I confronted Daniel at the bar that night, but he tried to act like the two of them weren’t flirting and inching next to each other all night. He exchanged texts and calls with me the next few days, but something was clearly off and, less than a week after Becca’s birthday party, he called me to be “upfront” and tell me that he and Becca were dating and he was “moving on” and he hoped that “I could respect that.”

I cut Becca out of my life for almost a year. Ignored the calls, texts and voicemails she sent me to apologize and say it was really all just a crazy thing that Daniel and her fell for each other so fast and it was nothing personal. She would understand if the situation was reversed. She quit trying after a couple of weeks.

I was genuinely shocked when Becca reached back out a year after the whole thing. I accepted her olive branch and we became friends again, though we became those awkward friends who you only invite to group outings and never really feel comfortable one-on-one with again. Our mended relationship was calculated on both ends. She got to feel better about herself, and I got to start spinning the silky patterns of the web I would eventually trap her in.