Getting married soon - by Sasha Chapin

I used to think that falling in love had to look a certain way. Connection was synonymous with breathless, giddy excitement and immediate mutual understanding. It had to be like a sudden explosion. Both the home you’ve always been looking for and the happiness you’d never believed possible, delivered simultaneously. I was intimidated by Cate during our first Zoom call. A lot of people are: her pale blue stare, her obvious intelligence, the crisp precision of her communication. She isn’t always given to niceties, because she doesn’t really need them herself, as an independent-minded creature who is perfectly comfortable with life, rarely needing reassurance. We talked about something, my job situation, it didn’t matter. After the call ended, I didn’t really know what was going on. Then I received the following two messages: “we should make out” “just stating a preference” When we’d started talking, we were both recovering from previous relationships. Both of us were thinking, okay, fuck

I used to think that falling in love had to look a certain way. Connection was synonymous with breathless, giddy excitement and immediate mutual understanding. It had to be like a sudden explosion. Both the home you’ve always been looking for and the happiness you’d never believed possible, delivered simultaneously. I was intimidated by Cate during our first Zoom call. A lot of people are: her pale blue stare, her obvious intelligence, the crisp precision of her communication. She isn’t always given to niceties, because she doesn’t really need them herself, as an independent-minded creature wh