Dear Emily,

I’m an average 27-year-old working Joe. I’ve been in a relationship with my girlfriend for over eight months now, but recently discovered a shocking secret: She is a sugar baby.

She is on a website for young women seeking out older rich men. When I confronted her, she confessed having a sugar daddy and has been in a “relationship” with him before she met me.

This sugar daddy, a rich man in his 60s, gives her a large monthly allowance plus expensive gifts like branded bags and diamonds. I became suspicious of the diamond she wore two months ago. She said it was from her sister working in Dubai. That’s when I discovered she was a sugar baby. She claims that a sugar baby is different from a prostitute in that she has never had sex with her sugar daddy, since he is impotent. She also says she doesn’t love him—she loves me.

I love her very much and don’t want to lose her. But she says she can’t let him go yet because he helps with the medical bills of her mother who has a heart disease, and supports her five siblings.

HEARTBROKEN
AVERAGE JOE

Say no more. It’s all bad news from hereon. How can you compete with Big Daddy’s big bucks? Your girlfriend will swear to high heavens how much she loves you and spin your head with her song-and-dance routine. But money talks, and it’s being broadcast from huge speakers that have already drowned you out.

Brilliant diamonds on the fingers are so blindingly dazzling, and how flattering is it to wear branded shoes, bags, clothes? No matter how common-looking the wearer is, somehow those accoutrements make one look like a million, and like she truly belongs. And however she defines herself, remember: A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Spare yourself the heartache and look the truth in the eye. Man up! You may love her now, and it will hurt so bad to leave her. You will grieve, you will cry, you will curse, and might even get physically sick for a time.

But trust fate to heal every wound and every hurt. One day you’ll meet someone who is more your size, who will be honest and who will cherish you for being you. And surprisingly, you’ll simply forget the girl who broke your heart like she never happened.

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