She Cooked Dinner For Her Coworker And His Kids, So His Wife Thought They Were Having An Affair
When her coworker’s world turned upside down, she did what any decent person would do; she jumped in to help. But kindness doesn’t always land the way you think it will.
Her coworker’s wife immediately assumed the worst, and now she’s holding the weight of a misunderstanding that never should’ve happened.
This 25-year-old girl has a 44-year-old coworker named Matt. A couple of months ago, Matt’s 39-year-old wife, Mary, had to take a trip back to her home country in order to help her sick mom, who then passed away.
Matt and Mary knew this would not be a quick trip, and so Matt was left all alone to deal with their three children, who are twelve, eight, and four. Matt instantly began having a difficult time managing all the kids.
“We work full-time, 10+ hours a day, and he went from being part of a partnership to essentially being a single parent overnight. Mary works at the same job, but in a higher position in another area,” she explained.
“He handled most of it fine, but shopping and making dinner gave him a lot of trouble. He could handle breakfast, the church/day camps/schools handled lunch, but he was struggling with dinner and finding time to get all the shopping done between picking kids up, getting them home, or to extracurriculars, etc.”
Before the pandemic, she actually had a job at a catering company, and it’s pretty simple for her to cook in bulk.
This is actually how she makes her own meals; she will cook one enormous batch of food, and that will last her for lunch and dinner.
So, she told Matt that if he paid for her gas and groceries, she would cook dinner for him and his kids throughout the week.
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“At some point, the 12-year-old asked if he could watch me make dinner, and then if he could help, so I started teaching him the basics (which, TBH, I kind of think he should have already known, but whatever) and he posted pictures of it all online,” she added.
“I started taking him shopping with me so he could help pick things out, and he started packing everyone’s lunches. It was cute.”
“Apparently, his mom saw pictures of it, and in some, it featured me talking to his dad, and she got the wrong impression. She messaged me on social media, ‘confronting me’ about the affair.”
She was upset, but remained calm while questioning Matt’s wife, Mary, about whether Matt had ever cheated on her in the past.
Mary confirmed that Matt had been nothing but faithful, so she asked another question: had she ever suspected Matt of cheating? Mary said no once more.
She then wanted to know if Mary thought Matt was dumb enough to introduce their kids to his affair partner and allow their son to put photos online. A third no came from Mary.
She proposed that Mary could look through her phone when she returned from her trip to prove that she had done nothing wrong with Matt.
“At about that point, I think she realized how ridiculous the idea was, and she called me over Facebook and started crying and apologizing,” she continued.
“I told her it was all okay, promised not to tell her husband and all that, but I still see her at work now that she’s home again, and it’s always super, super awkward. I generally chalked it up to her being stressed to the gills and on edge, but ever since then, I’ve been extremely paranoid about my behavior and how I’m coming off to other people.”
“I really do not want to come off as someone who would help a man cheat on his wife while she’s burying her mother. So now I’ve wound up double-thinking almost everything I say, how often I offer to help people, how much help I give, how I come off if I ask for help, what it means if I agree to hang out with someone outside of work, and how their families might view it. All of it.”
She didn’t cross a line; someone else drew the wrong one. And yeah, it stings. It’s hurtful to have the best of intentions, only to have someone misread that.
But being a good person doesn’t mean shrinking yourself so no one ever misinterprets you. I don’t think she needs to tiptoe through the rest of her life just to avoid someone else’s insecurities again in the future.
It’s okay to be thoughtful. It’s okay to be generous. And it’s okay to let this moment hurt without letting it change who she is at her core.
What advice do you have for her?
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