When you are a teen they tell you that you are too young to know love. They say the first relationships do not count. How could you possibly know true emotion when you yourself are so tempestuous and yet so naive. But as you grow older you become marred by unrequited feelings and messy ends to messy affairs. Relationships become more hesitant and less hopeful. One does not want to give it labels. The other does not want to open up for fear of being vulnerable to yet another who will run away in the end. Grandiose gestures and all night phone calls of youth turn into quiet comfortable dinners and a movie. Perhaps coffee. It is all smiles and saying the right thing at the right moment. Both parties know the rhythm of what they should do and what is expected. It seems all right. It could be secure.

But in all the polite text messages sent soon enough to show interest but not so soon as to exude desperation, the thrill of young love is lost. Both will forever wonder if they had just met that first love a little later. Maybe if they were not so young and foolish. Could it possibly have blossomed? These pressing thoughts leave a distance between the new couple. Because it is impossible to know how you would interact with the same people if you were different.