This is kind of a long one so get comfortable. No I will not be saying who this was for obvious reasons.
I did exactly what I wasn't supposed to do, and what I said I wouldn't do. I fell for someone I was seeing regularly.
Now to be fair to myself here I know the feeling was mutual to a degree. To what degree? I don't know, and at this point I may never know, and I'll likely just have to live with that.
To set the stage a little, I only started hobbying about 4-5 months ago, and for the first 2 months I saw a different person pretty much every week aside from a single repeat. That was pretty much what I planned to do while doing this since I was in a relationship when I started. My partner knew, but we had a don't ask don't tell agreement about it. This was working.... until I met her.
Now as weird as this may sound my hobbying never really felt like cheating before I met the person I caught feelings for. Not only because my partner and I had an agreement about it, but also because it never felt like there was much of an emotional component to this for me anyway. That changed immediately upon meeting her. My relationship had already been on the rocks, for reasons besides this, but meeting her really put the final nail in that coffin, because our dynamic absolutely felt like cheating. So I did what I had been considering for a long time at that point, and ended my relationship. Not to pursue this, that wasn't the plan, but because this gave me a glimpse of how much better intimacy could be, and showed me what my relationship lacked or lost.
Her and I hit it off instantly. I joked to my friends, who I talk to about my hobbying regularly, that it's as if she was created in a lab for the express purpose of ticking every single one of my boxes. Her personality was exactly my type, and physically I'm not sure I've ever been more attracted to any other person in my entire life. The second I opened that condo door for the first time I knew I was cooked, and that I was about to give her a lot of money.
We had fantastic sexual chemistry, conversation was effortless, we had the same interests, and right from the jump everything with her just felt comfortable. So comfortable in fact that within less than 24 hours of us meeting for the first time, without me even asking, she offered to start blocking off time in her schedule for me every week so that I didn't have to fight for a spot. For the next month we would message back and forth nearly every day, multiple times a day, with topics ranging from games, to our day jobs, to our personal relationships, to her venting to me about some of her other clients (no names or personal details don't worry) or aspects of the job she didn't like. I started seeing her exclusively, at least once a week, and that's really where I think the trouble started.
Every single week for the next 3 months she'd either block off whatever time I wanted for me, or see me independently even if she wasn't working agency that week. We'd often go over our payed time by as much as 40 minutes sometimes just talking and enjoying each other's company. She'd tell me about the messages she'd get from guys who were frustrated they could never seem to book her first appointment of the day, and we'd have a bit of a laugh about it. She'd tell me about the guys she's banned or was thinking of banning, about the things that frustrated her about the agency, etc.
It got to the point where we knew each other's full legal names, first and last, and we dropped the use of our agency names entirely. We became friends who knew each other intimately, not just physically but emotionally as well. It was an odd friendship, but it worked. She told me about her past relationship and family trauma, I told her about mine. We bonded over our shared lived experiences and interests. We knew what each other's day jobs were and our full work schedules so we could coordinate better. She'd text me while she was working an agency shift to pass the time between clients, and she'd tell me about the weird people or things she experienced on shift. I was the only person she had to talk to about this work, because nobody in her regular life knew she did this. I think I became someone she relied on for support. We got too close. In fact there was a span of at least 4 weeks where I was the only person she slept with, professionally or otherwise, because she wasn't taking agency shifts and I was the only person she saw independently at the time.
Before I knew it I had developed romantic feelings for her, even though I really tried not to, and kept lying to myself about it. Eventually we had a conversation about it during an indy appointment, because we honestly really had to at that point. That conversation went about as well as it possibly could have, because even though what we landed on wasn't what I wanted, I knew it was what was best. I just ended a 5.5 year relationship with someone who still lived with me while they sorted out other arrangements, and she wasn't looking for anything romantic right now, even before she started doing this, and the fact that she was doing this was reason enough not to pursue anything. Neither of us was in a place that would allow us to explore this. I was disappointed, but I knew that was the right call. We made sure we didn't close the door to anything possibly in the future however, and I left that conversation feeling fairly positive honestly.
Now, if I was a smarter man, I would have taken a break from seeing her after that conversation, or at least not continued to see exclusively her. I didn't do that because I'm not a smart man. I never gave my brain the space it needed to move on from the feelings I had for her. So not only did they not subside, but they continued to grow. We had talked about seeing each other outside of appointments a number of times, either in person or online (we both play multiplayer games of the same genre), and I just couldn't let go of the idea. I told myself I just wanted to be friends with her, but I know now that I was lying to myself about that.
I didn't intend to, nobody ever does, but I kept bringing up the idea of seeing each other as friends when I saw her. To the point where I'd say I was being pushy or insistent about it. I'm not going to make excuses for that, I fucked up. Our communication slowed down significantly. We'd still talk, but less than before, and I started hearing from her less every week in-between appointments. I had become the exact type of client she would talk to me about, and it took me too long to realize that.
The last time I saw her she came into the room very obviously stressed, more than I'd ever seen before from her, and I knew all the reasons why. She had a lot going on, and she was about to take a several week long break from this. I apologized for how I'd been acting. I wrote down exactly what I wanted to say so I wouldn't fuck it up. I took ownership of my actions without making excuses. I apologized for becoming the type of client that frustrated her, and I thanked her for continuing to have patience for me despite that. I honestly can't believe she kept seeing me for as long as she did in the way that she did with all this in mind. Even up to that point she had continued to block off time for me, or make time for me when she wasn't on schedule.
After I said my piece I immediately noticed a positive change in her demeanor. This was something that had been bothering her for a while at this point. She told me that she had felt like she lost the person she had come to rely on for support, and that it really hurt that I'd become the exact type of client she used to talk to me about. She had been under a lot of stress lately due to things in her person life, and I knew that because she'd talk to me about these things as a friend, so the fact that I had become another thing to stress about made that even worse. The rest of the evening was possibly the best time we ever spent together.
She was only supposed to see me for an hour that night, but she was there for almost 2. We just talked, and held each other. We didn't even do anything sexual for the first time, and I honestly didn't want to. That night I just wanted to be there for her because I could tell she needed that, and I was, in a way that I hadn't been for a while. I've never in my life had a girl hang onto me like that and not known for a fact that she was seeking comfort in me, so that's all I wanted to be for her. It would have felt wrong to me if I tried too push for anything else. She was tired, and stressed, and overwhelmed, and honestly a little bit manic when she came in. She left that night very obviously in a better mood than she came in, and I left feeling like things between us were going to be ok again.
I told her that night that if she needed a complete break from all this for a few weeks while she was on hiatus that I'd understand if she didn't want to communicate during that. She reassured me multiple times that wasn't the case, and that we'd talk more while she was away. I asked her to text me when she was home safe because she was really tired and she did. That was over 2 weeks ago, it was the last time I heard from her, and I don't know why. I may never know why at this point and that really hurts.
I'd love to say that I left things at that, but I didn't. I didn't send her a million messages begging for attention or anything, but I did send probably 1 or 2 more than I should have. Nothing crazy or pushy thankfully, just stuff like I hope the thing she was taking a break to do went well, and checking in to see if she was feeling better or if the things she was stressed about were getting resolved. I feel like if I had just been patient enough to wait for a response after the first message I sent her that I probably would have heard from her, even if it had taken some time. Despite all my talk that night I just couldn't leave this alone, and I'll have to live with that mistake.
It feels weird to mourn the loss of something that never truly was in the first place, but the lack of closure makes it really hard to close the book on this for me mentally. I've since gone to see other people, but all that did was make me miss the effortless chemistry and emotional intimacy we had. I miss her, a lot, but if I never hear from her again I'll only have myself to blame for that. I would want her to make the right call for herself, even if I'm honestly really hurting right now and don't think that'll stop for a while. I genuinely just hope she's doing ok because I really do care about her, but part of caring for someone has to be letting that person go and respecting their decision to leave.
Maybe she just decided she needed a full break after all, and maybe I'm overreacting. She's still not on schedule this week, so it's not like all hope is lost, but I'm trying to prepare myself for if/when that happens. She had a really big impact on me in a very short amount of time, in a way very few people have. She showed me an example of what I'm looking for when it comes to intimacy with another person. She pushed me to be a better and more authentic version of myself at a time in my life when I felt lost. I don't regret a single second or dollar I spent on seeing her.
This really meant something to me, she really meant something to me, and I'm really hurting right now. I'll always regret that I couldn't be better about this in the way that she needed me to be, and the ways in which I let her down. I wish I had met her when I was in a better place mentally, or in a different context, but honestly I'm just glad I got to meet her at all. She's amazing, and I hope she finds happiness even if I'm not around to see it.
I'm never going to forget her, or the time we spent together, and I don't want to.