Hyram Florettaa month agoMy friend Olivia (24F) and I (25M) have families that are close, so we decided to book a cruise for New Year's. I wasn't sure if I would be able to go, so I booked my room and flights last minute. Olivia also found out she could go, so we ended up flying together to the port. I roomed with my little brother (15M), and she was with my little sister (17F). Before the vacation, Olivia and I had always had some chemistry, and we tried to go on a few dates. However, I was working 60-70 hours a week opening a new franchise, and she was starting her first nursing job after graduating college. She also lives about an hour and a half away, so we decided to stay friends. We don’t see each other much, mostly at family events, but there’s always some tension whenever our eyes meet. On the cruise, nothing happened between us, except for a brief moment on New Year's when we were both drunk, and she was grinding on me, but that was the extent of it. At the end of the cruise, our families had flights at noon, but Olivia and I weren’t flying until 6 PM, so we had a whole day to kill. We rented a car and spent the day together. We went jet skiing, laughed the whole time, and drove around aimlessly while she played music and we talked. She kept leaning into my arm on the center console, and the entire day, she was very touchy. Her playlist seemed to revolve around themes of second chances or having feelings for someone who might be into someone else. She made comments like, “I normally don’t like just riding in the car listening to music, but I do when you’re driving,” and “I hit a wall and was getting tired, but you fixed it” after I picked a restaurant she liked. She kept saying her hands were cold and wanted me to hold them to warm them up. She even wanted to smell my cologne to “make sure it smelled good.” She brought up our past dates and pictures together and said that one was her favorite and that she’d never change it. She also made a point to say she was “actually enjoying my presence for once” and other similar things. Based on all this, I thought there was something there, so I asked her the next day if she felt the same. To my surprise, she friend-zoned me. I’m not upset about it, but I’m genuinely confused because her actions don’t seem to match what she’s saying. Am I misreading the situation, or am I just making assumptions and reading too much into it?128
Hyram FlorettaHyram Floretta