What do you do when you start to think you’re falling for someone who’s married—and you suspect they’re falling for you, too?
I keep coming back to the small things. A hug gets a little tighter and lasts longer than it needs to. Neither person seems in much of a hurry to let go. At a social gathering, we look at each other. We have the kind of conversation that makes it easy to keep talking.
Then there’s the tendency to touch, even briefly. Nothing I can point to as a declaration. Just enough that I notice, and then notice myself waiting for it again.
Put together, those moments seem to suggest that feelings are developing on both sides. But that’s still my reading of them. A lingering embrace can feel unmistakable while you’re in it and become much harder to explain afterward.
The marriage is the part I can’t leave out of the question. It’s there during the good conversations and the extra seconds of a hug, even when neither of us mentions it.
I don’t have a confession from the other person. I have a growing feeling, some gestures I may be interpreting correctly, and the possibility that we both know something is changing.
So what happens at that point—when the hug lasts longer, you’re reluctant to let go, and the person in your arms is still married?
