Dear Prudence,
My husband's friend is a perpetual bachelor. He dates a girl for a few
months, introduces her around, brings her to group functions, etc., and
then dumps her once it has gotten too serious. Because the friend and my
husband are close, I become the new best friend for the girlfriend du
jour during camping trips, double dates, sports games, and happy hours
with our group. The bachelor is charming and has the women believing
everything is perfect until the breakup blindside. Then they are
devastated and I end up having to deal with tearful phone calls and
get-togethers while they ask me what went wrong. The most recent breakup
involved a fragile woman with no close friends or family in town. I
felt rude for not returning all the frantic calls and texts of this
woman, but I’m frustrated that this draining duty always seems to fall
on me. I've talked to the bachelor about it, and he says no one is
forcing me to become friends with his girlfriends. That’s true, but it’s
hard not to act like a decent human being to these women. How can I
avoid this pitfall in the future?