Let’s be real: it’s quite normal for a breakup to be messy. After all, when we get into a relationship, especially a long-term one, our lives get intertwined. Same house, same friends, shared finances and close family ties, all of these things take a hit when a relationship breaks down. And if you share children? Forget about things being easy, at least in the short term.

Despite the fact that the guy in this story cheated on the mother of his child, things were going suspiciously well. They were all on speaking terms, and custody of their son was shared. They had arrangements that were generally going well, and the mom even went to her ex’s wedding when he married the woman that he cheated on her with.

However, things would not be that easy forever. Because when the mom started dating, things got weird because it wasn’t just the fact that she had a new man in her life that was upsetting her ex. Nope, he was even more upset when he found out who it was that she was in a relationship with, and one day, things blew up.

Read on to find out what happened.

AITA for letting my boyfriend/my ex’s best friend pick up my son from my ex’s place?

I was with my ex (let’s call him “Tyler”) for two years.

When our son (who we’ll call “Alfie”) was six months old, Tyler told me he was seeing another woman, “Heather,” and Heather was pregnant.

I dumped him, and he came clean to Heather, and she dumped him, too. But a couple of years later, Tyler and Heather got back together, and are now married.

Alfie turned five in March, and Tyler and Heather’s daughter “Anna” recently turned four. We split custody of Alfie 50/50.

But things were about to get a whole lot more complicated.

About a year ago I ran into Tyler’s friend (who we’ll call “Max”) at work. Max recognised me and asked if I’d want to get a coffee, and I said sure.

Max and Tyler grew up together, went to the same schools from pre-school up to university, but as adults they lived about an hour apart and due to various commitments they no longer see much of each other.

Max was a groomsman in Tyler’s wedding last December, and I’d been asked to come to the wedding and bring Alfie with me.

But as Max and I were seeing each other, we decided that we’d spend time together at the wedding.

Let’s see what that looked like.

This entailed sitting together at the head table with Tyler and Heather (we’d already been told to sit at the head table as he was a groomsman and I had Alfie, but there weren’t any assigned seats), dancing together, and at one point we got caught under the mistletoe.

When Heather and Tyler got back from their honeymoon, Tyler basically asked what the heck we were doing at the wedding. We had told him we were seeing each other before the wedding, but he denied us ever saying anything, so we had to re-tell him that we were seeing each other.

Tyler lost it, accusing me of trying to make him jealous and telling Max he was a terrible friend.

Max asked Tyler to leave, and that was the end of that.

But things didn’t really get much better from there.

We’re now six months post-wedding/argument. Tyler still hates being reminded that Max and I are seeing each other. Heather doesn’t seem to care who I’m dating, so long as it’s not Tyler.

Saturday is our transition day between houses, and I had a bunch of clients to see in the morning, so I was going to pick Alfie up this afternoon and then go for the food shop.

However, knowing that I didn’t want to have to take Alfie shopping, Max offered to pick Alfie up instead.

I thanked him, and Max went to Tyler’s place and got Alfie and brought him home.

And this went about as well as you might have imagined.

I figured all was well, and Max said it was no big deal, but Tyler has now texted me calling me a jerk for rubbing my new relationship in his face.

He said that he’d never sent Heather to get Alfie, so what made me think it was okay to send Max to get him, especially given Tyler’s relationship with Max.

This has escalated over the last few hours, with Heather messaging me to ask me not to send Max again as Tyler apparently hasn’t stopped ranting since, and both myself and Max being contacted by Tyler’s sister “Tia”, saying the same thing (Tia is an old friend of mine).

Was I wrong for letting Max pick Alfie up from Tyler’s place?

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AITA?

The truth of this is that Tyler is now married.

Sure he’s got some weird issue with Max and his ex being together, but that really is none of his business.

She was at his wedding, so it’s not like they’re keeping their relationships from one another.

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

This person agreed that her dating life was none of Tyler’s business.

While others thought the fact that Tyler was now married should put an end to this immature behaviour.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought that while it might not have been wise, Max was a part of Alfie’s life and Tyler needed to accept that.

He really seems to be overreacting. He’s married. He has clearly moved on, and so has she. He doesn’t get to be jealous anymore.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man whose friends say he’s privileged for wanting to eat at nicer restaurants.