DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My roommate and I have been together for nearly five years now, and our relationship has been what we’ve always understood to be “roomies with benefits”. Whenever neither of us is with someone else, we’re sort of together.
Lately, I’ve been wanting to make what we have more exclusive. Neither of us is seeing anyone else seriously right now, and I want to approach my roommate with the proposal that we make us official, but I’m afraid he’ll say no and things will get weird. How do I figure if we have a chance to be a long-term couple without risking losing it all? --- TWO’S COMPANY
DEAR TWO’S COMPANY: I’m not sure how you have kept it from being weird for the past five years. On-again-off-again relationships are certainly not rare, but your arrangement seems to beg complications.
You two have known each other a long time. If you can’t openly discuss your thoughts and feelings, then you’re probably not ready to make the commitment to monogamy with each other. Talk to him. It’s the only way you’ll find out what he thinks about you guys being a confirmed couple.