I have been sleeping with a work colleague for just less than a year. Officially, we are in a “casual relationship”, but I would like more. I defined the relationship as casual because I felt that if pressurised to be in a “real” relationship, he would run a million miles. He has had his heart broken in the past, suffers from anxiety and sometimes depression, and if I push too much, I can feel him pulling away. I have tried multiple times to break away from him – I never message him first, I don’t go out of my way to see him, I don’t ask him to come over – but he always ends up contacting me and re-sparking everything. I have never told him how I feel so I don’t think he knows the emotional turmoil I have been going through – I think he sees me as quite happy-go-lucky about things. The truth is that the relationship makes me feel empty, lonely and confused. I don’t feel as if I can tell him how I feel, and I don’t know if I should break it off or carry on. One part of me wants to be strong and leave him, but the other feels as if I haven’t given it enough of a chance (and I don’t want to scare him away). I have tried seeing other men, but they’re just not the same.
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