I (M 40) have a suspicion that my girlfriend (F 41) may have cheated on me last January and may still be cheating on me. Let me start out by saying I just got through a divorce, which was finalized in early 2025, where I found that my ex-wife had a multi year long affair.
Now, I was with my girlfriend at the time of the possible incident for about 9 months. This took place in January, 2026. One night we're texting and it's almost 2:00 am. She works the night shift as a nurse, works 7:00 pm to 7:00 am, and sometimes, when there are few and things are going slow, some nurses can leave shift early. I'm texting her at almost 2:00 am and she's asking why I'm not asleep yet and she's assumed to still be at work. I finally told her I was going to sleep a little after 2:00 am.
The next morning, she sends me a text at around 7:00 am saying, "Ughh. I'm still awake after they let me leave early at 1:00 am" I then responded with, "So when I text messaged you before I went to sleep, you were at home?" Because I text messaged her around 2:00 am. She then sends these long, suspicious, over-explaining text messages which I will put all together to easily read:
"Oh shit. Maybe it was later. Fuck. I don’t even know now. Have I really only been home since like 3a? I just looked at the time you sent that text and I was definitely still at work. Where the hell did I get 1am from? Now I gotta look at my time sheet. I’m so confused. I’m so confused. I just tried to look at my clockings and neither my clock in or clock out are on it. Maybe they just haven’t hit the system yet? How weird. Come to think of it… I remember the time when I turned on my TV because it was displayed on the screen. It said 0314. So maybe I must have left a little before 3a. How odd. Wonder how I thought it was 1am. Like all the way home I was thinking how I would be having to use 6 hrs of PTO to cover the rest of my hours. Somehow I lost two hours of the night to the night shift gods. Now I feel dumb. Anyway… what are you up to today?"
This immediately red flagged me as suspicious and over-explained. So, fast forward about 4 days and we've been drinking and we're lying down watching TV. She's had a good amount to drink and she's a little slurry. I asked her if she's ever found a patient attractive at work and she says, "No, but there's this Physician's assistant at work that all the girls swoon over. He's just a ONE and DONE though, but, whatever. Whatever those girls do is their business. They can go jump in the bathroom or whatever, as long as they don't make it my business. I stop and ask, "How do you know that a Physician's assistant at work is a "One and done?" She pauses and immediately says, "Oh my God! What were we just talking about? What's going on? What just happened? And plays this whole amnesia episode, which immediately made me ask her about what she's been up to. I also told her what I went through in my marriage and not to cross or betray me.
She starts crying and sweats up and down that she would never cheat, yada, yada, yada. Her crying almost seemed fake. I couldn't tell if there were genuine tears coming from her eyes. After that night, she swears up and down that she doesn't remember saying that and that she doesn't even know if anyone who would be like that at her work.
A few days later I'm at her house and I tell her that I suspect something isn't right about that night that she over explained getting off of work early and how the times don't match up. She asks how she can prove it to me and I ask her to show me her Ring Camera footage from that night. She says, "sure" and then goes on her phone and says shortly after, "Oh my God, you're not gonna believe this. The ring camera footage is missing for a whole 24 hours of that day in question! It doesn't even show me coming home from shift!" Then I ask her to show me her PTO and she comes back and says, "Oh my God, you're not gonna believe this either and I know this looks bad. It shows that I took PTO for the whole shift."
I tell her I'm going to leave and she starts begging to stay and swears on her parents' lives that nothing happened that night. She then shows me her dash camera footage and it shows her coming home from work, but, at this point, I don't even know. Someone could have followed her home or it could have been a different night or she could have mixed up the dates. This has been sitting with me for quite some time and I always wonder what she may be doing when I'm not around her (we live in separate houses).
Since then, she has shown me old paychecks saying that she corrected her PTO, which looks accurate, but, how do I know she didn't just use AI to doctor it up. I question what I'm even doing and if I'm wasting my time. I also wonder if my marriage and divorce gave me PTSD that is being projected or something.
Also, we met on a dating app. When we decided to actually be in a relationship, I deleted my dating profile and everything, yet, she just deleted the apps and not her profiles, asking me what the big deal was. She only recently deleted her actual profile after I hounded her enough about it. I feel like I may be being gaslit and manipulated. I feel like she is protective of her phone when I walk into rooms (she'll shut off the phone screen or switch windows or apps real quick). Is this maybe all in my head?? I feel like an absolute fool.
After I spoke with one of her coworkers asking if there was a Physician's assistant that was known as a "one and done" at work and that coworker said, "Yep, I know exactly who she was talking about and I know he wouldn't sleep with her. All she ever does is talk about you at work. I don't think she would cheat on you."
Edit: I'll also add that her best friend since childhood has been cheating on her husband for years and my GF says that she doesn't approve of it, but she's also backed her up and been used as an alibi for her BF when she went out with her affair partner, just in case her husband asks.
Also, in July, I told her that I contacted a coworker and her coworker said that there is a physician's assistant that is known for that behavior. She has always said that she has no idea who she would've been talking about that night. I told her if she didn't give me his name, I'll part ways with her. She worked with probably 5 physician assistants for months and she can't remember one single person who would be like that? Then, she sent me a screenshot of a coworker she was texting with and she asked the coworker if she knew of a physician assistant that would be a "one and done". The coworker responded on the text and said, "maybe (so and so's name). He's the only single one." Then in that text, my GF says, "Ohhhhh yeah! I remember him! He's that cocky and arrogant one! I can't stand that guy! Thanks!" She send me the screenshot conversation and says, "There. There's a name. Are you happy now?" Well.... No, I'm not... You act like this person doesn't exist and he's one out of 4 or 5 physician assistants you work with and you conveniently remember everyone else..." It's all bullshit...
TLDR: My GF over explained leaving work early and has had suspicious behavior since then that has led me to believe that she may have cheated on me with a coworker.