I mostly just need to vent here...
Long story that I'll try to make short:
I have a good friend who I slept with a couple of times (the last time was over a year ago). He's an amazing guy, I still find him attractive and whatnot but we just would never work as a couple (not to mention we're in different parts of the country) and our "history" was just fun and games.
He has a new girlfriend who seems very cool and they seem really happy together, which makes me and the rest of his friends happy (especially after he had a long string of bad luck with relationships). I've now met her twice- the first time was at a museum the last time I visited NJ (around Christmas). We were supposed to have a big group outing but it ended up only being me, my mom, him and her (the other 5 or so people cancelled). Slightly awkward because it was my first time meeting her and we were all clearly very tired from late nights and the holiday, but I thought things were cool.
Yesterday I saw her again, at a party. Context: I had been in NJ cleaning out a bunch of shit from my old bedroom in my mom's house, and a lot of my friends/family got "presents" from the pile of crap I was getting rid of. This guy got a book, a button, and a pair of furry handcuffs, still in the box, that I think I was given as a gag gift and never used (fur is for pansies). I knew his girlfriend would be at the party and I thought it would be funny to give him for that reason (and because I have a reputation among my friends as the sort of person who... well, who would own furry handcuffs). He laughed and made a joke about it and I didn't notice, but apparently she was pretty bothered by this (the hug goodbye I got from her later
was really awkward). Turns out she knows about our "history" (had I known this of course I would have toned it down, but this was just normal behavior with me and my friends)- she had asked him whether there was anything between us after we met at the museum in December, because apparently she felt uncomfortable around me.
So anyway, I got this long message from him explaining all this, saying he wasn't mad, but that it was uncomfortable, etc. He also said that his girlfriend thinks I'm harboring feelings for him and thought I did this as a "move" to try and show her up, and basically asked me if that was true. I wrote him a long reply back saying that I didn't mean anything by it and it was supposed to be funny, that I wasn't harboring feelings for him, etc. I told him that with their permission I'd like to apologize to his girlfriend personally but I'm waiting to hear back, and I'm just hella embarrassed/uncomfortable now.
A few thoughts:
1. I'm just generally sort of a flirty person, with all of my friends (male, female, in between), and maybe he explained that to her but I'm not sure. Point is my making that type of gesture doesn't mean I'm into you, necessarily. In fact it usually doesn't because when I like a person in that way I get wayyy too shy to actually be that brazen.
2. What kind of a crazy bitch would I have to be to do that IN FRONT OF HER, IN PUBLIC WITH DOZENS OF PEOPLE AROUND, if I really had a thing for him?
3. Why do people have to be so uptight and insecure? Why does my having slept with your boyfriend long before you started dating have to make me a threat?
4. I live 1800 miles away, for fuck's sake.
Blah. I'm just embarrassed and worried that now this girl hates me when I tried to be cool and make her feel comfortable. He still hasn't replied to my message and it's bothering me.
(tl;dr version: my friend's girlfriend thinks I'm harboring feelings for him because of a sexy gag gift I gave him in front of her but that's really just my personality, and now I'm uncomfortable
)