Who IS he to you?

We were having a fight, my best friend and I.  This was back in, oh, July (I think) 2007.  I didn't know what had happened.  We were chatting as we did two or three times a week and he'd wanted to see some pictures from a recent trip.  I showed them to him and he almost immediately said "Good night" and signed off.  My initial thought was that his wife had come home or one of his children had called out for him.  I waited for him to come back, and when he didn't, I just figured it was the wife and we'd talk later. 


I got up the next morning and was surprised to see I had an email from him.  He just doesn't email that often; it's too easy for someone else to see.  The gist of the email was, "I'm not going to be online for a while and don't expect to hear from me.  I may email you occasionally.  Take care."  My heart shattered in my chest as tears streamed down my cheeks.  I called my boyfriend of the time and told him what had happened.  In his usual no-nonsense way he asked me, "Who IS Jeff to you that you're crying over him?"


I replied, "He's my best friend.  Or, I guess, he was."


At the time, that's exactly what he was and it's what he is now.


Jeff contacted me a week later.  He'd been upset and jealous over the pictures, which took him by surprise.  Neither of us realized he felt quite so possessive of me.


Things are different now.  Sure, he's still my best friend, but he's also the only man in the world to whom I'd want to be married other than my husband, and as much as I love him, I would never want to trade my husband for him.  In fact, Jeff can say of me:

I know she loves me.  I know she loves her husband more.  I know her husband and girls come first.

As for me, I can say of Jeff:

I know he loves me.  I know he loves his wife more.  I know his wife and children come first.

This is the way it's supposed to be, and this is the way it's been for 4 1/2 years now.


That experience taught me something very important, though.  It taught me that Jeff does feel a sense of possession, and you know, he has a right to.  He fully understands his place in my life as I do mine in his, and he shouldn't have to put up with other online lovers like he has in the past.  After all, I wouldn't want him to play with anyone else while he's with me.  We've been through a lot together, he and I, and we have something special between us.  Why jeopardize that?