All the worst possible things you can do in a new relationship, The Boy and I have done…with each other. Strangely enough, it worked out really well for us.

• We spent every waking moment together.
  As soon as one of us got off of work, we went to see each other. I’d get up at 6AM from his place and go home to get ready for work. Get off of work at 6PM and then go see him again.
• I met his parents within the first two weeks of dating.
  “We should go over to my place. My parents should be asleep by then.” Uh, no. His parents were up, baking cookies with his sisters. Too much family too soon? Yes, but I figured out they’re pretty cool.
• I trapped (so he says) him into answering the boyfriend question.
  “My cousin asked me if you were my boyfriend. I didn’t know what to say.”
  “Why don’t you tell him yes.”
  “Oh, okay.”
• We revealed too much too soon.
  “I’ve dated a married woman before.”
  “I sort of messed around with a lot of guys.”
  Scare most people off? Well, duh, but not us. To most people, it screams of I have so much emotional baggage, want to deal with it? The Boy and I have no emotional baggage with relationships because we never cared about anyone we were with before, so it worked out well for us.
• He invited me on a trip after about three weeks of dating.
  He asked me if I wanted to go camping (which is sacred to him). The outdoors is the closest The Boy has to a calming place and he invited me to share that. I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was until much later.

I guess the point of all this is those relationship books aren’t always right. I asked The Boy one time if it would have been different if I hadn’t been as affectionate or if I played hard to get. He said it would have been, since he hates that sort of thing. If you act like you’re not interested, well he’d assume that I wasn’t interested.

Follow your gut on things like this. Unless your gut is crazy, then the books would be a good idea for you.