So we talked about it on the phone, and we agreed that we can resume the physical intimacy since (1) we are both being responsible with wearing masks at stores and socially distancing with others, and (2) we trust our judgment much more than we do the state government’s and the media’s. He’s not paranoid, he’s not mentally ill; we just were misunderstanding each other.

As it turns out, we’ve been on the same page about this once the case increases in our state started to consistently drop, but we did not do a good job of communicating with each other until now. I interpreted him upholding the boundary as him wanting it to stay there, but apparently he was upholding it because he thought I wanted it to stay there since I wasn’t initiating anything, just asking if he still wanted the boundary and agreeing with him.

I guess there’s a balance between STFU and good communication about how you’re feeling; our men are not mind readers.