DEAR HARRIETTE: A few months in the past, an in depth good friend and I made a decision to maneuver in collectively.
We started our hunt for housing and located the right place with separate bedrooms and loos for every of us. This sounded nice to me as a result of the difficulty with roommates normally occurs within the shared areas.
We signed a yearlong lease, and we loved our first month there adorning, cooking collectively and extra.
The second month rolled round, and my roommate didn’t have her share of the hire and claimed to have been laid off. She solely admitted this to me as soon as I requested why she was late on fee.
She’s now requested if I can spot her in order that we don’t lose the condominium. She says she will start a fee plan with me and shut it out as quickly as she will get one other job.
I might love to remain right here, however paying for each of us shouldn’t be what I signed up for. Ought to I assist a good friend who could critically be in want, or ought to I be suspicious?
— Subsequent Steps
DEAR NEXT STEPS: Verify your lease to find out your legal responsibility. Recommend that your roommate ask her dad and mom or different associates to identify the hire. Do your finest to get her to search out the cash elsewhere.
Learn how lengthy you’ve earlier than eviction. Sit along with her and make a concrete plan for staying within the condominium. Don’t simply tackle her debt.
DEAR HARRIETTE: My boyfriend and I’ve been courting for 4 years. For some time, it felt like we had been constructing a life collectively — an actual future. We dreamed collectively.
Apart from the love we shared as romantic companions, we had been each bold and helped push one another alongside in our careers as nicely. Over time and after a lot belief was constructed, we started exploring enterprise ventures collectively. Like several enterprise, we’ve skilled ups and downs, however total, I’ve cherished the method of entrepreneurship.
Sadly, although, I feel my emotions for my accomplice have modified. Our relationship has change into mundane. We’re not as romantic or as blissful as we was once.
I don’t really feel like a precedence to him anymore, and he appears rather a lot much less bold than he was once. It seems like we’re completely different folks now and at completely different levels in our lives, and I’m undecided I see a future for us anymore.
The considered having shared companies, although, is preserving me from making the arduous resolution. I preserve ignoring my unhappiness as a result of we’re so closely financially concerned.
Ought to I attempt to make issues work, or is it doable to have a platonic enterprise relationship with an ex?
— Turning Level
DEAR TURNING POINT: Verify your authorized paperwork to make sure that your standing in all your enterprise ventures. Then speak to your boyfriend.
Inform him you don’t really feel like your romantic relationship is at the moment working. Discover out what he thinks. You might simply want a reboot in your relationship. Don’t be too fast to stroll away.
It doesn’t matter what, it’ll take time to speak by way of your emotions and are available to an settlement on the best way ahead. Let him know the place you stand.
If you wish to keep in enterprise with him however not as his romantic accomplice, be clear about that. Time will let for those who can work collectively underneath these new circumstances.
Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founding father of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to assist folks entry and activate their goals. You’ll be able to ship inquiries to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas Metropolis, MO 64106.
