No surprise burst sex-buddy bubble hit hard

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I have a COVID sex buddy. We are in our early 30s and good friends, but currently not attached to partners. We agreed we didn’t want to go through many months with no sex at all, and we have a lot of laughs together as friends.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2020 (2195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I have a COVID sex buddy. We are in our early 30s and good friends, but currently not attached to partners. We agreed we didn’t want to go through many months with no sex at all, and we have a lot of laughs together as friends.

So we made a “friends with benefits deal” between adults. It has worked too well. I have started to like him way too much. We both knew he was interested in an attached woman for a long time and he had told her about it, but that was it. She never called him and wasn’t even friends with him.

Then she and her long-term boyfriend broke up August long weekend. She phoned up my friend immediately. He was so excited he called me up to tell me, thinking I’d celebrate with him!

I kept my composure for the length of the phone call, and then said, “I gotta go,” slammed down the phone and cried my eyes out. I am broken-hearted — surprise, surprise! I’m not the big girl I thought I was. I am a sad, weepy mess.

He’s been wanting to come over and talk, but I say no and tell him he should “leave me the heck alone.” He keeps saying, “But sweetie, we had a deal!”

So what? I’m not a robot. He got to me!  All he can say is, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Please help me. I don’t know what to do. —Suffering Now, St. James

Dear Suffering: Now he’s off with his romantic fantasy girl, please don’t feel like a fool for having a body that’s connected to your heart. Good on you for being real.

Of course, it hurts! Cry to your best female friend, and write out your feelings on paper — much more therapeutic than a keyboard.

Now, here’s the next problem you may face with your buddy’s new romance. For a long time, her boyfriend was No. 1, and your friend was just on her substitute list. She knew she could snap her fingers and he’d be right over — and she was right.

But he wasn’t her true love, or she would have dumped her boyfriend ages ago to be with him. She knew he was willing before you two ever got together as COVID sex buddies.

He may be getting used for a while now, but there’s a good chance it won’t last long. What are you going to do if he comes running back over to your house?

If you do want him back, I suggest you insist on two weeks of quarantine after being with her (remembering she was close with the old boyfriend just before, and who knows what his situation was).

But my guess is you won’t want to be the consolation prize either. That is, unless he realizes he doesn’t want her and he’s deeply in love with you (It could happen).

 

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I’m single, and I love my job. A man in a different department at work, who I’m not attracted to in the least, has made it his project to become my man.

I don’t want him! I’ve refused all his invitations for drinks, dinner and “romance.” I have not answered any of his “witty“ notes slipped into my mailbox at work. He has even sent flowers to my house. He knows my address!

You think this is not a good-looking man? Quite the opposite, but his campaign to break down my resistance makes him look like a troll to me.

I’m very valuable to my boss, but he’s a busy man and there’s no human resources department here. Should I tell him and possibly get this guy in deep trouble?

He’s divorced — no surprise — and has several kids. I don’t need him fired, just stopped.

I realize nobody can afford to lose their job these days when they support children, and I’m not a cruel person. What do you suggest? — Harassed at Work, Winnipeg

Dear Harassed: By all means, talk to your boss right now, as this aggressive Romeo isn’t taking no for an answer.

Hand your boss a short list of what this guy has done to harass you, and say you don’t need this guy fired, just scared witless!

I’m betting your boss will pick up the phone, have a stern talk with the guy, and this nonsense will stop immediately.

 

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

 

Miss Lonelyhearts

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Motion seeks to remove longtime head of Southern Chiefs’ Organization due to ‘behaviour’ concerns

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Preview

Motion seeks to remove longtime head of Southern Chiefs’ Organization due to ‘behaviour’ concerns

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026

For the second time in a year, the leadership of Southern Chiefs’ Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels is being called into question.

A motion obtained by the Free Press calls “immediately” for a special summit of the 33 SCO chiefs to consider removing Daniels, who’s been at the helm since 2017.

The Aug. 17 motion, put forward by Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean and Bloodvein First Nation Chief Lisa Young, cites concerns about “governance, leadership, accountability, transparency, organizational decision-making and confidence of member Nations in the current leadership of the organization.”

McLean would not provide specific examples Wednesday but said the “behaviour” of Daniels is a concern.

Read
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Preview

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Carney’s defence of Lake Ontario carries enormous weight

Niigaan Sinclair 4 minute read Preview

Carney’s defence of Lake Ontario carries enormous weight

Niigaan Sinclair 4 minute read Yesterday at 4:28 PM CDT

For centuries on Turtle Island (North America), explorers, map makers, and political leaders have erased Indigenous place names and substituted them — more often than not — with political, ethnocentric, and self-aggrandizing names.

In recent years, a few places on the continent have had Indigenous names re-established, but as of today, few of the original names are “official.”

So, it was no surprise when U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior and Board on Geographic Names to take steps within 30 days to officially rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

The move may have been a result of the Canada-U.S. trade war and Trump’s pettiness and ego, but it also fits in perfectly with his career.

Read
Yesterday at 4:28 PM CDT

Entrepreneur Willow Wolfe conceived and crafted a better — and cruelty-free — paint brush

David Sanderson 8 minute read Preview

Entrepreneur Willow Wolfe conceived and crafted a better — and cruelty-free — paint brush

David Sanderson 8 minute read Yesterday at 3:09 PM CDT

NAROL — Talk about a brush with fame.

Fifteen years ago, Willow Wolfe, the founder of Willow Wolfe Painting Courses and Art Supplies, read about American actor/artist Richard Grieco’s experimentations with a style of painting he’d coined as “abstract emotionalism.”

Wolfe, whose personally designed line of synthetic paint brushes and watercolour workbooks are sold at more than 450 retailers around the globe, mailed Grieco (21 Jump Street, Veronica Mars) a set of brushes she felt would suit his needs.

The two have since remained in touch and this spring Grieco contacted Wolfe again, to let her know about a semi-autobiographical movie called The Painter he was directing and starring in.

Read
Yesterday at 3:09 PM CDT

Five exceptional Manitobans reflect on what it means to be Canadian while bracing against Trump’s vitriol and economic upheaval

Aaron Epp 11 minute read Preview

Five exceptional Manitobans reflect on what it means to be Canadian while bracing against Trump’s vitriol and economic upheaval

Aaron Epp 11 minute read Yesterday at 1:35 PM CDT

Canadians have been trying to make sense of a new reality since Canada-United States trade talks broke down on Aug. 21.

The following day, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed 50 per cent tariffs on US$20 billion worth of Canadian exports to the U.S.

The federal government responded in kind a few days later, rolling out tariffs on $27.6 billion worth of imports from the U.S.

The Free Press contacted five Manitobans who have been appointed to the Order of Canada and asked them for their thoughts on the status of Canada-U.S. relations and what is means to be a Canadian today. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Read
Yesterday at 1:35 PM CDT

‘Last chance’ clearance U.S. booze punted from Liquor Marts

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Preview

‘Last chance’ clearance U.S. booze punted from Liquor Marts

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

American alcohol that returned to Manitoba Liquor Mart shelves in May as part of a “last chance” sale is headed back to storage or will be destroyed.

“We are removing U.S. liquor products from Liquor Mart shelves,” a spokesperson for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries said Thursday. The Crown corporation had been pushing to off-load its stockpile of U.S. booze.

Premier Wab Kinew launched a provincewide boycott of American alcohol in March 2025 to fight back against tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries has not placed new orders since the boycott began, but it still had inventory.

As of early May, the U.S. inventory had a value of roughly $3.4 million, which is roughly one-third of what was removed from shelves and placed in storage, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries has said. It was unable to provide an inventory update on Thursday.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026