Crosspost "tips for dating a guy who is extremely respectful and not forward about being physical??" from /r/dating:

I (24F) have bee seeing a guy (25M) from Hinge for about a month now. Our dynamic has been… confusing to say the least. He is not very forward when it comes to being physical, and that is not something I have ever experienced before. I’ve felt a lot of mixed signals, and I’m having trouble navigating it.

We’ve seen each other 7 times now. He actually initiated kissing at the end of our first three dates, which were all either drinks or dinner. Then he started inviting me over to pretty much “Netflix and chill” for the next few times we saw each other…. except he didn’t initiate anything beyond making out and fooling around with our clothes on—not once (and it was after many hours of already lying together). During date 5, I had to explicitly say “I’d like to have sex” and undress myself for anything to progress further. But he didn’t have a condom so… we didn’t have PIV sex. I went over again for our 6th “date” and even slept over, but I never explicitly said I wanted sex so… it didn’t happen. Even despite me crawling into bed naked! He spooned me for maybe a minute then turned his back and didn’t touch me again until morning. It definitely didn’t make me feel good, and I left questioning if he even liked me at all.

So last week I asked him on a phone call what he was looking for, and his response was that he didn’t really know, but he does like me (which is fair—it’s only been a month and I do know he is still very active on Hinge). I told him I’d like to go on more real dates and he was really receptive and planned a hiking date for us today. We had a great time (though it was only an hour), he initiated a real date again for Friday, but we didn’t even hold hands or kiss! Honestly…. I’m just confused by it all haha. Is he just super respectful of my boundaries or do I have a right to be confused?

Regardless, it makes me hesitant to be physical too. Which I hate…

Posted by manifestingpear | 20 June 2022 | Link