I dated a girl for two years, we broke up pretty recently (I broke up with her first due to work, we got back together at her request, then she broke up with me a few months later for misc reasons).

I'm moving on, but we run in the same circles (same community of friends). Almost everyone knows we dated, and everyone knows about us breaking up. She's never dated anyone before me.

Everything is cool, and polite. We're all moving on. I went to a dance event that I did not expect her to be at. We talked to each other respectfully, everything was polite and brief. No Alcohol involved at the event.

An hour into it, she walks up to an associate of mine and very aggressively begins touching him and flirting with him. Asks him to dance, they're flirting, talking, laughing, dancing etc. It's very very very apparent she's hitting on him, and he's soaking it all in. I know she's hitting on him because her girlfriend looked at me in an "I'm sorry she's acting like this" type way.

She has to know what she's doing, right? Either she sees me as so low of an individual that she can hit on other men in front of me, or she's trying to get a reaction out of me. Which makes no sense, she broke up with me.

The guy was a long term associate of mine, so after they took a break from flirting with each other I just took him aside and let him know that girl and I have history. He didn't have to stop talking to her, but I wanted to let him know she's a recent ex of mine.

He was a total bro, and didn't associate with her for the rest of the night. She looked like a sad dog because no other guy there talked to her (everyone there knew us) and I didn't talk to her again either, not even cordially. She was just alone the whole night. Literally no one except her GF's associated with her after that. It was kind of satisfying for some reason.

I should be over that situation, but I'm not. We were together for two years. I see this happening and I get irrationally angry. She knows what she's doing, I know she does. I'm right there. So what gives? She literally could have just slipped him her number and that's it.

My mentality is this: Her going out or fucking guys is no big deal, I get there's nothing I can do. But hitting on someone in front of the guy you just ended things with is the most ultimate form of disrespect.


I know mate guarding isn't the answer, but I almost lost it here and I'm not proud of that.

I just think disrespect is disrespect. If I was with a group of guys, and one of them seriously (not joking) called me a little bitch, I'd say lets step outside. Your reputation is ruined if you don't stand up for yourself.

So please help me here, how can I look at this situation differently? It felt like my reputation as a man was at stake here. Why is this?

(Also, I get that the answer is 'Fuck other bitches'. Trust me, I'm trying. My business is my priority right now, so that means women are on the back-burner. This bitch begged to be in my life which is the only reason I dated her. )