Sorry to break it to you single people, but not only have you got to look out for ghosts and zombies, but you now need to make sure you’re also not being benched when you’re dating.
Benching is the romantic equivalent of being kept on the subs-bench in sports, always waiting for your captain to call you up to play, but never quite making it out onto the pitch.
Here are 14 signs that will sound familiar if you’re being benched.
1. Meeting someone you really like and going on a first date.
2. Having them promise this will definitely happen again.
3. Trying to get them to commit to future plans and getting casually ignored.
4. Realising it’s been two weeks and nothing has happened.
5. Wondering if they are just flakey AF or secretly just hate you.
6. Trying to move on and receiving a flood of adoring messages.
7. Pushing for the second date and being given a list of excuses.
8. Being confused about what they want from this situation.
9. Getting another string of social media likes and flirty texts.
10. Noticing that every time you try to progress, they disappear.
11. Feeling like you’re always their second option.
12. Knowing any attempt to distance yourself from them will instantly mean they get in contact.
13. Fooling yourself into thinking this could actually be starting to go somewhere.
14. Ending up in a relationship that only exists via messages.