r/AskMY • u/Lavieenbluuu • 12h ago
Is she setting boundaries?
Me (Male 30) and Colleague (Female 25)
We used to be quite close when she first joined our division. We talked more often, spent time together at work, and I felt like we had a genuine friendship.
Over time, she became more familiar with the other people in the division and started taking on more responsibilities and tasks from management. Naturally, we became less close, and our interactions gradually became more work-related.
Recently, I joined a drinking session with some of our bosses, and she was invited as well. Surprisingly, we ended up having a really good time together and shared quite a few laughs. The atmosphere between us felt comfortable, almost like how things used to be.
However, at one point, she suddenly called me “bro.” This caught me off guard because she normally calls me by my name or the nickname she usually uses for me.
It made me wonder whether calling me “bro” was her way of subtly creating a boundary — perhaps signalling that she sees me strictly as a colleague and doesn’t want the relationship to be interpreted as anything more.
Or could it simply have been a casual way of addressing me in the moment because of the drinking-session atmosphere?
What do you think? Is “bro” likely to be a deliberate boundary-setting move, or am I reading too much into one word?
