
two years to prove I wasn't the one not trying
to communicate, just throwing that out there. She threatens to
call my mother, who is in the effing hospital prepping
for surgery at two forty in the goddang morning. My
mom sent me a screenshot of their conversation since she

(59:42):
can't talk and it has to be over text. And
this woman tattles on me and tells my mother that
I think they are hiding something from me while she's
in the dang hospital. She's in the hospital because she
coughed so hard she cooked a rib, one of the
multiple air bubbles in her lungs burst, and then the
pain med she was given made her kidney's malfunction, all

(01:00:03):
of which was told to Carol prior to her issue. Carol, however,
conveniently leaves out the part where she said she wants
to me and that she hates me. The next day,
she doesn't call me out by name, but the things
she posted were nasty. Unfortunately, I don't have screenshots of
the post, as I had blocked her after she called
me over sixteen times and called my mother twice. What
is going on? Why did she flip like this is

(01:00:25):
so crazy. Why what happened? Did I miss something?

Speaker 5 (01:00:28):
What happens isn't isn't Carol's daughter like diagnosed with cancer
or something?

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
So that is crazy, and that is you know, Carol's
losing it a little bit, which makes sense. However, taking
out on Op and this family, that's wild because they're going.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Through their own things.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Yes, this is unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Leave them alone.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Before I blocked her, I sent her a voice message
that said basically, I'm sorry that my life is a
crap show. And her using her cancer as an excuse
for talking to me like that is a problem, as
she knows cancer is a huge trigger of mine. I
have reached out to her and never gotten any response
other than okay or thank you. She never, in eight
years ever once asked me if I was okay. I

(01:01:10):
also ended the voice message with I love you, but
I no longer think of you as my sister, and
I am done. I lost my closest cousin fifteen to
sixteen years ago do ewing sarcoma. She was sixteen years
old when she passed away, and I was twenty at
the time. Carol was too high on life, which is
substances to give a crap about me when I called
her while I watched my cousin get buried and had

(01:01:30):
my second ever mental breakdown. Dude, girl, this is not
your friend. Yeah, I don't think this person has ever
really been your closest friend.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
That's what's that's what we're figuring out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
I think like there was another there was a line
in here about how OP doesn't pick up on social cues. Yeah,
I think you've missed the social cue that Carol has
never been your bestie.

Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
Yeah. Honestly, because you can be someone's friend, you can
hang out with them for years and years or whatever,
chill out, be close with the family, whatever, But to
be really close, you have to be there during your
hardest times and not like brate them like what's happening
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
True, if anyone wants to see the messages, I'll share them.
But am I the a hole for cutting ties with
a lifelong friend over her saying that she wants so?
First of all, no, absolutely not cut this person off.
Move on, ye find a new spports system. This person
is not your friend, not at all.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Once your actual I mean so many of these other
things could be reasons to not be friends with this
person anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
But once your.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Physical safety is in jeopardy, dude, it's over.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Yeah, your physical safety is in jeopardy. She's harassing your mother,
who's hospitalized. She's calling you fifteen times in the middle
of the night to brate you. I don't know. She
sounds like she's got her own problems to work through
as well. But I want to let you know that
you can be here for us and listen to full
episodes with stories like this on iHeartRadio, on Apple podcasts,

(01:02:48):
on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast from. Just
search Okay story time, and you will find the complete archive,
which I think is now like forty nine consecutive days long,
so there's a whole lot of hours.

Speaker 5 (01:03:00):
Oh yeah, dude, you'll never have a boring airplane fly
ever again. Yes, or road trip ever.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
I realized I forgot to mention that she didn't know
anything about what I listed regarding what was happening in
my life, only that my mother was in the hospital.
I never said anything else about what was going on
in my life until my mother and then the car accident,
and I only reached out to ask for her advice
two days after I let her know. My mom was
in the hospital, and there are some comments here. Comment one,

(01:03:24):
I feel like I missed something. Carol texts you with
so much rage, out of the blue in the wee
hours of the morning. I feel like there's so much missing.
But I think the key issue is BPD. I suggest
ongoing therapy to help you navigate your friendships and not
be so intense with people. It's above Reddit's pay grade
to unpack this, but under the guidance of an experienced therapist,
you may be able to develop friendships that don't overwhelm

(01:03:45):
the people you meet. I'm sorry for your losses, your
mom's illness and the financial hardships. It's part of life,
so if it's a big loss or suffering in your family,
your friends will care give you sympathy, but then they
need to get back to their own lives. And OP responds, Yes,
I agree. I'm currently in the process of getting myself
into intensive therapy, so I completely get where you're coming from.

(01:04:05):
But about Carol, yes, it was completely out of the blue.
Part of why it was so off putting to me
was because of the way things change so quickly. Quite honestly,
it scared me and reminded me of our childhood, when
she used to use me as the verbal punching bag
when she would get mad and I would just let
her do it. I'm not trying to trauma dump, so
please excuse me if that is being taken that way.

(01:04:26):
I just honestly remembered that as I was typing this.
What I can say with absolute certainty is that she
is a regular substance user, and she does have a
mental illness, if not multiple. And I'm no professional, obviously,
but I've been there for her so many different times
that as her quote unquote best friend, it scared me
beyond emotion. And as for myself, I'm diagnosed with a

(01:04:48):
few different things already. I completely understand that they have
their own lives, and I truly hope she can live
hers happily. I appreciate your input. Thank you. And that
is the end of that story. And that was a
good comment at the and I feel like that gave
us a little more clarity. And that's the end of
this episode. Wow. If you love us, make sure you
subscribe We love you and see it tomorrow.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}I REJECTED my childhood friend…because I don’t want his mother as my mother-in-law! - r/AITAH | Reddit Stories | EP2078