Before We Had a Name

Chapter 1: Online Relationship

In November 2020, their relationship existed only through a screen.

There were late-night phone calls, messages sent before either of them had properly woken up, and conversations that stretched until neither could remember how they had started. At twenty-one, she had learned to be careful with that kind of closeness. A person could sound sincere at midnight and still disappear the next morning.

She had dated one person at a time before. Each time, she had focused all her attention on someone, imagining that he was doing the same. Then she would discover that he was still talking to other women.

After being hurt more than once, she searched online for advice.

“Don’t get attached too quickly,” people said. “Until you agree to be exclusive, keep your options open.”

It sounded practical. Sensible, even.

So when she started talking to the man who would eventually become her boyfriend, she tried to follow that advice.

He was twenty-two, warm and easy to talk to. He told her that she was the only person he was interested in. Sometimes he spoke as though their relationship had already begun, even though they had never met face-to-face.

She always reminded him of that.

“We need to meet first,” she would say. “Talking on the phone isn’t the same as knowing someone in real life.”