Denouement
Written on 1/18/2026 about the events of Feb 13-18, 2023
From this point, I felt fairly confident; I just had to not screw it up for awhile. On the morning of February 14, the flowers were delivered to her; she found this very sweet (though I don’t think she was surprised; I think I’d told her they were coming at some point, in order to reassure her that I really did like her and had for awhile). On the evening of valentine’s day we had dinner with Eliza; Nour was out of town, so we entertained her. Eliza was supposedly also there to chaperone us as Holly was theoretically interested in not moving too fast. However, there were a few drinks at dinner and I think Holly and I did end up kissing a bit at the end of the night.
Over the prior few days, I’d felt a tension between Holly’s stated wish to take things slow and her clear desire to proceed with a relationship. She’d be flirty but pull away. On Wednesday morning, we were flirty again via text, and I didn’t get anything done at work. So I texted her a clear boundary; either be ready to actually date me, or please leave me alone until you are ready. I was pretty exhausted at this point.
By Thursday, she was missing me. In the evening, I texted something like “Come over whenever you like; I’ll be happy to see you. But we need to actually be dating when you do”. Then I called my parents and was on skype with them when Holly walked through the door with a bouquet of flowers! Apparently she’d already been planning to come over when I’d texted her; she had a whole plan to ask me on a date and therefore officially be the one who’d asked me out. So she asked me to the Science Museum for that Saturday.
And the rest is history. The science museum was fun; there was some confusion as to whether or not we were actually boyfriend/girlfriend which was quickly resolved; eventually we moved in together; Holly lost her job and got another one and then went to grad school and then got yet another job; we got engaged and then legally married and soon we’ll get formally married!