I had primarily male friends while in my last relationship. His solution? He didn't hang around with them. It made him uncomfortable to listen to and watch me joke around with his male friends (never stated outright, I just knew that look on his face) and he didn't want to put himself in a position where he'd be upset the whole time I was having a blast. He trusted me. It took me a really long time and a whole lot of irritation to work through that one. But the bottom line? I had fun hanging out with my guy friends and it gave us some time separate from each other to do what we both liked. It ended up working great for me.
I've almost always been closer with men than with women (on different levels, of course) because I rarely hang out with women outside of work. I work with ALL women. Some women do that. And people flirt. All of the time. With the same or with the opposite gender. Sometimes consciously and sometimes not. Mal's right (as usual
) it really all boils down to trust. And respect. I respected the feelings of the person I was with, but it didn't change what I wanted to do. So we worked on a compromise because it wasn't worth all of the stress. Because the trust was there, in that respect.
Actually, he was more weirded out by the way his
female friends and I joked around when we were all out and intoxicated.
