EUGENE, Ore. (BN) — Twenty-four hours after formally agreeing to open his relationship up to non-monogamy at his partner’s request, Acorn Lindenbaum, 33, had discovered that his identifying female, cis-hetero companion of two years had already taken full advantage of the newly-arranged situation.
“She’d already slept with someone. Like, that evening. I don’t know—she must’ve set it up the day we agreed to it. Or maybe before.
“Not that I’m keeping score of our sexual exploits,” Mr. Lindenbaum went on about the affair, “because that’s not what this is about and it would be toxic of me to think that she’s responsible for my sexual well-being. But she’s already slept with, like, six people. In about a week. Some of them on multiple different occasions. And most of them are friends of mine. One of them is even our daughter’s first grade teacher.”
As for how his scorecard reads, Mr. Lindenbaum is still showing a big, fat goose egg for his efforts.
“I’ve been trying, you know? I mean, I know a ton of people in the New Age community, people I know for a fact have expressed an interest in ENM and poly. But suddenly, they’re all like, ‘Let me go ask my [male] partner,’ and every time they come back: ‘Sorry, Ashton says he doesn’t want me sharing myself with anyone right now,’ or whatever. Where’s all that ‘I-can’t-put-boundaries-on-my-relationship’ now, huh?! Come on!”
For the time being, Mr. Lindenbaum has found himself with not a small amount of regret at acquiescing to the arrangement, and wondering whether or not he made the right decision.
“I agreed to this because she repeatedly expressed her needs to explore other people’s bodies, and the desire to sleep with other men and women,” he said. “Now I’m starting to think she did it because she knew I wouldn’t get anything out of the deal.”
