Hugs are really important to me (f26) for some reason. I feel a lot closer (emotionally) to a person when I hug them regularly. I‘m a really insecure person and hugs somehow reassure me that someone genuinely likes me. I can have as many hugs as I want from my boyfriend but I have this urge to hug my friends too. Since we moved to a new city two years ago, I struggled making new friends, but I’m starting to get along really well with some of my coworkers. They’re all guys (I get along with guys way better, and there are only few women working here anyway) and some of them are ~ 15 years older than me. Doesn’t matter to me, we‘re all pretty similar (stereotypical nerds) so the age gap doesn’t seem that big of a deal.
Sometimes we walk to the train or bus station together after work, and especially when it’s only one of them and not a group, I have this urge to hug them goodbye, because they start to feel like friends and we talk about personal stuff and all that. But I am really scared of asking for a hug. I really don’t wanna hug them against their will, so I wanna ask them first (I already did that via text with two coworkers and we hug regularly now) but I‘m so scared of crossing boundaries there. I don’t want to negatively impact our work relationship, too… I‘m annoyed with myself because of how important hugs are to me. ._.