It is a social norm for men to talk to multiple girls at once, but the minute roles are reversed, it is suddenly the end of the world. Or, men never believe a woman when she says that she is not interested in a relationship and simply wants to keep her options open. It seems to have become battle of the sexes in the dating world. Who will play the game better?

Let me tell you a funny story.

There is a gentleman that I have come to know quite well through mutual friends. He is freshly out of college and looks like a twelve year old trying to play dress up in the adult world. But, he presents himself as someone who is extremely professional, and very down to earth. WRONG. The more I get to know this man, the more pretentious I learn that he is. We are still friends and he is definitely that person that I go to when seeking certain advice, but he is quite the odd character after all.

The best part about this friendship is that we were both interested in each other sexually, at first, and that is it. There was nothing else between the two of us except for physical attraction. I would pass him in the hallway and would think to myself how good he looked that day, and vice versa. Once we became friends, a month into chatting away daily, things got interesting.

Now, let me preface this by stating that I am single, so some of the conversations were purely out of fun and meant nothing more. Anyway, we started chatting and he started hitting on me in a sexual way. So, I ran with it. I encouraged the flirtation and even sent risky messages of my own more than once. It was all fun and games until the subject of whether or not anything would ever happen in person came up. He went off on this tangent about how "if it happens, it happens." According to him, he doesn't do relationships and would never want things to become awkward between us as we do see each other Monday-Friday. All of this I respectfully agreed with. It wasn't until he reminded me day after day that nothing was ever going to happen between us.

Going into this, I never had expected anything to happen. I am honestly not sure that I even wanted anything to happen. But the truth is, it became a very large turn off to be treated this way. Excuse me sir, but do you think that every woman just falls in love with you? I made it clear each and every time we talked that I was only interested in the physical company he would be offering. I had never once acted as if I wanted to make this man my future husband.

I had no intention of being with him for more than one night, if that. But, he took it too far. He mistook my kindness to mean something more, when it never truly did. The longer that he thought I wanted to date him, the more he would talk to me and the more attention he would give me. The minute I mentioned going on a date with someone else, or mentioned another guy in general, he would suddenly cut me off. It felt as if he did not want me, but he did not want anyone else to have me. Or, if someone else had me, then he didn't want me. When I came to this realization, I quickly became less fascinated with the idea of entertaining him. It felt as though I was not allowed to keep my options open, and I was looked at negatively for doing so.

Newsflash: Girls are allowed to play the field too.

I'm not saying that both males and females should be sleeping around with multiple people at the same time, or even dating multiple people at the same time, but there is no harm in getting to know one or two different people strictly through text messaging and social media. We live in a time where most communication is done over text messaging, or through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat. Most people now a days also communicate through an online dating platform as well. In these cases, socializing with more than one person is nothing to be ashamed of. If you are with someone else, however, these types of situations are considered cheating. But, if you are single, then why worry?

There needs to stop being a double standard in allowing men to date freely, but looking down on women for doing the exact same. It would be greatly appreciated if men also stopped assuming that a woman is going to automatically fall in love with them simply because they sleep together. Wake up men, it's a woman's world too and she can do as she damn well pleases.