DR. WALLACE: I'm 19 and a freshman in college, and my boyfriend runs hot and cold. There are times he's very loving, affectionate and sweet.

However, there are times when his behavior is quite out of line. For example, last weekend we attended a party and after he saw me talking with an old male friend of mine, he reprimanded me in a stern voice in front of about four or five people who were nearby.

He was way out of line, because this was not someone I ever had any romantic interest in nor dated even one time. And this was not an isolated incident; he's made a half-dozen similarly uncomfortable criticisms of me that all had no basis in reality.

The strange thing is that a day or two later after one of his outbursts, my boyfriend calls me and says that he's at the mall and has just bought me a very nice gift to "make things up to me."

I really don't care about receiving a gift to offset his boorish behavior, but when I end up seeing him three or four days later, he never seems to deliver the gift!

I've called him out on this a couple of times. The most recent times I did this, one time he told me that he decided to keep the gift to give me as a Christmas present, and the other time he told me he was going to hold on to it to give to me for a birthday present.

I personally don't think he bought any gifts and that he was just saying this to try to calm me down. Should I continue to call him out on his insistence that he's buying make-up gifts that never seem to materialize? — He's Bluffing, via email

HE'S BLUFFING: My advice to you is to forget all about the gifts and focus instead on the root cause of his behavior. Not only do you personally know that his behavior is way out of bounds, but he also knows and this himself. He demonstrates this knowledge by trying to make things up to you with apparently phantom gifts. If he didn't know he was out of line, he wouldn't have been promising you make-up gifts.

Any guy that would sternly reprimand a partner for no good reason repeatedly in public doesn't deserve to stay in the relationship. I suggest you think long and hard about whether this relationship should be ended entirely — immediately. If you can do this for yourself, it may be the greatest gift of all.

MY NEW ROOMMATE IS TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE!

DR. WALLACE: I'm a sophomore in college, and I live near campus. My best friend just dropped out of school and moved up to the Pacific Northwest with her fiance.

On her way out the door, she recommended a friend of hers to become my roommate, even though she was really more of an acquaintance than a close friend of hers.

This other girl is absolutely a nice enough person, but I'm having a lot of trouble living with her. I truly care about my health, whereas she doesn't seem to be fazed at all; she smokes all kinds of substances and eats a lot of greasy fast food and heavily processed foods.

My former roommate and I kept a very clean, smoke-free environment, and we both enjoyed eating healthy foods — mostly fruits, vegetables and organic food, not heavily processed food products.

Every time I open up the refrigerator now, I either want to faint or go get sick. The food she keeps in the refrigerator is gross, as a lot of times she puts half-eaten portions back in there that look absolutely abhorrent.

I have to constantly tell her not to smoke indoors, whether it be cannabis, cigarettes or whatever else she's combusting.

How can I get my roommate to understand my point of view? — We're Polar Opposites, via email

WE'RE POLAR OPPOSITES: Welcome to the real world! Not everyone you come across in life is going to see things the way you do, especially when it comes to things as seemingly innocuous as food.

Based on your letter, you didn't mention to your potential new roommate any food restrictions, therefore, you likely don't have any reason to put her out of your apartment on those grounds. Her indoor smoking, however, may be another matter entirely.

In any case, try to have an adult discussion with her about cooperating with each other within your living spaces, at least on the smoking issue.

And never forget that you may be able to move at some point in the near future, and you'll be all the wiser the next time to ask important questions before taking on any new living arrangement with other people.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Jess Bailey at Unsplash