Does intimacy ever get less weird?
I’m a yapper- be prepared
I (26 F) have 0 experience with physical intimacy. I’ve been very emphatic on the “ace” thing with dates/ situationships etc (I’ve always been pretty much sex repulsed, partially due to my asexuality but also just do to being autistic and having sensory issues/ my own issues with intimacy) so I’ve never really tried anything because the thought in and of itself always kinda gave me the ick. Everything just kinda feels awkward to me in general, like everyone else has the whole “dating” program already installed and I just never got one. ESPECIALLY romantic relationships, I’m terrible at signals, I’m terrible at first dates, I’m terrible at small talk and I’m skittish with touch. Up to this point it’s never really posed a problem, I don’t like people very often (I’m biromantic but the dating pool has piss in it) and when I do they’re typically allosexual and we eventually come to the understanding that it’s just not going to work. Bums me out but I get over it.
I was fine and dandy with just keeping on this way until BOOM, this man appears in my life.
I met The Boy(TM) (25M) at a bar about 6 months ago, we both live in a a small town and grew up in the same circles but that was our first official time meeting. We hung out at the same bar pretty often, started hanging out, texting, etc and eventually he asked me out (about 2 months ago).
Now, this was like almost a weird cosmic thing where right off the bat I was attracted to him, romantically and physically, and I knew he was attracted to me and then it felt like the universe kept throwing him in my path so I already had a bit more of an openness with him than I would typically have with someone I’d go out with. On the first date we ended up hanging out for like 8 hours and then he invited me back to his appt and we didn’t really do anything other than semi snuggle on the couch for a a while which was nice. We did a couple more dates with no physical contact and then this weird 2 week period where we didn’t talk but suddenly I could not stop thinking about him. I was having semi spicy dreams about him (pretty rare for me but it has happened) and I was starting to think that maybe I’d be a bit more open to exploring physically in this relationship.
Near the end of the 2 week gap I ended up going to a bar crawl with a friend and he was randomly out too. I was drinking which makes me flirty and I hit him with the moves and in return he started to get flirty and touchy as well (nothing crazy, mostly just touching my thigh/ butt) which would typically kinda freak me out but oddly enough I was down with it. I asked him out again after that, expecting things to maybe progress physically at this point and we ended up getting drinks and going back to his appartment again.
We were snuggling on the couch and he initiated a makeout sesh. Now, I did not inform him of this because I didn’t want to freak him out but I had never kissed anyone (romantically) before so in the moment I was internally freaking out a bit cause now I was in the throes of a pretty steamy makeout session. I just followed his lead and eventually I was on top of him and paused and just kinda said “thats probably gonna be as far as I’m willing to go right now” which he was respectful off. He then asked “sooooo, hows the whole “asexual” thing work with this” to which i did burst out laughing because i was presently straddling him and i felt like this was a conversation we should have had WAYYY before, but like i said i was willing to explore a little more with this one so i didn’t do my usual “I’m asexual- i do not like sex- you will not be getting laid” spiel prior to us going out- but, he was present for my being VERY open about my asexuality at the bar we frequent and i know that I’ve mentioned being ace to him personally in the past but i guess we haven’t had that detailed a conversation about it before hand.
Admittedly I probably should have gone a little more in depth at the time but like I said I wasn’t trying to freak him out so I just told him “im open minded about it, and i think i would be willing with the right partner but id have to be SUPER comfortable with that person and we aren’t there right now” which is all true, but maybe i should have been more specific about some details of it.
Here in lies the issue- i like him, so for that fact i am willing to make out with him and roll around and canoodle or whatever (sex is going to be a different challenge but we will get to that mountain when we get to it) but honestly…. I don’t really like it. Like many ace people have said, it’s kinda like kissing a brick wall, which is not the worst sensation in the world, but just the thought of the technicality of what the mouths are doing is kinda off-putting to me and if I think about it DOES give me the ick.
I guess i would just love to know from fellow sex neutral to sex repulsed asexuals who have been in or are in intimate relationships, does the kissing aspect ever become less weird? Do you develop muscle memory through practice that will make it so that I don’t have to think about the mouthy-ness of it all or is it just going to always feel like I’m pretending to be human?
TLDR: I’m asexual, exploring a relationship with an allosexual man and I need to know if sexual intricacy/ kissing feel less weird over time.
Posted Jul 8, 2026, 9:30 AM UTC