You opt out of unnecessary fights.
Why fight over some stupid argument three weeks ago when you can be friends and curl up on the couch on Friday night instead. Consequently, never mind the fighting – start hugging!
Silence isn’t weird.
Being quiet for a while (or a long while for that matter) doesn’t mean you immediately think something is wrong, or that you feel you just have to say something. It just means that you’re thinking in opposite directions. It doesn’t mean anything implicitly. Comfortable silence together is comfortable silence.
You work with each other’s families.
You don’t have to love everyone, but everyone is okay. You respect the siblings, parents and aunts who come along for the ride, and that they forget that you’re a vegetarian and always wear your shoes inside. It’s the same as with your own family, you haven’t (after all) chosen any of them either. But it’s your family and you make it work.
You don’t try to change each other.
How many semi-romantic movies are about someone “remaking” someone before or in a love relationship? Just drop the whole thing. If you feel like you really need/want to change your partner, there’s an answer: you’ve chosen the wrong partner. When you are in a healthy and good relationship, you have chosen a person you love – as they are.
You know each other’s PINs to everything.
Why not? It’s convenient – and not taken advantage of by either of you. So just as well then.
It doesn’t matter if he replies to your text or not.
You’re in love and happy = you’ve chosen each other = feel at peace. If he doesn’t reply to your text, don’t worry (and don’t start thinking weird thoughts) because you know it’s either the batteries running low or he’s fallen asleep. Or he’s eating pizza with his mates and has his phone in his jacket (= a sign of sanity in itself, by the way).
You can order take-away for each other (and it’s right every time).
Whether it’s Friday lunch from the local Thai kiosk or today’s from the lunch menu, only one of you needs to be there, so whichever one of you orders knows what the other would prefer anyway.
You’re honest with each other.
If your jeans don’t fit well or that old jacket really should be thrown away, you tell each other. If you don’t want to go to that movie theater, don’t like your partner’s meat sauce, or have gotten tired of his yappy friend for a while, you tell him about it. And it’s no big deal. Telling each other how you feel, saying what you think and really being yourself with the other person is what a relationship is all about.
