The way manipulation works is that they first start out with a small request, you get angry at it but eventually we adapt and we get used to it and they ramp it up more and more. They’re allowed to do that because you don’t have an internal set of values that you can use as a backup.

Any time you feel you have to do most of the load to make the relationship work, it’s not going to work out. You’re going to look like a clown, trying to make things work. Guys lose respect for you whenever they see you trying to work on something that they don’t want to work out and they don’t tell you because they like it. These types of relationships never work out and it only leaves you more frustrated and more bitter.