Allow me to entertain you with a short story of painful embarrassment and whole lot of awkward.

It all started, like most of my fleeting relationships, with coffee. “Cupid” and I hit off right away- great conversation, mutual attraction- all good. Over the course of about three weeks, we embarked on the usual courtship including dinners, movies, etc.  He even met my twin (which a ridiculous story in itself).

Cupid was a solid guy. Attentive, caring, smart and reasonably good looking, but he had this unspoken intensity about our almost relationship that seemed way too advanced (think clinger dude). Anyway, sometime before hitting that 1 month mark, we were sitting on my couch, watching a movie  and he looks uncomfortable- almost sweating nervousness- and then says “I need to tell you something.” Now, in my head, I’m thinking one of the following:

• He’s found someone else and wants to end it with me
• He’s moving away
• He actually loves white chocolate (I hate it. It was one of the things we laughed about having in common on the first date)
• He’s about to unload some tragedy or personal flaw that will somehow build trust and strengthen our connection.

How I wish it was any of those things.

Paused the movie, he looks intently at me and says: “I think I love you.”

I was highly unprepared for this and frankly just so shocked that all I could reply was: “thank you.” FYI- If you ever find yourself in this situation, silence is probably better until you can form a more thoughtful response.

While it was completely absurd for him to say that less than a month into knowing each other, I genuinely felt bad. He looked like he was going to throw up and, as you might have guessed, left shortly afterwards.

My final thought on the matter?  It takes a lot courage to express such strong emotion to another person. However, it is prudent and necessary to realistically assess that person’s feelings before dropping the L bomb, lest you scare the hell out of them and destroy the relationship.