Man proposes to girlfriend as prank; she says he 'broke my heart.' UPDATED
"My boyfriend faked a proposal, so I broke up with him."
Me (24F) have been dating my boyfriend Andrew (26M) for 5 years now, we've had a healthy and stable relationship, up until today. Andrew has always been a 'prankster' and makes jokes with me all the time, and I do it to him too. But, today, he took it way too far.
In the morning he woke me up at 7am and told me to wake up because he wanted to take me to the spa. I was pretty surprised cause it wasn't a special day or anything, but I was all in for it. At the spa, he told me how he wanted to go to a fancy restaurant after we were done at the spa, and that he was paying. Of course I agreed as we hadn't been out together in a long time.
We then got to the restaurant, we had a beautiful and romantic dinner and just a nice time in general. We were talking about a house we were planning to move in to and chitchatted about other stuff too.
After around 40 minutes Andrew stood up and got on his knees and took out a box out of his pocket. My heart stopped beating; I hadn't even predicted this. We have never talked about any proposal before but I also thought it was a great time now.
He did a speech about how I was the most beautiful girl in the world and how he wanted to live with me forever and ended with 'will you marry me, my princess?'. Of course I said yes!
Seconds later all that excitement turned into horror, he opened the small box I expected he put the ring in and in it was a note saying 'you've been pranked!!!' and Andrew started laughing hysterically.
He continued with 'baby this was just a prank! I'm not ready at all to marry you yet!'. He was leaning in to hug me but I gave him the biggest slap ever with tears streaming down my face. I just told him 'we're over you f*cking scumbag'.
I am now sitting in my bed crying and writing this and I don't know what to do. He's been texting and calling me but I haven't responded because I feel so sad, betrayed and mostly angry. I thought this was going to be one of the best days of my life. What should I do?
Here were the top rated comments from readers after this initial post:
ForgottenHorse
Old boy took it too far. It's hard to come back from that sort of disrespect. I think you would be best not seeing him anymore. He lied to you and tricked you, now he can deal with the fallout.
Nienista
It seems in these pranking relationships someone always goes too far. I just don't get it. You are supposed to feel safe with your person. How can you feel safe perpetually on guard for pranks? I hate all of this. OP, I hope you learned a lesson here.
SiidChawsby
26 years old? This dude is a corny a** loser.
phantom_tweak
Wouldn't doubt he saw a TikTok portraying the same “prank” & since everything is scripted, it was jokes. Too bad he’s gotta learn real life isn't on the screen & actions have consequences.
pancakesquest1
What do you mean what should I do!? You announce that you have big news! You and Andrew are finally ready to let everyone know that the relationship was just a prank! You’re actually single! Then go date someone else who cares about you.
One day later, the OP returned with an update:
Thank you guys so much for all of the love in the replies on my last post, I honestly didn't expect it to get as much attention as it did but I'm very very grateful for that and it has helped me a lot. I asked mods of this subreddit if I could do an early update and they allowed me to so here's the update.
After I made that reddit post I fell asleep crying, then woke up and decided to call my now ex-boyfriend. I told him that it was over and that I didn't want to be together with someone who, after 5 years, still isn't ready for marriage and went so far as to make a big joke about it.
He cried and then turned angry and demanded for me to stay and told me I was 'a f*cking a**@ole for leaving him like this after everything he has done for me'. He cussed me out so much that I stopped listening at one point so I don't really remember everything he said.
In the end we came to a sort of agreement that we are going to sell the house and that he will be sleeping in the guest room for now, so today I've just been scrolling the internet for apartments so I can have a fresh start.
He is still not happy about the break up tho. He is trying so hard to get back with me saying stuff the whole day like 'can't we be together again?' and 'this was just a small mistake I made'.
But the one that did it for me was 'don't be so f*cking petty and drop it, you know we are happy together and you know you still want me.' When he said that I absolutely lost it and called him every single name I could come up with, then slammed my door.
I think he also told his family about this whole situation cause today I got a call from his mom telling me how 'selfish' I was and how I 'couldn't handle a simple joke' and it ended with her calling me a sl*t and hanging up the call. After that I've gotten several message from his other family members such as his siblings, his dad and even his aunt.
I've tried to just block them all but every now and then a new message comes in from a different number. I feel like more will happen but the next update will probably not be in less than a week or so. I'm gonna try to sell stuff I don't need, find a new apartment and fix everything with the house and stuff before we put it up for sale. I just wanna get out of here as quickly as possible.
Here were the top rated comments from readers after this latest update:
catscuterthendogs
How could his mother call you “sl@t”? He disrespected you, his act was so humiliating, she should say sorry that she did not invest enough time to teach him how to behave!
True_Falsity
Because admitting her son’s fault would indicate her poor parenting.
As many parents do, it is easier for them to pretend their kids are perfect and it is the world that is wrong.
The_Crystal_Thestral
I’ll also bet that she didn’t get the full story. I doubt OP’s ex is a reliable narrator.
Bekiala
I used to tell my fourth and fifth graders that joking is funny to the person initiating it and the person receiving it. If it isn't funny to both then it is just being mean. At least OP learned the truth about her boyfriend and his family before the relationship produced children.
MUTHR
'You know you still want me.' I wonder if this is a sudden mask drop from this guy or more of a boiling frog situation. Because, my God what a dingleberry.