I’m kind of seeing this guy, and we've met up several times in the last six weeks or so. Things have been going well, but I'm hoping to get some advice because I feel like things have hit a minor road block. About a month ago things were a little uneasy between us and what our situation was going forward, but we resolved to go on another date and see how things went from there. At that time he was home for two weeks visiting family, and we messaged fairly consistently during that two week period. He asked to see me the first day he was back in town (which seems like a positive sign to me), and we had a nice time. We saw each other again the next week (which was last week). That second time we met I had to reschedule last minute because something came up where I wasn’t able to meet him on the day we had planned. I asked if we could reschedule to early the next week, but he said his new job might make that difficult. He then asked if I could meet him that night instead (which again seems like a positive sign to me). I was able to see him that evening and we had a nice time again. He has recently started a new job stage managing a theatre show (about a week ago). It’s temporary and ends in early/mid August, but it is fairly time demanding. I studied acting in school and he studies technical theatre, so I know how all encompassing being part of a production can be...especially a stage manager’s job because they essentially run everything and carry a lot of responsibility. He’s working twelve to thirteen hour days, sometimes more, full time. Things were progressing really well, but this time demanding job has created a bit of a bump in the road. With the nature of his new job, it has made communication between us a little difficult because he’s needed constantly when working and it understandably makes it difficult to reply to messages. Since starting the job our communication has mostly been a few messages late at night, just a few short messages about nothing in particular, mostly just making contact, sometimes initiated by me and sometimes initiated by him. The other day he didn’t respond to two messages at all, which struck me as odd because he always replies. So I began doing what I do best, which is being a professional at misreading tone and overreacting to problems that most likely don’t even exist. It was just odd to not be in contact with him so I started to overthink everything and was afraid of loosing contact or there being some growing distance between us, but I didn’t want to come across as “clingy” or “needy”. Last time we were together there was absolutely no indication that we were on different pages, and we were both set on seeing each other again. So I know I’m overreacting. What also doesn’t help matters is that I recently left my part time job so I have a lot of free time to senselessly overthink everything. We chatted briefly the night before last, and he said the last few days were rough. I can tell that he’s really tired and I can tell that he’s stressed out. What I’m hoping to get some guidance on, is how I should continue to navigate this new situation while trying to be supportive of him, maintaining a line of communication without coming across as “needy” or “clingy” and also maintaining my own peace of mind and avoiding overthinking every little detail as I have been the last couple days. Thanks very much for any advice or input you might have.
