I had a few girls who weren’t cool with me being able to shut-down my romantic interest the moment we had that conversation. Turns out, we weren’t friends, I was just their back-up.
Most insisted later I missed my chance to try being more assertive, but none liked learning their “crush”-perks weren’t ever exclusive or crush-related; The crush just meant I hadn’t let them see me treat others similarly.
Didn’t work for me. I played with the most awkward weapons I could manage anyways, and if there’s one thing I sucked at, it was putting myself in the blast-radius of my own grenades and such. Just knowing how to strafe and melee was OP 30 years ago.
I’m both in this picture and the “older sports jock”(compared to some friends… no sportsball for me, just fit).
I saw myself as a ticking-timebomb/life-ruiner, so … okay, okay, lotsa regrets. I was wrong and missed so many opportunities to be at least slightly less alone.
Dogs are too obvious, and targets for jealousy, abduction and manipulation/extortion. Dogs and cats should only be brought into established, healthy relationships.
Or just say its your roommates’ pet. Actauly, I was thinking more like, shared among a household so no rando SOs can stake a claim