It’s normal to have one or two things that bug us about our partner, without those things being a dealbreaker.

That’s because with toleration and love, who cares if he leaves his socks beside the laundry basket rather than inside, and what does it matter if she makes a mess when she slurps her spaghetti.

When you live in close proximity you notice these things, but if you care about the individual you won’t kick off about them.

The woman in this story has a partner with a habit of showboating in company. She can just about handle it – until his one-upmanship comes at her friend’s expense.

Read on to see what made her see red.

AITA for embarrassing my boyfriend after he tried to belittle my friend?

My boyfriend Sam and I (both 27) have just moved in together, so we had a housewarming party for our friends.

He invited mostly his friends from work and I invited my friends, including my friend Will, who used to be my foster brother.

Obviously we’re not foster siblings anymore, but we were from the time that I was twelve. Will was 14 then, and lived with us until he went to college, which my parents paid for.

He’s still in contact with my parents and has been a good friend of mine – he’s actually the reason I moved to the city I live in now.

Let’s see what happened at this housewarming party.

So, one thing about Sam is that he’s kind of a try-hard in company. It’s balanced out by a lot of other amazing qualities, but it’s his “flaw” (we all have them).

It does get on my nerves, but I mostly let it go. I get that his sister is the favourite in his family, and he’s dealt with a lot of feelings of inadequacy. Normally his attempts to feel big are harmless so I just go with it, because he’s not like that when it’s just the two us.

However, at this party he was really showboating, especially about the apartment, which everyone was complimenting.

At one point we were talking to a mixed group of friends about college, and I mentioned that my parents had paid for both mine and Will’s college.

Read on to find out how this innocent conversation sparked drama.

One of Sam’s colleagues said that was really nice of my parents, and Sam responded that he would never be okay letting someone outside his family pay for college.

I know that Sam had a pretty rough time having to work multiple jobs to afford college, but I still thought it was an incredibly low blow towards Will.

Firstly my parents are not strangers to Will, they’re the closest thing he has to parents, so what was he supposed to do?

And they offered because they believed in him and cared about his education – it’s not like he scammed them out of money. He’s also paid them back in the years since he’s earned enough to do so.

Sam’s insensitivity really triggered her, and she bit back.

It just made me so mad that he picked on the only person he thought he could “win” against, because most of his colleagues seem to come from money, so he had to romanticise his origin story at Will’s expense.

I just saw red.

So I said “oh, but you’re fine with someone outside your family paying the rent here like I do?” (which is true, because I pay the vast majority of the rent for our apartment, he pays almost nothing).

Sam was clearly embarrassed by this, and one of his friends teased him for having a “sugar momma,” which I could see he hated.

Read on to find out what happened after the party ended.

I had honestly forgot about the whole thing by the time the party ended, but Sam brought it up and said I was cruel to embarrass him like that.

I said he was being a ***** and trying to look big by belittling someone I care about, and I wasn’t letting that slide – he chose to throw a stone through his big glass house.

He didn’t say anything else, but he’s been kind of cold ever since. He keeps making passive aggressive digs about everything.

I’m so tired of it and I know we need to have a conversation about it, but before we do I want some unbiased opinion on how apologetic I should be.

So she reached out to her friends and family.

My parents say he got what he deserved, and my girlfriends say the same.

Every guy friend I talk to – Will included – says I’ve stepped on an Achilles heel.

I just think if Sam doesn’t see anything wrong with what he said, then why would there be anything wrong with what I said?

AITA?

She is absolutely not in the wrong for defending her friend, especially given the personal nature of the dig that Sam made.

Understandably she embarrassed him in front of his colleagues, since he was keen to make everything – including their nice apartment – about him and his own success, when really this was far from the truth.

It feels like Sam’s behavior around others really gets on her nerves, which begs the question: does she actually like him?

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person thought that Sam got what he deserved.

But others thought that she’d crossed a line with her comment.

Meanwhile, this Redditor tried to prepare her for what might be to come.

It’s clear that there is a certain element of incompatibility between the two, and if they are to socialise together she is accepting that she doesn’t actually like who he is around others.

But if he keeps insulting her friends, it’s clear that she isn’t going to back down, which means that further conflict could be waiting for them down the line.

This needs a clear and honest conversation between the pair, and if they are to work out as a couple they need to be fully on the same page – both in public and in private.

Otherwise, this isn’t going to work.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.