162 ^ Cosmopolitan ^ DECEMBER 2016
you Weren’t
official...
it looks likE a rElationship, fEEls likE
a rElationship, and Ends with all thE
hEartbrEak of a rElationship—and yEt
you’d nEvEr madE it offiCial. it’s a wEird
nEw world of “fakE-ups”a feW months ago, I met a
guy at a party—he was the
handsome friend of a friend
with top conversation skills. As
the party raged around us, we
shuffled into quieter corners,
talking animatedly about our
jobs and our weird shared
obsession with YouTube
videos of arm wrestling.
He texted me the next
morning to arrange a date,
and from that point on,
our coupledom was all but
official. We’d text for hours.
We saw each other several
days a week and made those
confident future plans that
are thrilling for their banality:
“We’ll go to a basketball game
this winter.” “There’s this
Ethiopian restaurant near
me. You’ll love it.” He was
charming and unafraid to hold
my hand in public, and I loved
how unambiguous things
felt: No games being
played, just us.
Then three
weeks in,
he abruptly
stopped
contacting me. I
was baffled, then
concerned, and
then mad—mad
enough to call him out.