Dear Readers: As I announced last week, my final “Ask Amy” column in this space will run on June 30. (Readers will be able to find me through my newsletter and on amydickinson.com.)
Until then, I’ll occasionally open my files and rerun some previously published Q&A. Here are two:
Dear Amy: I learned that my boyfriend might have cheated on me.
He told me that a friend of his saw a female (that the friend used to date) on a dating site.
The friend wanted to get revenge on this ex, so he used my boyfriend’s old profile from the dating site to catfish her.
However, from everything I saw, it seems like my boyfriend was not the middle man, but the primary person.
All the messages between the two were from my boyfriend, and the messages from him sounded just like him — not like his friend.
My boyfriend and I got into an argument, and he left the house.
At the same time he was arguing with me, he was texting the girl, wanting to see her.
He went to her house that night and when he came home, he was acting differently.
Later I spoke with the female involved and she told me that she and my boyfriend had in fact slept together.
He has adamantly denied this, saying that he only went to her house as a bet from his friend — the one who was using his profile on the dating app.
I’m trying to move forward from this situation, but I don’t know if I believe my boyfriend.
I need a second opinion: How does this situation sound to you?
Do you think he cheated?
Should I put this behind me, move on, and accept his explanation?
— Wondering and Worried
Dear Wondering: Rome’s Bocca della Verità, or “Mouth of Truth,” is an ancient marble mask, which according to the popular medieval legend will bite the hand off of anybody who has told a lie.
The idea is that you place your hand inside of the mouth of this large sculptured mask, and then let the magic of the Bocca della Verita be your lie detector.
(You might recognize this monument from the wonderful Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck movie “Roman Holiday.”)
Let me put it this way: If your guy had placed his hand inside the “Mouth of Truth” while spinning his entertaining tale (about his friend using his account to catfish a woman), he would be left holding a bloody stump.
So yes, put this behind you. You also might want to put him behind you.
(You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)
©2024 Amy Dickinson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
