I never liked the idea of a relationship \u201cpause.\u201d It\u2019s either on or it\u2019s off. But when my boyfriend said he needed time and space to \u201cwork on himself,\u201d I didn\u2019t argue. I just didn\u2019t expect him to come back six weeks later yelling that I\u2019d failed some test he made up in his head.Jack and I had been together for two years, and for the most part, things were great.We had a rhythm \u2014 coffee runs on Sundays, movie nights on Fridays, and spontaneous day trips on Saturdays just to try new donut shops or weird roadside attractions.We laughed a lot. He was warm, funny, spontaneous \u2014 the kind of guy who\u2019d surprise me with flowers just because he passed a stand on the street.o when he started shutting down emotionally, I didn\u2019t know what to make of it.It came out of nowhere.One week, he was joking about how he could beat me at Mario Kart with his eyes closed, the next he was quiet and distant. At first, I thought maybe it was work \u2014 he\u2019d had a stressful month. But when I asked, he just shook his head and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then one night over dinner, he said, \u201cI think I need a break.\u201dI asked, \u201cWhat kind of break?\u201d\u201cA relationship pause,\u201d he replied.\u201cJust some time to get my head right.\u201dI looked at him, not even trying to hide how shocked I was.\u201cI think I\u2019m just\u2026 lost,\u201d he said, staring down at his plate. \u201cI need to go clear my head. Maybe stay with my parents in Washington for a bit.\u201dFor how long?\u201d I asked.\u201cA few weeks.I don\u2019t know. Just until I feel like myself again.\u201d\u201cSo\u2026 are we breaking up?\u201d\u201cNo,\u201d he said quickly.\u201cNot breaking up. Just pressing pause. Like \u2014 just a break.I need to work on myself without thinking about us all the time.\u201d\u201cI don\u2019t understand how you pause a relationship,\u201d I said. \u201cThat\u2019s not really a thing.\u201d\u201cIt is if we agree it is,\u201d he replied. \u201cI still care about you.I just\u2026 need space.\u201dI looked at him for a long second. \u201cWill we still talk?\u201d\u201cMaybe a little,\u201d he said. \u201cBut not much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I never liked the idea of a relationship \u201cpause.\u201d It\u2019s either on or it\u2019s off. But when my boyfriend said he needed time and space to \u201cwork… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":67,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47496,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47494\/revisions\/47496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}