NERVOUS ABOUT MY WEB LOVER

Dear Coleen

I met a guy online about nine months ago and we’ve been chatting to each other ever since. At first we just got along as friends and had a laugh together, but a few months ago we both admitted we had deeper feelings for each other and now I think of him as my boyfriend.

We Skype and FaceTime a lot, but we’ve still yet to meet, as he lives at the other end of the country and has a very demanding job which means he has to go abroad a lot.

We’ve agreed to meet halfway before Christmas and spend a weekend together. I’m very nervous about it as I don’t really know what to expect or how to handle it. But I do know I really like him and think I’m falling for him in a big way.

Coleen says

I’d say hold fire until you meet him in person and spend some proper time in each other’s company.

Having an online friendship just isn’t the same as getting to know someone in person – there’s a barrier there and you might find you feel differently when you get to know him in the traditional sense. It’s easy to hide a lot about yourself behind a computer screen.

Having said that, I do know people who’ve fallen in love online and then got together and made a real success of the relationship. Hopefully, this guy will turn out to be authentic and exactly what you’d imagined, but think about the reality of keeping a relationship together when he’s so busy you’ve not even met after nine months.