Thanks for sharing more of your story. You do it with an openness that is refreshing. I can imagine how participating in a situation like this with your boyfriend would make things complicated. I'm glad you two were able to get past that.
And you bring up a good point about places like Fiverr. When writers (or any other skilled people, for that matter) agree to work for cheap, it devalues the skill in general. It's hard (and near impossible) to find clients willing to pay what you're worth when someone else will do something similar for a tenth of what they deserve. This free market can't exactly be controlled, and so these people willing to work for almost nothing (mostly young people just trying to practice and gain experience) put a dent in the value of the skill. What they, unfortunately, don't realize is that that kind of practice means that others will follow suit, and when it's time that they want a paying job they'll have a harder time getting one that doesn't pay in pennies.
When I was in grad school, they taught me that openness and truth in writing were the only way. I think it's true.
And yeah, this is just the life we live in the society that is so volatile, especially because of the internet changing EVERYTHING. If you get out ahead without being a wolf, you've won. I'd rather be behind than a wolf though.
Thanks for listening @ocrainutah <3