Can you trust your girlfriend?

Fleur is a highly educated and very successful business woman of 32, and when she decided it was time to get married, start a family and settle down she pulled no stops in finding a man.

"All the guys at work are married or very much younger than myself, so I used the Internet and newspaper personals to answer personal ads - and advertise myself," says Fleur. "I also joined stacks of clubs and attended every function that I could fit into my calendar."

"The time and money I put into finding Mr Right was phenomenal," says Fleur, "and because of this I was absolutely furious when I discovered that my girlfriend was stealing my guys."

"When the responses to my personal ads started coming in I was overwhelmed by hundreds of guys to meet and not enough time to meet them," laughs Fleur.

"I was also attending a lot of functions and collecting stacks of telephone numbers and business cards, and when I met someone with potential I'd be going out on dates, too."

"I'd leave all the details of the guys lying around at home, and my computer wasn't locked so anyone could access it to read my emails," explains Fleur, "and it never occurred to me that my girlfriend was snooping whenever she visited."

"When I really couldn't fit any more guys into my meeting schedule I became pretty ruthless with my requirements and only met the really special guys," says Fleur. "You know, the ones that appeared to be genuine in wanting to find a partner and didn't rabbit on about their work or their good looks."

"There was one guy in particular that I had been emailing for about a month and really wanted to meet but our schedules always seemed to clash."

"Finally, we arranged to meet at a city bar and he was gorgeous!"

"Imagine my surprise when my girlfriend suddenly turned up, pulled up a chair and seated herself at our table."

"She insisted it was pure coincidence and I gave her the benefit of the doubt."

"As it turned out, she had more in common with the gorgeous guy than I had so I didn't mind that she swept him off his feet and bedded him that very night!"

"During the time that she and Mr Gorgeous were dating I met a lot of guys and was having a great time if not a very productive one as far as finding Mr Right was concerned," adds Fleur, "and then I heard that Mr Gorgeous had dumped her and soon she was back in my life wanting to know what I was up to and who I was meeting next."

"Feeling sorry for her I allowed her to accompany me to a party I had been invited to," says Fleur. "It was a blind date actually, but since my guy was throwing the party and other people would be there it wasn't going to be a stressful occasion."

"My blind date, Roger, wasn't exactly gorgeous but he was charming and rich and my girlfriend made a beeline for him as soon as she set eyes upon him."

"I worked the room like I usually do, chatting to everyone and having a good time," says Fleur, "and out of the corner of my eye I was watching my blind date and assessing him."

"It was a great party and my girlfriend and I were the last to leave," laughs Fleur. "Roger drove us home, dropping me off first."

"The next day Roger telephoned me and asked me out on a proper date. I agreed. He was an interesting man and I was impressed by his savoir faire."

"At dinner that night Roger told me that my girlfriend had come on to him and had said some unflattering things about me," says Fleur. "By then I wasn't at all surprised, and I determined to speak to her about her behavior."

"She denied everything, of course," laughs Fleur, "but later on I telephoned a few guys whom I had yet to meet and asked whether they had met or received a call from my girlfriend. She had actually called three of them and met one of them!"

"I wasn't so much upset by the fact that she had snooped at my place and stolen the details of these guys," explains Fleur, "but I was upset by the fact that she had capitalized on my hard work and hard earned money."

"She may not have my education and career status, but she has a lot more money to throw around than I do and if she wanted to meet guys then she should have done some hard work and forked out some hard cash like I did."

"I didn't stay angry at her for long," laughs Fleur. "I met Pete a few weeks later, he's as solid as a rock, and when I introduced him to my girlfriend she took me aside and said he was not good enough for me - in other words, not good enough for her to steal!"

"Now that Pete and I are dating regularly my girlfriend doesn't want to know me any more," sighs Fleur. "I suppose she has no use for me now that I'm not supplying her with a never ending batch of guys."

"I guess I could shrug her off and pretend that I don't miss her at all, or say 'with friends like that who needs enemies?' but it's sad that someone I've known for a long time and shared so much with could discard me so easily."

"Yes, she's shallow and a downright opportunist," says Fleur, "but she's my girlfriend and whether or not Pete and I get married I'm still going to need a girlfriend in my life."

"Maybe I should apply my man hunting skills to finding a new girlfriend?"

my french friend

Dallas, 16, was thrilled out of her brain when her girlfriend's parents asked her parents for permission to take her to France with them as their daughter's companion.

"My girlfriend's parents are French," explains Dallas, "and Claudette was their only child and she didn't want to go with them unless I came too."

"Claudette and I were very close and I'd stayed at her house lots of times – what a change from my own home with two younger brothers driving me mad! – but I never dreamed that our friendship would lead to a trip to France."

"It was the first time in a plane for me - but not for Claudette. She had traveled overseas with her parents lots of times."

"Despite being French, Claudette didn't speak the language very well," says Dallas, "so we had a hard time getting ourselves understood whenever we went outside the village."

"One particular time Claudette's bad French became dangerous was when we were walking through the fields and had no idea where we were and we had to run away from two old men who looked like they were going to rape us when she tried asking for directions."

"Claudette and I had a good time together before she fell in love with one of the sons of an American family vacationing nearby," says Dallas, "and, despite feeling really left out of things after that, I don't really blame her for the way the trip turned out.”

"She had a boyfriend to bring home with her," sighs Dallas, "and all I had to bring home with me was a new disease – asthma – and my best clothes badly stained by flower juice after participating in a flower festival."

“We're still friends, sort of, but she's changed so much that our friendship will never be like it used to be."

Read more about Dallas:

Paris, full of foreigners!

a sensible taurus girl

trip induced breathing problems