She keeps bringing up her Ex...

I really need some advice with this. I'm a long time member of slickdealz, but am posting under a different s/n to protect my privacy.

It's a long story, but I'll try to make it short. This girl and I met studying for our graduate school entrance exams. We were in different cities then, but met online via skype. We made a great study team. I had recently come out of a long term relationship, but I had recovered from it.

She had also been in a long term relationship, but had found out that her bf had been unfaithful to her. She was heartbroken, this was the perfect guy for her and she was planning on marrying him. She had already ended things with him, and told him several times to "leave her alone". Anyway, during our study sessions she would occasionally bring up how hurt she felt. Since I had also come out of a long term relationship, I understood and I listened. We ended up getting very close. During this time she moved away from and back home (an hour away). As far as I knew, they had completely broken up. He was trying to contact her, but she would ignore it.

Also during this time I got a nice job near her and moved there (Miami). I've been here about three months and we've seen each other about everyday. We get along extremely well...really, really well. Problem is that I have no idea where things are with her ex. He has tried to come over to her house and talk to her. She has kept things at a distance and told him to go away. Her parents don't know about what happened, they know things are rocky, but they still think they are together. Her friends don't know anything, she's a very private person and isn't the type to air her dirty laundry so I didn't think anything of it. I haven't been introduced to any of her friends or parents...which is fine by me, it's still too early. She wants to let things with her ex die slowly. She's afraid that if she does it more forcefully, he will create trouble for her and try to embarrass her.

Another big thing that bothers me. She talks about the things used to do for her. He wrote her papers in college, they did projects together, he bought her a lot of gifts. She talks about how smart he is, (he wrote all the papers for his own mom to get her PhD in sociology), how thoughtful and attentive he was, how he would drive her everywhere, how they would eat out all the time, knew her moods well, what a great team they made, how jealous everyone was of their relationship, etc. This comes up every now and then, a few times a week. Naturally, this makes me feel confused, not jealous, but hurt. I don't bring up my ex...and because I don't, she thinks I'm still talking to her...which I'm not. She still talks about how he ruined everything, everything was going perfectly from her perspective. I feel like the only reason we're together is because things between her and him didn't work out. She sometimes says she'll never be happy again, that she thinks she'll never marry. This leads to feelings of frustration and insecurity. I feel like snapping at her.

I'm beginning to think I've gotten myself into a pretty shitty situation. I've spoken to her about bringing her up. She says that certain questions I ask lead her to talk about him. But I don't ask about him, I don't really want to know. She says she loves me, cares for me, has a connection with me that she's never had with anyone. And it does seem that way, but I do feel like her ex's shadow looms large over us. I don't like it. But I do really like her...what should I do?