Two years ago, when I was 16, my dad tried to set me up with one of his business partners. I told him off, and he never tried that again. Soon after that, I met this guy through my friends, and we started dating. He’s only one year older than me, so it’s age-appropriate. It’s a very laid-back and fun relationship, but we have to keep it low-key since we live in the Gulf region, and he’s a native. Due to sociocultural, religious, and even legal factors, he’s not supposed to date. However, like many of these wealthy native Gulf families, they do everything they’re not supposed to do on the down low. I don’t know if it will necessarily last long-term, but for now, we’re having a good time.
Like a very long setup to a very shitty punchline. We were very good friends when we started dating, hurt the hell out of each other for a year or so, broke up, got back together for another painful year or two, broke up, hooked up very briefly again a year or two later. I couldnt figure out why I didn’t want to sleep with him and we pretended this was a totally normal way to deal with things. The punchline was that I am asexual and didn’t figure it out until like 5 years later and a couple more failed relationships.
We were really good friends though. His grandmother called me on Christmas and my birthday for years after we broke up. She is lovely.
He is a good guy but we both needed a lot of therapy. Hope he is happier now.