I’m the Other Kind of Other Woman

After my divorce, I was no longer protected from the advances of married men

Maggie Haukka
Human Parts

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Credit: Tiayrra Bradley/EyeEm/Getty Images

IIt’s happened three times now, with three different married men, in the three months since I’ve been divorced. It seems like too much of a coincidence to be coincidental.

It looks like this: A man I’ve worked with for years suddenly begins communicating with me exponentially more frequently than he did before I got divorced. A corporate VP so far north of me on the org chart that we’ve never met reaches out to schedule coffee and to “discuss my work and how it could contribute to future projects,” except when I get there we don’t really talk about any future projects — we just sort of, you know, get to know each other. A friend from high school with whom I’ve not spoken in 20 years sends me a Facebook message saying he wants to “rekindle our friendship.”

In each of these cases, the communication continues from there. They call me from their offices, from their business trips, from their commutes. They text whenever — morning and night — sometimes just to say “good morning” or “goodnight,” which seems odd; even my closest female friends and I don’t do this.

They never say anything remotely suggestive or inappropriate, which is what makes this whole thing confusing. Are we suddenly just…

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