'I trusted my best friend with everything. Then she backstabbed me in a way I never saw coming.'

I'd been working with Suzy* for a couple of years and she was the best thing about my job.

We became close as we were both coming out of breakups at the same time, so it was comforting having someone to talk to who understood the crazy mix of sadness and confusion that comes with heartbreak.

We spent a lot of time outside of the office comparing notes about dating apps and basically supporting each other. So I felt lucky to have a friend like her.Then Hunter* joined our team.

We felt super lucky to have this cute guy walk in the door who was friendly and very talented. Both Suzy and I agreed that he was attractive, but it felt like a harmless observation rather than a competition, because we were both still recovering from our relationship dramas.

As time went on, I noticed that Hunter seemed to flirt with me. He'd comment on my clothes, crack silly jokes and ask about my weekend. He spent a lot of time hanging around my desk when he didn't really need to.

One day he even asked if I wanted to join him for lunch, and while it wasn't framed as a date, I definitely felt a spark. So he made me feel that there was something between us.

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Suzy noticed it too. She teased me about it in a friendly way, and I believed her when she said she was happy for me. But after that lunch, something really changed. Hunter started acting differently and avoiding me. I knew I wasn't imagining it.

He seemed distracted when he spoke to me, and sometimes he acted like he wanted end the conversation quickly. I started to think I might have offended him somehow.

Before long, he was spending more time with Suzy. They stayed late on a project together, then started bringing each other snacks and coffees. It was so obvious that soon the whole office guessed that they were dating.

I asked her and she said they were "just friends" but I didn't quite believe her. Then, one lunchbreak when I went for a walk, I saw them in a park together, holding hands and kissing.

So that was that — they were definitely a couple and I just had to suck it up. When I told her I'd seen them together, Suzy said it was true, they were dating and she hadn't wanted to tell me right away as she knew I liked him. So I just had to move on and wish them well.

A few weeks later, a mutual coworker, a woman who had no reason to stir up trouble, pulled me aside during a coffee break and told me something that made the whole situation make sense.

She told me that Suzy told her she'd warned Hunter that I had a reputation for being a player and a man eater. Her words were that "I was the type of woman who chewed men up and spat them out once I got bored." I remember feeling my face grow hot as I listened to her!

It was such a cruel thing to say, especially coming from someone who knew how upset I still felt after my breakup.

So now I understood the sudden distance that Hunter put between us and then the sudden move toward Suzy. When I asked her about it a few days later, she acted like it was nothing.

She just brushed it off with a laugh, saying she had just been "kidding around" with him and didn't realise he had taken it seriously.

She kept saying it was a misunderstanding and that she'd never do anything to hurt me. But I was devastated; not about Hunter so much, but that Suzy had stabbed me in the back like that.

A few months later, Suzy and Hunter moved to the UK together, and everyone was saying that they must be the real deal if they were willing to relocate as a pair. Maybe they really were meant for each other. Maybe they'll be together forever.

But that doesn't change the fact that she stepped on our friendship to get what she wanted.

I'm in a better place now and have a new partner but it's upsetting for me that Suzy is no longer in my life. I thought she'd be a friend forever. I've absolutely made peace with the stupid lie she told to make things happen with Hunter.

But I don't think I've made peace with losing her friendship because it's meant that I'll always be wary of new friends coming into my life. She really hurt me in a way that no romantic disappointment can quite compare.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

Feature Image: Getty. (Stock image for illustrative purposes).