relationships come with strings

Every relationship comes with strings attached. When you meet a person, your energies make contact and they either attract or repel. But more than that, every relationship is like putting a plug into a wall socket (with sexual relationships this is literally so). Just as a plug has both a negative and a positive connector, so it is with people and creatures; when you connect with a person there is always a transfer of energies: you get both the positive and the negative from them--the good and the bad, the happiness and the sadness, the successes and the problems. You also give both your good and your bad. For this reason a relationship can literally bless you or curse you.
Is this a bad thing? No; this is just the way it is. But it is wise to think or at least reflect before you leap. For example, there might be a beautiful woman who obviously desires you, but you notice that she has a drinking habit. In the time it takes you to down one glass of wine, she usually drinks two or three strong ciders. You consider this a problem; she doesn't consider it a problem. If you pursue the relationship, her non-problem will become your big problem and you also most likely will end up paying for it in one way or another. But if you hold back, stay at the level of just acquaintances, there is no problem at all because her drinking is not your issue. Of course, you can still go ahead if you wish, but at least you have warned yourself and are aware.
Relationships travel with you forever and that is why all the sacred texts say that love is what will last. When we die, we don't die. It is only the suits of meat that we inhabit for a short while that die. And even they don't die; they just change form. All the energy that we are continues in some other form, somewhere, because energy cannot be destroyed. We're not puppets, but puppet-masters. Make sure you notice the strings.