The fact that I haven’t given her a nickname yet tells you that M is a generally self-contained and competent person, I guess.  As does the fact that I can’t come up with a nickname for her that doesn’t seem rude.  Anyway, I want to tell a story that relates to her.  I went over to her house for a while on Halloween– she had a party with a campfire.  I stayed most of the night, because Sparkly was working late and the university is closer to M’s house than to our apartment, and lots of other people went in and out.  One of them I know fairly well from [fan organization]; let’s call him Blushing Guy.  After he left, M told me that they’ve sort of started dating (they’re taking it very slow) and talked about how she finds him adorably shy.  And he is adorable, and he blushes a lot, as mentioned, but…

I didn’t say this to her, but here’s what I had been thinking earlier, while I was talking to him: I like talking to him.  He talks mildly slowly, but he leaves big spaces between his sentences which actually leave me enough time to think of what to say and respond.  I can talk quickly when I have clear ideas about something, but in a “small talk” sort of conversation where I have to think if I know anything related, and whether it’s appropriate to say, and the topic jumps around a lot without much foundation, I’m pretty slow.  But I can actually talk to him without being rushed, and also without the conversation seeming awkwardly stilted and slow.  He acts like that length of pause is normal.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone else who I can talk to like that.

So I sort of wanted to disagree with M.  It’s not necessarily because he’s shy.  Maybe he thinks like me.  Apparently he’s lived around here since his teens, so it probably isn’t a cultural thing, but it could conceivably be that, too.

I’m not sure whether I should tell her this or not.