i’m 23, happily single, and i work with a really chill team. everyone’s super friendly, we help each other out a lot, and we usually go out for lunch together once a week. our boss is cool too. he’ll bring in coffee and donuts every now and then just because.

we got a new guy recently i’ll call him jake. he’s in his early 30s, been married for a few years, no kids. whenever we invite him to join us for lunch or whatever, he always says he can’t. at first we thought he was just shy or maybe not into group stuff, which is totally fine.

but then one day during a meeting, our boss brought coffee and donuts, and jake was like “man i want one so bad,” and someone asked if he had a health thing. he goes, “nah, my wife allison doesn’t let me have coffee or junk food cause she doesn’t like me have any caffeine or sugar” the room went quiet real fast.

i probably shouldn’t have said anything, but i asked, “wait, is that why you never come to lunch with us? cause your wife won’t let you?” and he said yeah. apparently she doesn’t want him doing any social stuff without her now that they’re married. like, he’s only “allowed” to go out if she’s there too.

i told him if anyone tried to control what i eat or who i hang out with, i’d be out. that’s not normal. my boss agreed and told him he might want to talk to someone about it like a counselor or something.

well, jake came in today and said they had a huge fight after that convo and she kicked him out. now he’s talking to a lawyer about separation.

my sister thinks i was out of line bringing that up in front of everyone, but honestly… was i? i didn’t mean to stir the pot, i just couldn’t stay quiet about how messed up that sounded. still, i feel a little guilty. did i overstep?