We’ve both said we like each other. We’ve even called each other soulmates, which makes it strange to be here now, unsure how to talk about actually being together.
She’s interested in me, but the thought of a relationship scares her. She worries she won’t be able to give me the love and care she thinks I need and deserve. I hear that and want to reassure her immediately. I don’t have a perfect version of her in mind that she’s supposed to become.
I told her she doesn’t have to be perfect or meet some impossible standard. I also apologized because I wondered whether I’d done something to make her feel this way. She said I hadn’t. That answered one worry, though I still didn’t know what would make the conversation easier for her.
Eventually, she said she was tired and suggested we continue talking later. We left it there. There wasn’t a decision or a promise about what would happen next.
I really like her. I want to be with her, and I don’t want to pretend I’m indifferent just to make the situation seem simpler. But I also don’t want every reassuring thing I say to become another reason she feels she should be ready.
Telling her she’s enough expresses how I feel. It doesn’t necessarily settle what she’s afraid of. I’m unsure how to leave room for her to explain that fear without turning our next conversation into a discussion she has to get through for my sake.
She was the one who suggested talking again, and I’m holding on to that small, concrete detail. For now, the conversation is unfinished because she was tired. When we return to it, how do I tell her I want to be with her while leaving her enough room to decide whether she’s ready?
