A few more quick thoughts before I get back to the grind:
Last year about this time, I was catching up with someone I"d seen a few years previously. Some of the things I mentioned previously came up in that conversation At some point, she dropped a pearl of wisdom on me that I wish more people -- the ladies, the guys seeking a substitute for intimacy and the guys for whom any hole will do -- would realize: "Every relationship is different." I an enjoy spending time with Provider A and Provider B and Provider C, etc., and regard each of them as special, and I shouldn't have to feel guilty about it, and none of them should feel jealous of the other. (I'm speaking about emotions, not the money-going-somewhere else issues.)
We live in an era of disposable relationships. I've left jobs where I'd been pretty close to some people I've never heard from again. I had a group of guys in college that I went through a lot with -- same thing. Former neighbors, too. Of course this applies to the hobby, too. But it can be rough when one of you decides to end the business relationship, there was some element of "clicking" involved, and either of you continues to read on ECCIE about what the other is doing. I told a former ATF a few times a couple of years ago that when our relationship ended, the hole in my heart would be much larger than the hole in hers. I didn't consider the possibility that there would be no hole in hers, but that's the way it ended.
Lastly, I mentioned this in a post a couple of months ago. For some of us, while we acknowledge the circumstances under which we meet a provider and the nature of the hobby/business, can't help but feel a little discomfited when we find someone whose company we enjoy, and the best thing we can do for her is tell all our friends (and a whole bunch of strangers) to go fuck her. Shrug That's the way it is, and no amount of berating by the any-hole-will-do guys is going to change that.