Dear Boyfriend: You’re Doing It Right

Posted on 29. Dec, 2010 by Brittney Winters in Lifestyle

That’s right, world, I’m off the market.

A rad dude (who I have not come up with a suitable nickname for yet) has managed to trick me into wanting a committed, monogamous relationship. Or maybe I tricked him. Who knows? Who cares? He’s pretty freaking awesome and here’s 8 reasons why/how he got me to be his girlfriend.

1. He almost quite literally tricked me into going out with him. Admittedly, I blew him off the first time he asked me out. (I’m sorry, honey, but I just really didn’t want to have to scramble to find a cool Halloween costume.) He followed up with a plea to go with him to see Paranormal Activity 2 because none of his friends wanted to see it with him and he didn’t want to go alone. How could I resist a plea for help? Apparently, he was counting on this because he was lying through his teeth. He definitely made that up so I’d feel bad and say yes. Which I did.

2. He played it super cool (at first). I actually didn’t know that Paranormal Activity 2 was a date. He was so aloof – didn’t try to hold my hand, didn’t try to touch me at all. He barely even looked at me. And since I’m super vain, slightly conceited and I hate being ignored, that piqued my interest. This has changed, of course, now that he knows for sure I’m interested…

3. He’s really good at planning dates! I hate decision making for other people. Hate it, hate it, hate it. My rad dude asked me questions about things I liked to do and then made plans accordingly. “Oh, you like bowling? Let’s do it. We’ll have lunch first. You’re fine with McDonald’s, right?” My dude’s a classy fellow.

4. He listens to me…like, really listens. Okay, this isn’t strictly true. I tell him stuff all the time that I have to repeat later because he forgot. But when it counts, he remembers. He knows I can’t stand pickles on anything (which admittedly, is easy, because he hates them too). He pays attention to the things I say I do like (romance novels and Rock Band) and applies them later on (takes me to a bookstore chock full of romance novels and drags me to Guitar Center to serenade me).

5. He is a master of negotiations and compromise. I love wearing Uggs. He hates them. I get bored watching soccer. He’s played it most of his life. Our deal? I don’t catch any flak for wearing my Uggs and he doesn’t get called a grass fairy. He wants to have a James Bond-a-thon? Fine. We’re watching The Notebook after. Ah, compromise.

6. He’s a sneaky, sneaky dude (and by “sneaky,” I mean, “straightforward”). He waited until he got me out of the house and on the way to the car this past weekend before he told me he was taking me to meet the parents. I thought we were going skating. After that nerve-wracking experience, he waited about a good 15 minutes for me to settle down and then ambushed me with “The Talk” – the dreaded definition of “what are we”. I have to hand it to him, I wouldn’t have brought it up. I would have just waited until someone else asked me out and then held it over his head until he got jealous enough to stake his claim. He’s all about just hammering things out as they come up.

7. He’s a proponent of random acts of awesome. He took me to a used bookstore. This isn’t that big of a deal to most, but considering how much I love reading – this is the equivalent of taking a kid to a candy store and handing them $100. He randomly serenades me, and we all know my weakness for musically-inclined lads. He makes me laugh (sometimes, he even means to make me laugh). He’s teaching me to play guitar. Just small things that make me smile.

8. He takes a hint. Neither of us was expecting to actually like the other person, so it makes sense that we tried to be as distant as possible during our first couple of dates. But once I warmed up to the idea of seeing him more often, he caught on pretty quickly, but that didn’t dictate his actions. I was a little leery of moving quickly with him and he respected that. As far as I know, we’re still sorta feeling this out, and that’s awesome.

Obviously, these qualities don’t work for everyone and I’m clearly not giving dating advice, since I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Unfortunately for me, dating doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Whatever. We’ll figure it out.

Tags: Boyfriend, Dating, Relationships