Everyone is watching Amanda Batula and West Wilson hold hands at a Yankees game. Good for them. Truly.
But I'm still on Ciara Miller's Glamour quote.
"You can't put anything past a man."
That's funny. That's quotable. That belongs on a coffee mug in a breakup recovery kit.
But here's the sentence that actually stopped me cold: Ciara said she felt more betrayed by Amanda than by West.
Not her ex. Her friend.
And that's the story that nobody is telling.
The Part Everyone Keeps Skipping Past
Let's recap for the people who don't have Bravo push notifications (how are you living). West Wilson was with Ciara Miller. Then he and Amanda Batula — who separated from Kyle Cooke in January, who was also Ciara's close friend — released a joint Instagram statement on March 31 confirming they were together. Ciara found out less than 24 hours before that statement dropped.
Amanda has since apologized. West clarified timelines. The Season 10 reunion is coming.
But forget the couple for a second. The real headline is Ciara's emotional math. She expected more from Amanda than from West. "You can't put anything past a man" is a whole worldview — the implicit part is: but I thought my friend was different.
That expectation? That's the whole problem.
We Have Elaborate Rules for Romantic Love and Vibes for Everything Else
Think about how much infrastructure we've built around romantic partnerships.
We sign legal documents. We buy rings. We write vows. We have ceremonies with a hundred people watching. We have couples counseling and The Five Love Languages and relationship podcasts and apps and entire Netflix series about what happens when romantic bonds break down.
Our platonic bonds? We protect those with... vibes.
Maybe a "best friend" title. Maybe a group chat called "the girls" or "the boys." Maybe an annual birthday dinner if you're organized.
That's the whole framework.
No agreements about what loyalty looks like when things get complicated. No conversations about what happens when a romantic situation overlaps with the friend group. No clarity about what a heads-up actually means or how much notice counts as respect.
So when it breaks — when Ciara gets a less-than-24-hours warning before the public announcement — we're shocked. But we shouldn't be. We never built anything that could hold the weight.
What Your Platonic Partnerships Actually Deserve
Here's what I want to propose. Your platonic partnerships are real partnerships. They deserve the same intentionality you give (or aspire to give) to your romantic ones.
That doesn't mean contracts and vows. It means conversations.
What does loyalty look like in this friendship when things get complicated? What's the agreement about discretion? About timing? About bringing things to each other first?
This is what LLMA is actually about. Not just lavender marriages and romantic alternatives — but designing ALL your relationships with clarity. Romantic and platonic. Because the people you build your life with, whatever the label, deserve more than vibes.
Ciara deserved a real conversation. Not a 24-hour heads-up. Amanda probably knows that now.
"The only failure is pretending your relationship — any relationship — is something it's not."
The question is what you're going to do with yours before you get to that moment.
Download LLMA on the App Store or Google Play — because the people you build your life with deserve more than vibes. Stay Bold. Stay Inspired.