Celeste relegated my other partners to a prescribed secondary status. Bella and I thought, seemingly reasonably, that if she had another “primary” partner, her needs for that kind of relationship would be met, and she would no longer need those things from me. That idea turned out to be disastrously wrong. The thing she wanted wasn’t “a primary,” it was a closer relationship with me. Being close to other people didn’t meet that need. When she did find another partner, she discovered this didn’t change what she wanted from me.
