Well it’s only been a little over three months and we are still going strong. My fears of something bad happening after two months that might jeopardize the relationship didn’t happen. I did tell him about it though. We are pretty good about saying what is on our mind. Usually it would take me a while to tell my significant other if something was bothering me about them or the relationship but I guess this time is different. This time, I really really really want things to work out so I guess I’m putting a lot more effort than I ever used to in a relationship. It’s only been a little over three months, we are still learning a lot about each other. We haven’t introduced each other to family yet, well I met his cousin last week but I’ll explain that another time. Even though it’s only been a little over three months, we have discussed things that most couples think about after six months or even a year of being together. Even though it’s only been a little over three months, it feels like it’s been a lifetime. We’ve done so much in so little time and lots more to do moving forward.

So we have this thing about puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, puzzle boxes and those Hanayama puzzles that you are supposed to take apart and put back together, levels 1 – 6. Since the beginning of our relationship, Andrew started giving me some Hanayama puzzles for fun just to try them out, levels 5 and 6. I managed to solve them pretty fast that we had to get more. Now I think we have all of the level 6 Hanayama puzzles and I think there is only two or three that I can’t solve yet. There is one in particular that I have been stuck on for weeks now and I am very frustrated with it. No, I will not look up the solution, that’s cheating! I will figure it out eventually, hopefully, someday. HAHA

Now comes the puzzle boxes. Along with the Hanayama puzzles, he also gave me a puzzle box. I have been looking for puzzle boxes for years. I love them, they are very intriguing to me. So anyway, the first one he gave me I solved in I think a few days, maybe a week? I can’t remember. There was a $50 bill in there! I didn’t take it though. He said he forgot that it was in there and that it was my prize for opening the puzzle box. I still didn’t take the money.

Since my last post about him, I said that my feelings for him were developing pretty fast and pretty deep. I had the feeling he felt the same way. Sometime in February we got into one of those special moments where everything fades away and nothing else matters in the world but you two. He said he had a secret to tell me but he was afraid to say it. I didn’t force him to say it right then and there, I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. I had a secret too. A few days later we got the idea of writing down our secrets and putting it into puzzle boxes and exchange them when we reach our three months.

We didn’t quite reach three months, we both couldn’t wait to exchange puzzle boxes so we switched around the end of March, beginning of April. I was so determined to open the puzzle box that one night I was up for two hours trying to open it. I brought it to work the following morning. I was fiddling with it here and there throughout the morning and then I finally opened it during my lunch break. I think I was having kind of a rough start at work that week but when I opened the box and read the note, I was beyond happy! His secret was that even though it’s only been a month of us being together, he had fallen in love with me. I can’t even explain exactly how I felt but I was really really really happy! Even though I felt it, I didn’t say “I love you” back right away since he hadn’t opened the puzzle box that I gave him yet. He came over that night and he kept telling me how much he loved me and all I could tell him is that “you have to open my box.” I know that’s not what someone wants to hear after they say I love you to someone but he had to read what I wrote in my note to explain how I felt. He went home that night feeling a little unsure of himself since I didn’t say I love you back but my expression every time he would tell me he loved me, I had a huge smile on my face. He opened my box when he got home and from what he said, it was a huge sigh of relief for him. He thought I didn’t feel the same way since I wasn’t saying it back and that I kept telling him to open my box and read my note. So we officially said “I Love You” to each other on April 3rd, 2023, just a couple weeks shy of us hitting our three months.