The only reason that you want to bump into an ex is what Gutter described…the psychological “win”. Maybe it makes me weird, but there is a weird happy feeling you get when you have your shit together and the person who hurt you/drug you down is a mess….or I’m a raging narcissistic asshole.

Second, anytime I have seen people try to be friends after a relationship, it always ends in disaster. I think there is only 1 rule when breaking up with someone, whatever you do, don’t tell each other that you will still be friends because that is complete BS. Just take some time to rebound and move on with your life and if later down the road your paths cross again, then you can reevaluate whether you two can be friends again. Simple as that in my opinion.

I personally am not friends with any of my ex-girlfriends and ran into an old high school girlfriend a couple of years ago. I am not sure if this is bad for me to say but it felt kind of good running into her because at the time I was (and still am in case she is reading this) happily married, just had my daughter, and my career was going well. What was new with her? dropping out of college and smoking pot in the back of a car behind the bar. My response, “Well it was nice to see you” and I walked away.