this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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Hi friends. Is it fucked up to flirt with someone with no intention of taking it further? I'm in a long-term monogamous relationship. Sometimes I crave a little validation from strangers. I'm not going to cheat on my partner, but I do have a need to feel desirable to others. I don't feel like a bit of flirting is a betrayal of my relationship, but I'm less confident about how other people feel. Like, I don't want to waste someone else's time, but I guess maybe I am leading people on a bit if I chat with them without mentioning my partner.

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[–] Kefla@hexbear.net 11 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You should talk to a therapist to help you figure out why you have this urge to hurt random strangers to make you feel better about yourself.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 11 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Are we assuming OP is going to like ask for someone's number and call them beautiful just to ghost them or something? What about being flirted with by a random person you never talk to again hurts?

I am trying to see if my idea of flirting is off from the majority

[–] Arahnya@hexbear.net 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I used to have this flirty interaction with a boy on the regular, I was gently teasing him by not complying with his job, and being like "aha, im not showing you my ID. teehee." nothing that was more than five seconds of interaction. Well, one morning he decided to ask me out and I had to tell him I had a boyfriend.

The people who observed this were telling me like "oh that's what you get" and I'm like ??? it's not like I was telling him I wanted to [invitation to redacted sexual act] or something geez. I wasn't out to hurt the dude or anything, but that is what ended up happening. 😅

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 2 points 49 minutes ago

your story sounds indistinguishable from signaling interest to me. he asked you out not to a hotel room, so unless you're leaving out a lot i'm not sure why you're going from 0 to sex act there.