Love Languages & Compatibility

At 1:40 on a Tuesday morning in July, I woke up shivering in Sam’s bed. His air conditioner was set to 66, and he was on top of the sheets. I stay over at his apartment two or three nights a week. We do not live together, so his bedroom runs on his rules. Sam … Read more

It was 6:40 on a Saturday evening in late March. Ethan told me to put on real shoes and get in his car. He would not say where we were going. I spent the whole 20 minute drive with my stomach in a tight knot. We pulled up to a pottery studio with six of … Read more

We were playing cards at his place late on a Friday. A simple hand of rummy somehow turned into a real debate. I laid down a winning hand and he questioned the rules right away. We ended up arguing about something that had nothing to do with cards. By the end of the night we … Read more

I got off a call with my boss at 6:15 on a Thursday. I’d just been told I was getting the promotion I wanted. I ran into the living room grinning and told him right away. He laughed and asked if I’d finally learned to use the copier. The Job Call That Showed Me the … Read more

We were two miles up a trail on a Saturday in early fall, just past 2 pm. I had gone quiet for maybe five minutes, just enjoying the view. Eli finally asked did I do something wrong, and he meant it. Five minutes of silence from me reads like a warning sign to him. I … Read more

Daniel was still on a work call at 8:45 on a Tuesday last month. The pasta I made had gone cold on the counter twice that night. He mouthed just five more minutes for the third time in an hour. I sat down alone and ate dinner facing an empty chair. That night taught me … Read more

Last Thursday at 7:30 pm I was folding his laundry in silence. Nate walked in and said I never just tell him things. I froze holding one of his folded t shirts mid air. I thought folding his laundry was already telling him something. We had been together five years with different love languages. That … Read more

It was a Friday in October and I got to his place at 7:50. A cereal bowl from Tuesday sat on the coffee table. I said “I cannot sit down in here” before I took my coat off. He laughed, and then he saw that I meant it. We had been together two years by … Read more

It was 4:20 on a Sunday in March and we had been home together since ten. I looked up from the rug and said I miss you. My boyfriend laughed and pointed out that he was sitting four feet away. He was not wrong, and I still meant every word. We had spent six hours … Read more

Last June my boyfriend took me to a rooftop birthday party for his coworker. I lasted about fifty minutes. At 7:40 I told him I needed twenty minutes in the car. He said the thing that started our best conversation. He asked whether I was leaving or just resting. Nobody in my life had ever … Read more