My (30M) boyfriend (30M) of 2 years is a self-proclaimed social butterfly and he truly is one of the most extroverted people I know. He’s very outgoing, funny, and loves being around people. Listening to this man try and participate in group conversations makes me want to scream. He has to follow-up every comment someone makes with mini-stories that revolve around him. It’s not just that, but he throws in little details to every story that are completely irrelevant, all while talking a million miles a minute. I can see people’s eyes glazing over and can taste their lack of interest by the quick chuckles and no follow-up questions. It truly embarrasses me.

Last night we were at a friend’s house for a low-key birthday party with charcuterie and some drinks. There were about 6 of us (myself and him included) sitting around the dining room table for most of the evening talking. We weren’t talking about anything serious or heavy – just about our weeks, recent vacations, things we had bought at TJ Max lol etc. My friend who was hosting pointed out this little end table he had bought last week. As soon as my boyfriend sensed a pause, he jutted in, “It reminds me of a table my Uncle Bill had at his house… well it was actually his ex-wife’s house… and I think her mom used to live there before she died of lung cancer… but his table had different legs on it and I don’t think it had a drawer”…. And everyone’s just like ….ok…… Just little things like that ALL EVENING. He has no brevity when he talks. He can’t just make a comment. He could’ve said “Oh my uncle used to have a table like that!” and that would have fit so much more naturally in the flow of the conversation.

Another example – one of our friends was talking about how she’s had to take her dog to the vet a lot recently because she was sick, didn’t get better, ended up getting labs, follow up appts etc. It was a conversation with the whole table – people asking questions as she was talking like “oh what were her symptoms?”, “was she vomiting at night or in the day time too?”, “what were they concerned for?” etc etc etc. My friend kind of ended the topic with saying how she’s glad her dog is better now and that all the vet visits were worth it to make sure it wasn’t something sinister. My boyfriend follows up with “my dogs hate going to the vet – I usually have to give them trazodone beforehand. One week when I was going on a work trip, aqua_shadow watched them and I think gave them gave them trazodone while he was gone to work so they wouldn’t be anxious and I think they like it too much now hahah” again…. Everyone’s like …. Ok…. And the rest of us just keep having A NORMAL CONVERSATION BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW TO DO SO.

How do I approach this? I’m legit starting to get embarrassed to bring him around people. He can’t make a brief statement of agreement, brief comment, brief anything. And he never asks any questions without the intent of following up with his story. I’m exhausted and embarrassed and need to know how to handle this. I think it will really hurt his feelings and deflate him.