Media Platforms Design Team Hey, emergencies are no joke. So when you're filling out forms for something really important—like the skeeball league at your local bar—and he lists you as an emergency contact, he's banking on the fact that you're not going to leave him stranded in the hospital when he fractures his femur in a tragic bar-game accident.
Media Platforms Design Team Wait—how does he know your mom's trying a new casserole recipe for Thanksgiving? And who told him which kind of beer your dad wants him to pick up on the way over? You've been cut out of the conversation! But fear not—that's a good thing. He's starting to view your family like his own.
Media Platforms Design Team Think he wants to be stuck holding the leash on his own? He does not. Pet parenting is just a one step away from real parenting. Okay, it's one really big step, but still.
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Media Platforms Design Team Maybe he just made a comment in passing about how your house would have to have a second garage, but chances are this means he's thought about it before. Again—this is not a decision that can be quickly undone. This dude’s definitely thinking long-term.
Media Platforms Design Team How much money does he have in his savings account? What’s the login PIN he uses for his iPhone? What’s his Netflix password? They’re not particularly sexy details, but if he seems generally unworried about sharing his administrative data with you, then you definitely have his trust.
Media Platforms Design Team The truth is, a man's impulse to marry is often timed to something outside your control: his phase in life. That's tricky if you're ready to settle down and he's not. If you're not sure, look at his friends. Are they getting married? Because often they're in the same general phase of life that he is.
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Media Platforms Design Team Because sometimes the only person he wants to see is already sitting right there next to him. Awww! (Cue the Dawson's Creek theme song.)
Media Platforms Design Team Whether he's talking about a big vacation or begging you to accompany him to a friend's wedding, if it's far out on the calendar, he's definitely thinking about your relationship in the future tense.
Media Platforms Design Team This is generally an incredibly awkward encounter for both of you. And no sane man would subject himself to the embarrassing childhood stories and unrelenting relationship questions if it weren't building toward some greater good. (Re: your relationship.)
Clint Carter is a reporter and editor with a magazine journalism degree from the University of Missouri.
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