Page 10 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

“Think about it,” she continued. “Three months of texting. Three months of seeing each other. Three months of your brain and heart getting used to the same person showing up.”

I looked down at the dumbbells, then back at her.

“That’s a lot of repetition, James.”

“I can’t believe you’re comparing gym stuff to dating,” I snorted.

She tilted her head slightly.

“What I mean is,” she said, “repetition is how attachment gets built.”

I didn’t like how quickly that made sense.

Suddenly, the gym felt a little quieter.

I rubbed my calloused palms together and looked away.

“It was still just three months,” I muttered.

Mel grabbed a kettlebell and lifted it effortlessly. “Muscles don’t care how long you’ve been training.”

She raised the weight once. Twice.

Then looked directly at me.

“They care how many times you showed up.”

And apparently, I had shown up a lot.

Mel lowered the kettlebell and set it gently back on the floor.

I watched it settle there like it had just proven a point.

“You’re not sad because it was three months,” she said.

I sighed. “She’s not stopping.”

“You’re sad because you believed him.”

That landed harder.

I frowned. “That’s not⁠—”

“James,” she cut in gently, “You don’t fall for people quickly.”

That part was true.

I crossed my arms. “I analyze… too much,” I said defensively.

“You investigate,” she corrected. “You look for patterns. Red flags. Behavioral inconsistencies. You literally build a case before you let anyone in.”

“That’s called emotional intelligence,” I reasoned.

“That’s called being suspicious,” she said calmly.

I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it.

Fair enough.