I (m20) have been on three dates with a woman (f25). They’ve been very enjoyable, and I think we have some chemistry, but after three dates, I’m worried that things are staying stagnant.
Our conversations are enjoyable, and I get the sense that we both like each other, but I think there’s a bit of awkwardness. We don’t really touch each other. We haven’t held hands or kissed or cuddled, or really broken past having exclusively fun, light, ice-breaking conversations.
This doesn’t bother me, I’m not in a huge rush for the relationship to go anywhere, but I do fear that she’ll lose interest if the relationship doesn’t escalate in some capacity. I feel like I should be showing more initiative, but I’m not super experienced with dating. I don’t want to cross boundaries or make her uncomfortable, and she isn’t sending strong signals.
We had a movie night recently, and it would have been the perfect time to move things further a little bit, but I was a bit too hesitant to make any moves.
I don’t want her to think that I’m not interested, but I’m not sure how I can move things forward without first breaking the barrier of awkwardness between us.
Any thoughts or advice?
1 comment
Let’s take the movie night as an example. If you wanted to put an arm around her, but were too hesitant that is fine. You don’t want to do something she doesn’t want and that is respectable. Please, just ask if she is okay with it. It will show that you are thinking about it so she will know you can go to that level if she wants to as well. If she doesn’t want to then she can say no and she will know that you respect her opinion on it, purely because you asked instead of doing it regardless.
This goes for things like holding hands, kissing and other things. Doing it as a sporadic ‘in the moment’ kind of thing seems fun and romantic, but it can also make things more awkward if it is uncertain. Asking permission avoids this and still leaves the option of doing it open.
Things being awkward is fine all around though, that is what makes it more exctiting when it happens. If it wasn’t a big deal to anyone it wouldn’t be half as exciting to do.