Big time lurker on this page, but wanted to share the story of how COVID blew up my relationship (FF) and enabled a year of long distance lusting after my friend (M).
You are welcome to skip the setup to the fun by jumping right down to the city of “**Boobopolis**.” Sorry-not-sorry about the intro, I feel the need to set the scene.
I am an extrovert living in an East Coast US city. In 2020, I was 28 and had somehow only ever dated one other partner of my kind. For whatever reason, I always ended up finding partners that were very very very introverted to commit. But this was not for lack of trying on my part. I was curious about being with someone that would match my energy and be enthusiastic to be around PEOPLE. I once fell for a very attractive standup comedian, but alas, the bravado was for the stage and they too were drained by big groups, spending time with strangers, and answering phone calls. When the pandemic hit, I was in love but insecure with another woman (28) that lived a 20 minute drive away in another state (neither of us drove/had cars, and March 2020 was NOT a time to risk public transport). I biked to her once, but even that was risky because we were concerned about exposing her parents. A month later, we agreed that we weren’t supporting each other through the mental pressures of the COVID world. We broke up.