bitsoda

So last night my girlfriend of two years confesses to me that she got on a stripper pole with her coworker friend and took off all her clothes. She assured me she did not cheat and I believe her with regards to that, but I don't know how to feel now.

-- A bit of back story

She's recently began interning at her new job and was invited out by her coworker for the first time since working there so she did not want to pass this up. It was meant to be a girl-bonding experience of sorts which is why I was not present. I've known this girl for eleven years as we were friends for nine years before we began dating. Needless to say I love her with every ounce of my being. She was the one and I have no qualms about saying that as I've dated a good share of girls in the past, but none of those relationships were like this.

We shared interests in comedy (Louis CK), music, video games, television (Firefly/Futurama for Christ's sake), food, etc. You name it, we shared an interest. Even more importantly was our sexual compatibility if you want to call it that. The best sex of my life was spent with this girl. Anyways, this is the hardest decision I've ever had to make. While she didn't cheat on me, she did put her body on display for a bunch of strange men in a drunken stupor with her vile coworker. This may sound silly to some of you, but her body is now less special to me. Knowing that she's not my girl and that others have seen it cheapens the experience for me. I can't even believe I'm typing that out -- I must sound like a conservative Muslim or something, but I'm just your average techie atheist.

I've spoken to several close friends about the situation and they all tell me that, ultimately, I need to make the decision. I've weighed both choices and I can't find solace in either. If I dump her I'll be losing my best friend and essentially throwing away the past decade of dating and friendship with this girl. If I try to work things out and give her another chance I'll feel like a chump. I also don't want to have to worry or babysit her whenever she's out on her own. I don't want to be that guy. To make matters worse she drove out to the pier last night and contemplated suicide. Stunt or not, I reconciled her and told her we'd talk about it in the morning. Well, I slept on it and I'm still undecided.

Gentlemen of TFP, in my shoes, what would you do or what do you think I should do if you were in my situation? For now I'm going to take this a day a time. If it's relevant, we're both 25.

Update:

Thanks for all the responses guys and girls, you really helped out with insightful advice. Everything is MUCH better today. We talked about what happened last night and just aired out our feelings. In the end I'll chalk this up to being a slip up. It's not worth losing her over this even though it does sting to know what she did, but at least she didn't cheat and has no intention to do so. Kudos for the 38 special hold on loosely lyric, I'll keep that in mind. To answer some questions, no she was not my first nor was I hers, so other people have seen her naked before. Ultimately, I decided to forgive her and take it a day at a time. I let her know exactly how I felt, but told her I would never mention it past today so as to not keep bringing it up in the future (something I learned to not do from a past relationship). I don't want to hold this over her head and use it as a get out of jail free card to retaliate -- I don't want to be that guy. She's a great girl and I'm hoping this was just a bump in the road.