Dear Orlando: Is She Using Me?
Orlando

Dear Orlando,

I am from Texas and a girl I grew up with recently moved out here from our hometown. I’ve been out here a few years so I’ve developed my own social network. She contacted me on Facebook and asked if we could meet up and I offered to take her with me whenever I go out. That was three months ago and I’ve been dragging her around the whole time. She doesn’t express that much interest in me, and seems mostly interested in meeting and befriending everyone I know so she can grow her social circle. I know this is a natural part of settling in to a new city, but am I morally obligated to continue playing babysitter? She’s kind of annoying and arrogant and my friends are not that into her. Can I dump her?

Yours,
Go Away Girl

Dear Go Away Girl,

If you don’t like this girl and your friends are not taking a liking to her, you’re not doing her any favors by hanging out with her. She deserves to spend time with people who share her interests and actually like her personality. You deserve to hang out with someone who isn’t totally annoying and full of herself. So you should probably break it off. But don’t do it in a mean way. Someday you could move to a new city and might need the help of an old acquaintance to get you on your feet. I would tell her that you want to spend time alone with a few of you old girlfriends and have a night out without her. You should still invite her to large parties where you can let her roam free out of your presence (hey, maybe someone at the party will be into annoying people!) It’s good karma to help her succeed socially, even if she seems like sort of a reject to you.

Love,
Orlando

Today’s mantra: Treat her like you’d like to be treated. You could be in her shoes someday.