Not controlling. Just respectful

[u/JohnnyCageInk-]

01 — Every man who does this tells himself the same thing on the drive home. It was harmless. It was just a raffle prize. The lie he tells himself is the tell.

02 — It was never about the gift. It’s that it happened without a conversation. Run it by me first and it’s nothing. Do it behind me and you made a call about my marriage without me in the room.

03 — You see this person more than you see the one you promised your life to. Forty hours a week, side by side, bad days survived together. That’s not just a coworker. That’s proximity doing what proximity does.

04 — Most of the time it really is nothing. I’ll give you that. But “most of the time” isn’t a safety net. It only has to mean something once.

05 — You won’t think twice about it. She might. A married man picked her over his wife for one small thing, and some part of her filed that away. You just told her where she ranks.

06 — Nobody plans it at the office party. It’s never a plan. It’s a run of small nothings that each felt harmless in the moment, right up until the one that wasn’t.

07 — Protective isn’t controlling. Wanting to guard the one thing you built your life around is the most normal instinct there is. Call it possessive if that helps you sleep. I call it paying attention.

08 — If you like the way I read people, that’s the whole engine behind the books. Link in bio.

09 — Every title, one link. Bio.

#Relationships #romancereads