Long story but I"ll go into it in full detail...
We met when she was 20 and I was 26. We met in EQ, she was in San Diego I was in Salt Lake City. We hung out in game for months and on IM. We"d call / text alot then we met in Vegas. We hit it off, for me and her it was love at first sight. We would regularly start meeting in Vegas every month until she finished junior College that spring. Then she transfered up here to the University of Utah with me. She moved into the Dorms for the first half of the semester before moving in with me after that.
She is an only child from a really unique family setup, almost unhealthy in the way that her and her parents are so close, less like parents more like siblings. Her parents were never too keen on the notion of me or us together.
3 months into her moving here she had no friends so we hung out with my friends. 1 of my best friends would hang out with us a lot and then they would get coffee together and I was fine with it. Well one night after her helping him buy furniture for his new apartment, they watched a movie, he opened some wine and she"s a lush. She has no world experience so 1 drink and she"s lit. He proceeds to tell her he"s in love with her, walks to his bedroom and invites her in. She freaks out and leaves. Doesn"t tell me cause she thinks I"ll leave her. I find out...huge blow up with my friend...no longer my friend...she and I get over it. It takes me a year to get past my jealousy and suspicions though and we would argue over it. Finally I got past it.
We were together 5 1/2 years. Lived together for 3 of them. During that time we would argue every 3 months or so because we are very stubborn. Not huge arguments really but to her they were because she has no experience with it. She says her parents only ever argued once in her lifetime. She said that it was a cycle, which it was, every 3 months she felt like she had to walk on eggshells. She said we needed help. My pride, my embarassment, and my inability to express my emotions got in the way of going to counseling.
She is a very, very sexual person. She equates sex to being loved when she is in a relationship. I told her I loved her daily, and that she was beautiful but it never sank in. We had sex a couple times a week or sometimes longer stretches. She told me she needed more and I knew it but failed to come through due to stress at work, school, and having very little free time to rest.
I proposed Dec 13, 2008 and she was so happy. Gushing even. Then we went to her parents for christmas and I had to stay up for 3 hours at night alone with her father getting lectured about how I wasn"t to marry her til after she graduated, and nothing was to let that interfere with her school. I agreed and all that did was put added pressure on it along with me being scared, nervous about marriage, and shy. She felt like I didn"t want to marry her after a few months of that cause I couldn"t express how I really felt, that I was overjoyed at marrying her.
So this spring we had a huge fight, she stayed at our friends for 5 days, we talked and she came home on her own cause she said she missed me. She said we need counseling, I said no. Few weeks of this I relented and said ok I"d go to 1. She set the appointment and it got canceled to scheduling conflict. She / I never rescheduled.
All summer goes by, things are just like normal, we get along great. We"re each others best friend. We laugh, we love. She wasn"t faking the love. Well 3 months ago I get a message from her on Facebook that was intended for my ex-best friend from before. Apparently he had been inviting her to lunch privately. She told him no. I got pissed. Real pissed. Cause he had the balls to try this shit again?! I went into her office (we work together) and was livid. Told her to unfriend him. She said she"d handle it...I said no do it now. She did.
We went home and I appologized that night. Told her she said she"d handle it I should have trusted her to handle it.
Next 3 months are just like always. We"re happy. Then 1 morning we had the tiniest of fights. She snapped at me, I snapped 2 words back about not needing her attitude and walked away. She came home that night, said she was done. Packed her a suitcase and left. Said she had been thinking all day and didn"t want to try anymore.
She"s been at friends houses this month, though she just moved into her own apartment last night with a girl from her engineering department.
Of course unlike any other time in our relationship what she said sank in because for the first time I wasn"t mad at the time. I reflected on everything and realized I was madly in love with her, recognized my faults, sought help (will continue to go no matter what happens) through counseling, and have tried talking to her during that month to tell her everything. What I feel, she was right in many aspects, etc.
Nothing has done any good. So now I"m stuck...got nothing left but to keep working on myself, cut off contact (except at work), and hope she see"s the changes and has second thoughts?
Advice?
PS. She had her faults too...she gave up on love, cause she still does love me, she can"t hide it in things she"s said, personal contact touching, etc. She has no life experience and needs to grow up and realized ALL relationships have fights, and are hard. But she"s my best friend, and everything else. We both felt that the only thing that would ever tear us apart was cheating (it was anathema to both of us) guess I was wrong..