Reddit Stories - My partner EMPLOYED BUSINESS journeys as a guise to RENDEZVOUS with ladies from

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #relationships #business #cheating #deception #infidelitySummary: My partner employed business journeys as a guise to rendezvous with ladies from. This deceitful behavior has caused turmoil in our relationship, leading to trust issues and emotional distress.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, relationships, business, cheating, deception, infidelity, trust, emotional distress, partner, deceitful behavior, turmoil, rendezvous, ladies, trust issues, relationship problems, secret meetingsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. My partner employed business journeys as a guise to rendezvous with ladies from matchmaking applications in various urban centers. When I discreetly departed while he was absent, he arrived inebriated and punched my brother-in-law in the face. I met my boyfriend Jake three years ago through mutual friends at a party that my co-worker was hosting, and honestly he seemed like such a great guy from the start because he was funny and charming and he actually listened when I talked instead of just waiting for his turn

to speak like so many guys do. We hit it off immediately and started dating pretty seriously after just a few weeks, and by the six-month mark we were basically spending every night together at either his place or mine. He worked in sales for this big construction company and I work as a dental hygienist, so our schedules lined up pretty well most of the time and we could actually see each other regularly, which was nice. About a year and a half into our relationship, we decided to move in together and found this cute little apartment that was perfect for both of us, and everything was going really well for the most part. Jake was always really social and had this tight group of guy friends that he'd known since college,

and they would all hang out pretty regularly for poker nights or to watch sports or whatever. His friends seemed okay when I met them, though I always got this weird vibe from a couple of them, especially this guy named Marcus who would make these comments about how Jake was whipped now that he had a girlfriend. and another guy named Tyler who would always be talking about all the women he was hooking up with and seemed to think that being in a relationship was some kind of prison sentence. The thing is, Jake's job started requiring more travel about eight months ago because his company was expanding into new markets and they needed experienced salespeople to go set up relationships with new clients in different cities. At first it was just like one trip a month for maybe two or

three days, and Jake seemed excited about it because it meant more money and better opportunities for advancement. I was supportive because I wanted him to succeed in his career, and the trips weren't that frequent so it didn't really affect our relationship much. But then the trip started getting more frequent, like every couple of weeks, and they were lasting longer too, sometimes four or five days instead of just two or three. Jake would always tell me about where he was going and what clients he was meeting with, and he would text me throughout the day and call me at night when he was in his hotel room, so I didn't really have any reason to be suspicious at first. The money was definitely better too because he was getting bonuses for all the new accounts he was bringing in, so we were

able to afford nicer things and go out to better restaurants and stuff like that. The first time I started feeling like something might be off was maybe four months ago when Jake came back from a trip and he just seemed different somehow. Not bad different, but like he was more energetic and happy that seemed kind of excessive for someone who had just spent three days in boring business meetings. I asked him about it and he said the trip had gone really well and he was just excited about landing some big new accounts, which made sense, I guess, but there was something about the way he was acting that just felt weird to me. Then there were these little things that started adding up over time, like how he would always shower immediately when he got home from trips,

even if he had showered at the hotel that morning before his flight. And he started being more protective of his phone, but like he would always make sure it was face down when he put it down, and if it buzzed while we were watching TV or something he would grab it really quickly and check it in a way that seemed almost nervous. He also started talking less about the specifics of his trips, like before he would tell me all about the restaurants he went to and the weird things that happened at the airport and stuff, but now he would just say the trip was fine and changed the subject. His friends were also acting weird around me, like they would get quiet when I walked into the room if Jake wasn't there yet, and I caught Marcus and Tyler exchanging these

looks a couple of times when Jake was talking about his work trips. When I mentioned this to Jake, he said I was being paranoid and that his friends were just being their usual immature selves, and maybe he was right, but it still bothered me. The thing that really started making me suspicious was about six weeks ago when Jake said he had to go on this big important trip to Denver for a whole week because they were trying to land this massive client that could basically set him up for a promotion. He was really excited about it and said it was going to be intense with meetings every day and client dinners every night, so he probably wouldn't be able to talk as much as usual. I said I understood and wished him luck, but something about the whole thing just felt

off to me, though I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. While he was gone, I barely heard from him at all, which was totally different from his other trips where he would text me throughout the day and call me every night. When I did get texts from him, they were really short and basic, like just saying he was busy and would talk to me later. I tried calling him a couple of times, but it went straight to voicemail, and when he finally called me back hours later he said he had been in meetings all day and his phone had been on silent. When he got back from that trip, he was acting even weirder than before, like he was almost guilty about something but trying to cover it up by being extra affectionate and buying me flowers and suggesting we go out

to this expensive restaurant that we had been talking about trying. I appreciated the gestures but it felt like he was trying to make up for something, though I couldn't figure out what. A couple of weeks after that, I was at his poker night at our apartment and I went to the kitchen to get drinks for everyone, and I overheard Marcus saying something to Tyler about how Jake needed to be more careful about his phone, and Tyler said something back about how some girls will go through your stuff if you give them the chance. They stopped talking when they saw me, but I definitely heard enough to know they were talking about Jake and about me, and it made me feel sick to my stomach because what reason would

Jake have to be careful about his phone unless he was hiding something from me? That night after his friends left, I asked Jake what Marcus meant about being careful with his phone, and Jake got this defensive look on his face and said Marcus was just being an idiot and talking about some girl he was dating who was super jealous and controlling. He said it had nothing to do with us and I shouldn't worry about what his friends say because they don't understand relationships like ours. I wanted to believe him but the way he answered made me feel like he was lying, and I started paying more attention to how he acted with his phone around me. Over the next couple of weeks, I noticed that he was definitely being more

secretive about his phone, like he would take it with him to the bathroom and he started charging it on his side of the bed instead of on the nightstand where he used to leave it. He also started getting texts and notifications at weird times, like late at night or early in the morning, and when I asked who was texting him he would just say it was work stuff or one of his friends. The whole situation came to a head last weekend when Jake was in the shower and his phone was on the bed next to me, and it lit up with a notification that I could see clearly from where I was sitting. It was from some app one didn't recognize with a woman's name and a message that said something like had such an amazing time last night, can't wait to see you again.

There was absolutely no innocent explanation for a message like that, and I knew I had to figure out what was going on. So I picked up his phone and it was still unlocked from when he was using it before his shower, and I saw that the notification was from this dating app that I had never heard of before. I opened the app and saw that he had an active profile with recent photos of himself that I had never seen before, and he had been messaging with multiple women over the past few months. I read through some of the conversations and they were all clearly about meeting up for hookups, and some of the women were from cities where he had been on his work trips. I felt like I was in some kind of nightmare because the man I thought I knew and loved had

apparently been cheating on me for months and lying to my face about it. When Jake got out of the shower and saw me holding his phone, his face went completely white and he knew immediately that I had seen everything. I asked him how long this had been going on and how many women he had been with, and he started trying to make excuses about how it wasn't what it looked like and how he had never actually met up with any of them and was just talking to them online because he was feeling insecure about our relationship. I told him that was complete bullshit because I had read the messages and they were clearly making. plans to meet up, and some of the conversations were from when he was supposedly in other cities for work.

He finally admitted that he had met up with a few women but said it didn't mean anything and he was just going through some kind of phase and he wanted to work things out with me because he loved me and knew he had made a huge mistake. I told him I needed time to think and asked him to stay at one of his friend's places for a few days while I figured out what I wanted to do. He begged me not to kick him out and promised he would delete all the apps and never talk to any other women again, but I said I couldn't even look at him right now and needed space to process everything. I've been getting texts from him all day begging me to talk to him and saying he'll do whatever it takes to fix this, but I don't even know if this is something that can be fixed or

if I should just cut my losses and move on. I'd have for going through my boyfriend's phone after finding a suspicious notification and confronting him about the dating apps he's been using behind my back. Update, I posted a few days ago about finding dating apps on my boyfriend Jake's phone and confronting him about it, and I said I needed time to think about what to do next. Well, I ended up doing some more digging because I couldn't stop thinking about all those work trips he had been taking, and what I found out is so much worse. After Jake left to stay at Marcus's place like I asked him to, I couldn't sleep that first night because my mind was racing with all these questions about how long this had been going on and

how extensive his cheating had been. I kept thinking about that week-long trip to Denver where he barely contacted me and how different he had been acting when he came back, and I realized I needed to know the truth about what had really been happening on all those trips. I remembered that Jake had this work laptop that he sometimes used at home, and I knew he kept travel confirmations and receipts in his email for expense reports. I logged into his email while he was gone and started looking through his travel bookings from the past few months. What I found made me feel physically sick because basically none of his recent trips matched up with what he had told me about where he was going and why.

Like that Denver trip where he said he was meeting with this huge potential client for a week, his hotel booking was actually for a completely different city, and when I looked at his credit card statements that were also in his email, I could see charges for two dinners every night he was gone, which definitely suggested he wasn't eating alone. I also found booking confirmations for hotels in cities where his company doesn't even have clients, and when I cross-referenced the dates with his dating app conversations that I had screenshoted before, forgot to mention in the first post, he deleted everything. I could see that he had been planning meetups with women in those exact cities on those exact dates. It was like putting together this horrible puzzle where every piece

confirmed that he had been systematically lying to me for months. The worst part was finding out that his friends had been helping him cover for it the whole time. I found text conversations between Jake and Marcus where Marcus was literally giving him advice about how to keep his story straight and what to tell me if I got suspicious. There was one message from Tyler about how Jake needed to be more careful about his dating app notifications, which explained that weird conversation I had overheard at poker night. Marcus had even helped Jake come up with fake emergencies when women he had met wanted to extend their hookups. And Tyler had apparently covered for Jake a couple of times when I had called Jake's phone and he was with other women, by taking the phone

and making up stories about how Jake was in the bathroom or in a meeting and would call me back later. I felt so stupid for believing all of it and for trusting not just Jake but his friends too, who had been looking me in the eye and pretending to be friendly while they were actively helping my boyfriend cheat on me. I also felt terrible about all the times I had defended Jake to my own friends and family when they made comments about how he seemed to be traveling a lot for work, because I had actually been covering for his cheating without even knowing it. When I confronted Jake about what I had found, he tried to minimize it at first by saying he had only actually slept with a few of the women and that most of them were just conversations

that didn't go anywhere. But when I showed him that I had seen his hotel bookings and credit card statements, he finally admitted that he had been meeting women in different cities for months and that his friends had been helping him keep it secret from me. He said it started after that first Chicago trip when he matched with someone on a dating app just out of curiosity, and he ended up meeting her for drinks which led to her. led to them hooking up in his hotel room. He said he felt terrible about it afterwards, but then he kept thinking about how exciting it had been to be with someone new, and when

his company started sending him on more trips he saw it as an opportunity to explore that side of himself without me finding out. Jake said he never meant for it to become such a regular thing and that he always planned to stop and just focus on our relationship, but every time he went on a trip the temptation was there and it was easy to justify it because I would never find out and it didn't affect how he felt about me. He said he loved me and wanted to be with me, and the other women were just physical and didn't mean anything emotional to him. I told him that it didn't matter how he justified it to himself because he had been lying to my face for months and using his job as covered to cheat on me with multiple women, and that his friends

had been part of the deception which made it even worse. I said I felt like I didn't even know who he really was anymore because the person I thought I was in love with would never do something like this to me. He kept apologizing and saying he would do whatever it took to earn back my trust, including finding a new job that didn't require travel and cutting off his friends who had helped him cheat. But I told him that the problem wasn't just the cheating, it was the months of elaborate lies and manipulation, and the fact that he had made me feel crazy for having suspicions when my gut was actually right about what was happening. Right now I'm staying at my sister's house because I couldn't stand being in our apartment with all the reminders of the life I thought we had

together. Jake has been calling and texting constantly. I told him I needed more time to figure out what I wanted to do, but honestly I'm leaning toward just ending things because I don't see how we could ever get back to a place of trust after something like this. So I guess I'm writing this update partly to organize my own thoughts and partly because some people asked me to let them know what happened next. I'm still figuring out the logistics of moving out and separating our finances and all of that practical stuff, but emotionally I think I'm starting to accept that this relationship is over and that I need to focus on rebuilding my life without him. Final update, this is probably going to be my last update about this whole situation because

things escalated in a really scary way and I just want to put this all behind me and move on with my life. I'm writing this partly because some people have been following my story and asking for updates, and partly because I think it might help other people who are dealing with similar situations to see how these things can spiral out of control even when you think you're handling them reasonably. After my last update where I talked about finding out that all of Jake's work trips were actually cover stories for meeting women from dating apps, I moved out and spent about a week staying at my sister Lucy's house while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do next. Jake had been calling and texting me constantly during that time, and he had also been showing

up at my work and leaving flowers and notes at Lucy's house, even though I had told him multiple times that I needed space and didn't want to see him while I was processing everything. Lucy and her husband David were amazing during this time and really supportive of whatever decision I wanted to make, but they were also getting frustrated with Jake's constant attempts to contact me because it was affecting their household too. David especially was getting annoyed because Jake would call their house phone at all hours looking for me, and he had started parking outside their house sometimes just waiting to see if I would come out.

I had been going back and forth about whether to try to work things out with Jake or just end the relationship completely, because even though what he did was unforgivable, we had been together for three years and had built a life together that was hard to just walk away from. But the more I thought about it and talked to my family, the more I realized that I could never trust him again and that staying with him would probably just lead to more problems down the road. So I decided that I was going to move out of our apartment permanently and end the relationship, and I wanted to do it while Jake was out of town on what he claimed was a legitimate work trip. He had left two days earlier for what he said was a quick overnight trip to meet with a client about renewing their contract, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get my stuff and leave without having to deal with a big dramatic confrontation.

Lucy and David helped me rent a small moving truck, and we went to the apartment on Thursday morning to pack up all my belongings and furniture that I had contributed to our shared household. It took us most of the day to get everything loaded up, and I also took the opportunity to remove my name from our joint bank account and cancel the U.T.T. that were in my name. I left Jake a letter explaining that I had decided to end the relationship and that I would be in touch about any remaining logistics, but that I didn't want him to contact me directly for a while because I needed time to heal and move on. The plan was for me to stay with Lucy and David for a few more weeks while I looked for my own apartment, and everything seemed to be going smoothly until Jake came back from his trip and found our apartment mostly empty and my letter waiting for him. According to the angry voicemails he left on my phone, he was

completely shocked that I had actually moved out because he thought he still had a chance to convince me to forgive him and work things out. He started calling Lucy's house immediately and demanding to talk to me, but I had asked Lucy and David not to tell him I was there, so they just said they didn't know where I was and that he should stop calling. He didn't believe them obviously, and he spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning driving by their house and calling over and over again. Lucy finally had to unplug their house phone because it was ringing constantly, and David was getting really angry about the whole situation. Things got really scary on Saturday evening when Jake showed up at Lucy's front door with his friend Marcus, and both of

them seemed like they had been drinking because I could smell alcohol on them when Lucy opened the door. Jake was demanding to see me and saying that I owed him a face-to-face conversation after three years together, and that he wasn't leaving until I talked to him and gave him a chance to explain himself and make things right. Lucy told them that I wasn't there, I was upstairs in the guest bedroom and had asked her not to admit that I was in the house. But Jake said he knew I was there because my car was parked down the street, and he pushed past Lucy into the house and started calling my name and saying he just wanted to talk to me for five minutes. David came down from upstairs when he heard the commotion and told Jake that he needed to leave

immediately because he was trespassing and making Lucy uncomfortable. But Jake was really agitated and kept saying that this was all a misunderstanding and that if I would just talk to him we could work everything out. Marcus was trying to calm him down, but also backing him up by saying that I was being unreasonable and that relationships required compromise and forgiveness. I could hear everything that was happening from upstairs and I was honestly terrified because I had never seen Jake act like this before, even when we were fighting about the cheating. He sounded desperate and angry in a way that made me afraid of what he might do if I actually came downstairs and tried to talk to him. David kept telling them both that they needed to leave and that they could

call me later if they wanted to talk, but Jake was getting more and more worked up and saying that he had every right to see his girlfriend and that David didn't understand the situation. When David said that I wasn't Jake's girlfriend anymore and that he was going to call the police if they didn't leave voluntarily, Jake completely lost it and started yelling about how David was just some random guy who didn't know anything about our relationship and needed to mind his own business. The situation escalated really quickly from there because David stepped between Jake and the stairs leading up to where I was hiding, and Jake took that as some kind of challenge and shoved David really hard. David stumbled backwards and hit his shoulder on the wall, and then

Jake tried to push past him to get upstairs, which made David grab onto Jake's arm to stop him. That's when Jake completely snapped and punched David in the face, which split David's lip and knocked him down. Lucy started screaming and I came running downstairs because I was afraid Jake was going to really hurt David, and when Jake saw me he started apologizing, and saying he didn't mean to hit anyone and just wanted to talk to me alone for a minute. But I was absolutely terrified at that point because if Jake was willing to punch my brother-in-law just for trying to protect me, I didn't know what he might do to me if I refused to listen to what he had to say. So I told Lucy to call 911 while I tried to keep Jake calm by saying

that we could talk but that he needed to let David get some ice for his face first. Marcus was trying to get Jake to leave before the police showed up, but Jake was still insisting that he just needed a few minutes to explain himself and that everything would be fine once I understood his side of the story. He kept saying that the whole thing was being blown out of proportion and that David had started the physical confrontation by grabbing his arm. When the police arrived about ten minutes later, Jake finally seemed to realize how serious the situation had become, and he started trying to downplay what had happened by saying it was just a misunderstanding between friends and that nobody wanted to press charges. But David's face

was already swelling up and it was obvious that he had been punched, and Lucy and I both told the officers exactly what had happened and how Jake had forced his way into the house and refused to leave when asked. The officers arrested Jake for assault and trespassing, and they also took Marcus in for questioning since he had been part of the initial break-in. Jake was still trying to talk to me as they were putting him in the police car, saying that he loved me and that this was all just a big mistake and that he would never hurt me or anyone in my family. David had to go to the emergency room to get his lip checked out and make sure his nose wasn't broken, but fortunately he was

okay except for some bruising and swelling. Lucy was really shaken up by the whole thing because she had never experienced anything like that before, and she said it made her understand why domestic violence situations can escalate so quickly and unpredictably. Jake spent the night in jail and was released on bail. His lawyer has been trying to contact me about dropping the charges, but David and I both decided that we want to pursue the assault case because Jake needs to understand that there are real consequences for his actions. I've also been in touch with a lawyer about getting a restraining order because I'm genuinely afraid of what Jake might do next,

especially since he seems to think that everything that happened was somehow justified by his feelings for me. I'm staying with Lucy and David for a few more weeks until I can find my own place, and I'm also taking some time off work to deal with all the legal stuff and just process everything that's happened. I feel like I've been through an emotional tornado over the past few weeks, and I need some time to figure out who I'm outside of that relationship and what I want my life to look like going forward. I wanted to write this final update partly to thank everyone who gave me support and advice

during this whole nightmare, and partly to encourage anyone who might be in a similar situation to trust their instincts and prioritize their safety above everything else. I never thought that my relationship could go from seemingly normal to violent and scary in such a short period of time, but it's made me realize how important it is to have exit strategies and support systems in place even when everything seems fine on the surface.