He’s fortunate to be free after text-happy lover left

feeble stunt of blaming her actions on you, then we’d be talking about a much better person — and you’d still be better off out of the relationship.

As long as you did your best, there’s nothing else you can do about it except recognize she wasn’t the right person for you.

Dear Carolyn: How does a woman distinguish the fine line between “compromising with” versus “submitting to” a man within a relationship?

Compromise is when both people give a little to their mutual benefit.

Submission is when only one person gives to the other’s benefit.

The fine line you’re looking for, then, is in how you regard your end of the deal.

It isn’t just about what you get out of it, either. The sense you have of being heard and respected is a huge part of your ability to be at peace with an agreement.

As is your sense of autonomy. If you feel heard and understood and respected in the moment but come away from an agreement feeling as if you got maneuvered into something that goes against who you are and doesn’t resemble what you had asked for, then it wasn’t truly a compromise.

How you feel in the long term about a deal might be hard to determine in the moment, but it’s worth weighing as your days with someone — and compromises — start to add up. You can make one bad deal and still not feel as if you’ve surrendered your power to someone.

But when the need to make a deal feels constant and relentless with someone and the deals never seem to tilt in your favor, then each compromise can become one pixel in a larger portrait of submission.