“I don’t see a way in which this doesn’t end badly.”

It had been going on for months. But lately he’d been thinking about that first couple weeks. The initial rush followed by the almost immediate concern for Where This Was Headed.

The two of them were not people who settled into things easily. Couches, maybe. But not new relationships. They were overthinkers and oversharers who overthought whether they should have shared that much.

It was exciting at first. Tentative steps became jumps with both feet. Each got a little lost in the other.

Truth be told, he was more uncertain than she. This was a pattern, of course. A mixture of general anxiety and an unwillingness to be honest about what he wanted. His style was to wait until enough pressure built and wait for things to blow up. This was…not ideal.

So was he trying to signpost a different way for himself this time? A warning to her? Still unfair, and less than ideal. But progress?

He was right, of course. But things ended badly because of the way they started. And that was his fault. A signpost at the start, yes. But the wayfinding trailed off after that.