21M 26F — what to do now after asking for space?
Looking for advice on where to go with this. Long story, I’ll try to keep it in order.
We met a little over a month ago, talked for about a week, hung out, had sex the first time. Kept talking constantly after — calls, texts, staying up late.
A few days later she hung up on a call and blocked me out of nowhere. I found her Facebook and found out she was married. I told her husband; he wasn’t mad at me and told me he’d found things on her phone from other guys too, not just me.
About a week after that, she unblocked me and added me back. She explained everything — took full accountability, no excuses. Said she’d been emotionally detached from her husband for over a year (physical and mental abuse in the marriage, which started out of a trauma bond after her father died — she’d never actually loved him the way she says she feels about me).
Over the next few weeks things moved fast — constant contact, sex whenever we saw each other, deep personal stuff neither of us had told anyone else. One night, after me pushing her for about 10 minutes, she told me she was falling in love with / already in love with me, then got scared and hung up. When I called back she said “I shouldn’t have told you that, I ruined everything.” We stayed the night together once during this stretch — she cooked, it was a genuinely good night, and the next morning we just kept calling each other after she dropped me off.
She’d started calling me “babe,” leaving hearts on texts, calling randomly just because. I asked her once if a guy ever confessed real feelings for her, would she make it clear she wasn’t interested — she said yes. A night or two later, she actually pushed me to tell her whether I wanted her to unadd some guys off Snap. I told her I wouldn’t make her do anything, that’d be controlling, but told her honestly how I felt. She thanked me for being honest.
Then one night on a call, she said she was going into a depressive episode (diagnosed a couple years ago, something she says she’s never really told people) and needed space. I told her she’d have to reach out to me first — I broke that pretty quickly.
Over the next several days: she kept saying she was trying, couldn’t help what her body does during these episodes. Turned her location off with no explanation; I asked her to turn it back on because it made me feel more secure, she agreed. A few days later turned it off again, and this time when I asked why, I got hours of silence. Meanwhile her Snapchat activity stayed high the whole time, mostly with other people, barely any with me.
I asked if we were exclusive — had to clarify it twice — and she said she couldn’t commit to a relationship right now, between the depression and still processing nine years with her husband. She thanked me for being honest when I told her how I felt, apologized, kept saying “just because I can’t feel anything right now doesn’t mean I don’t care.” She also said, unprompted, “maybe we love bombed each other, maybe we did too much too soon,” and that this episode could last a month or more.
When I pointed out the gap between “I need space from everyone” and her staying active with others, she called it possessive, said she’s a grown woman who can talk to who she wants. I told her — again — I never once asked her to cut anyone off, only ever told her how I felt and let her decide.
Two nights ago she left my message open for about 4 hours, then called me half-drunk. First thing she said was “I wanted to talk before you probably disappeared.” We talked 50 minutes. She brought up the possessive thing again, said I hated her. I told her I never wanted her to cut off friends and didn’t hate her, just upset with everything. She said she should’ve never called, that she made things worse, and hung up.
After that call I sent one message telling her I was going to stop reaching out until she did — not because I don’t care, but because I care too much to keep doing this one-sided. She never responded to it, though she has read it.
She hasn’t blocked me, hasn’t unadded me, hasn’t deleted the intimate photos we sent each other. I checked on her safety once since (she was drinking alone) and she said she was fine.
I have never felt such a deep connection with someone before and I’m just looking for advice on if I should continue to wait or if I should reach out to her. I’m deeply in love with her.
Posted Aug 14, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC