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All The In-Between Dating Stages We’ve All Found Ourselves In

You’re almost certainly in one of them.

So, you’re scrolling through Facebook, minding your own business, and you stumble upon what seems like the tenth engagement this month. Because if you don’t announce it with a photo seconds after it happened.. are you actually engaged? Out of curiosity you click on the photo and you read the saccharine caption about how in love they are #2getha4eva.

You even give it a half-assed ‘like’ that doesn’t quite hit that passive aggressive mark you wanted it too. Meanwhile, your phone buzzes with a message saying, “U up? Aha ;)” from your date-partner-casual-thingo. And if you just rolled your eyes reading this, chances are you’ve ended up in one of the in-between dating stages. And here’s what they are.

You’re Friends.. Who Make Out

You’re the last two standing at the bar on a Friday night and the clock has just past 2am. You’re both walking to the bus stop to catch the last ride home, when your lips ‘accidentally’ fall on theirs. Oops. Drunk or not, this is happening now and you can’t take it back. Both of you state that it can’t happen again, that it could complicate things. But you better believe you’ll be back in this position next week, and thus the ‘dating’ cycle is born.

You Go On Dates But Still Find Them Swiping

You’ve met their friends and taken that big step forward by maybe even meeting their family. Every third day you’re going on a date and seem to have a connection. You come home from a night out together, decide to order pizza and lounge around in bed while watching a movie. You’re nice and content until you see them out the corner of your eye, swiping left and right through Tinder. Granted, you may think that no one is that dumb, that they wouldn’t do that in front of you.. but trust me, they are that dumb.

One Of You Is More Keen

After a move as been made, you’ll probably come to find that one of you is keener than the other. Navigating this dating stage is easier if you’ve only met each other recently, as there’s not as much to lose. But going through this stage when you were friends beforehand? Strap yourselves in. From here you get to argue that committing to something will ruin your friendship. You’ll be riddled with guilt about hurting their feelings. And you’ll probably live in denial that romance could actually exist for you by being with this person. That is, until you stop being a wuss and own up to the fact that you do, in fact, like them.

Hooking Up

If you’re hooking up simply for physical satisfaction, kudos to you. However, hooking up while being stuck in dating limbo is chaos. In this territory, you’re usually presented with clichés like, “I actually just got out of something serious”, and my favourite, “I’m not ready for a relationship, but we can totally hook up and see where it goes.” Classic.

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