Cheating & Betrayal·
THE OFFICE AFFAIR
Three coworkers navigate a brutal rift after learning one friend slept with another's wife for months, forcing them to confront loyalty, harm, and an impossible daily dynamic.
Would you keep either friendship after that?
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One friend's marriage blew apart after he learned another friend had been sleeping with his wife for "a considerable amount of time last year," and the third man in the circle was left stranded in the middle.
The poster says the title is the tl;dr: one friend slept with another friend's wife. He knows both men, has been friends with each for about the same amount of time, and says they're all pretty close, though the two men involved are "definitely closer." Then Friend A found out about the affair.
What he found out was simple and brutal: Friend B had been sleeping with Friend A's wife behind his back for an extended stretch. Friend A wanted nothing to do with him after that. According to the poster, he was "on the verge of assault as the best case scenario," and the friendship was effectively over.
The poster, meanwhile, didn't know where to stand. He says he generally takes the view that "well if they didn't harm me or my family, I personally don't have a problem with them," but admits he's never had to deal with a situation like this as an adult. Now he's stuck trying to figure out what happens when two people he's close to can no longer be in the same room without everything turning ugly.
He says the tension is made worse by the fact that they still see each other every day, so even if the friendship is already broken, it's not disappearing cleanly. "It'll never be the same," he wrote.
In edits, he clarified that the three of them are coworkers and "don't really hang out outside of work," which changes the stakes a little but doesn't solve the problem. He asked directly: "how would you continue or not continue a friendship with B?"
The poster also noted that Friend A and his wife have "mutually cheated on each other multiple times," but said that was "besides the point for now." His main question is what to do about Friend B now that the affair has come out and the workplace still forces everyone into the same orbit.
He ended by asking for advice, and said: "please let me know if updates or expanded explanation is wanted/needed to formulate advice."