About 4 years ago my best friend started dating somebody that I did not care for.
He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I never liked them together.
Further, it never seemed like they actually were together. No matter how long or how serious their relationship was, they always felt like cousins more than romantic partners. I was waiting for the relationship to end this entire time, to be honest. That’s why, I wasn’t very surprised when she finally revealed to me that they had broken up about a month ago. I weighed my response carefully, and didn’t show too much enthusiasm when I asked what went wrong? She replied, she never actually loved him… But the HVAC system was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Apparently, since they had been living together they have been fighting over the indoor air temperature on a daily basis. Everyday, he wanted to use the heating and cooling system to its full potential. This meant he wanted to adjust the indoor air temperature control settings up and down to match his exact preference at that moment. Meanwhile, my friend was stressed out because they could barely pay the energy bill and the HVAC system needed diagnostic repairs every few months. Whenever she talked to her ex about curbing his HVAC habit, he got belligerent and they fought for days over issues that barely included air quality. One day, when the air conditioner failed to turn on and he casually mentioned buying an updated cooling system, she lost her cool once and for all. She left him with the busted AC unit and never looked back.
