Matt and I continued seeing each other, and the more time we spent together, the more comfortable things felt.
One weekend, we met for dinner at a BYOB restaurant. The food was great, the conversation flowed easily, and somewhere in the middle of the meal we unexpectedly bumped into one of my cousins.
A few months earlier, that probably would have made me panic. I would have worried about what people thought or felt awkward explaining who I was with.
Instead, I barely thought twice about it.
That shift in mindset was a pleasant surprise. I had started embracing dating for what it was—a chance to meet new people and enjoy the experience, without putting so much pressure on every interaction.
The following week, Matt picked me up and took me bowling. Since I’m in a bowling league, I appreciated that he planned a date around one of my interests. I went in fully expecting to win, but he managed to beat me in one of the games.
I’m still not sure I’ve forgiven him for that, but I’ll let him have it.
Afterward, we grabbed a drink at a nearby bar and spent another couple of hours talking. By the end of the night, when he dropped me off, we shared a longer kiss than we had before.
It was nice. There was a spark. Maybe not fireworks, but enough to make me excited to keep getting to know him.
As I learned more about Matt, I found myself appreciating the little things.
He had three sisters, worked as a golf professional, and had recently moved back home after spending nearly a decade on the West Coast. He was Scottish, loved soccer, and talked about helping his parents around the house. Since it was the offseason for work, he spent a lot of his free time with landscaping projects or cooking with his mom.
There was something quietly reassuring about that.
It wasn’t flashy or over-the-top, but it spoke to the kind of person he was.
At the same time, life outside of dating was just as full.
My sister had just welcomed her third baby, and I wanted to be there for her however I could. Between family, work, settling into my new apartment, and maintaining my own routines, my schedule was busy.
And I was okay with that.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t trying to force a relationship to become the center of my world. I was simply enjoying getting to know someone while continuing to build a life that already felt full.
If something meaningful grew from it, great.
If not, I knew I’d be just fine either way.
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