Member-only story
Who should say I love you first?
(And how it can change everything when it’s not you)
It finally happened. I never guessed that how it would happen would require one of us driving to the other person’s home state in order to deliver a pizza on a Wednesday (of all days) for no other reason than “just because.”
Four months ago, we officially had our first date. Since then we’ve talked on the phone almost every single evening followed by a morning text exchange of well wishes to see how the other person slept and to say, “Have a wonderful day!”
We enjoyed Thanksgiving apart and then a belated Christmas together.
We’ve also enjoyed date nights at least once a week and there’ve even been weeks where we have been able to spend even more time than that together.
The arrival of 2023 brought shifts in our relationship that I couldn’t help but feel and honestly? I started to feel a little scared about how it might really change everything that had been.
Without going into too much personal detail, he’s really been in a tough phase of his life (personally as much as professionally) since before we met each other. We’ve talked very honestly about this a lot but he’s very good at “playing it cool” enough for me not to completely see how it is for him in real life.
