A couple of months ago, I met a divorced man through friends. We get along great and everything flowed easy.

“Rich” is divorced about 8 months and has three young kids. They are officially divorced and share 50/50 custody of the kids. The ex is out of the house and bought a house close by.

Rich and I went out a couple times and had a great time. I really enjoy his company and care about him. About two months after we met, I could tell that Rich was falling into a depression. He felt he was failing his kids and was overwhelmed with everything. He has a history of general anxiety and was really putting himself down.

When he started to feel depressed, I told him that we can take a step back and he needs to just focus on himself and the kids. That we can just take it slow and no pressure with where we are going. We would still text each other about once a week just to say hi, but I gave him space.

He started to see a therapist and he is feeling better about being a single father.

The main problem is his ex. I don’t know if she is going through a phase, but she is completely obnoxious and very inappropriate. Getting completely trashed, bringing random men home in front of the kids. She also is asking Rich about advice when dating these other men or what how to have better sex with them. He ignores her and walks away. He told her that it’s her business and he only cares about the kids.

Rich called me the other night and we had a long talk. He told me that he really cared about me and is very attractive to me. He also told me that I “scare” him because I’m the first person since the divorce that he could see himself in a relationship with. He also said that he can’t bring me into a situation like his because he doesn’t want to bring me down. That I been through so much last year that he can’t do that to me. ( I had cancer and chemo last year)

I just told Rich that we can take things slow and I’m not putting any pressure on him. Just go with the flow. We are suppose to go out next week.

Have any of you felt like this? Any advice would be great. I’m not worried about the ex, but I know she is drama. I care about him and would love to see where this can go, but I’m willing to give him space and time.