Recently, Partner 2 and I had a conversation in which it was decided that we would stop dating, at least for a while. In the future we may become friends or we may try again; it really depends on how she’s doing and where her head is at when she feels open to communicating again.

I’ve had some rough breakups in the past; my COVID ex-girlfriend refused to talk to me on the phone so I had no choice but to break up with her over text, and she made an offer to try and get me back that I declined. We haven’t spoken since. I had another girlfriend who was starting to make me feel like I was back in my first marriage, and when I broke up with her it was very messy. We eventually had a chat about things and while I wouldn’t say we’re friends we can definitely be friendly with each other if we see each other out and about.

The breakup with Partner 2 was, like the rest of our relationship, calm and communicative. We communicated successfully the things we were feeling, and I told her I would respect whatever boundaries she wanted to put up. Without getting into too much detail, the relationship didn’t end because we were mad at each other or because things were going badly between us, and we didn’t have a fight. I’m not going to tell you the actual reason because that’s private, but suffice it to say I understood why the decision had to be made and while I’m sad about it I’m not angry at her and I don’t think she’s angry at me.

Which isn’t to say that I’m happy about the breakup; far from it. But I am happy that we were able to communicate like adults in a reasonable fashion, and I know that if I should run into her at any point we can definitely be cordial to each other (and probably there will be a hug). Neither of us burned the bridge. We just closed it to through traffic.

(No, they’re not. But it was the only non-mean break-up meme I could find on short notice.)