I\u2019ve been with Rachel for a little over two years now, and she\u2019s one of the most thoughtful people I know.<\/p>\n
But on our first date, I noticed something unusual.<\/p>\n
We spent the afternoon walking around downtown, stopping for coffee, browsing a bookstore, and eventually grabbing food to take back to her apartment.<\/p>\n
Rachel didn\u2019t seem concerned about germs at all.<\/p>\n
She touched door handles, used public tables, and ate a snack without constantly cleaning her hands.<\/p>\n
I remember thinking she was just very relaxed about cleanliness.<\/p>\n
Then we arrived at her apartment.<\/p>\n
The moment the door closed, she put everything down and rushed to the sink.<\/p>\n
She washed her hands thoroughly, wiped down her phone, cleaned the counter, and changed into fresh clothes.<\/p>\n
I was completely confused.<\/p>\n
Over time, I noticed the same pattern.<\/p>\n
Outside, she looked carefree.<\/p>\n
At home, she followed a very specific routine.<\/p>\n
I never wanted to embarrass her, so I didn\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n
Almost two years later, she finally explained it herself.<\/p>\n
Growing up, her mother had been extremely anxious about germs and illness. Rachel had spent years being told that anything from outside the house was \u201cdirty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, she developed habits she worked hard to control.<\/p>\n
She had learned not to let those fears take over when she was out with people.<\/p>\n
But once she got home, the old routine sometimes returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want you to think I was strange,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I told her the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t. I just wish you knew you never had to hide it from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night, I finally understood something I had misread from the very beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been with Rachel for a little over two years now, and she\u2019s one of the most thoughtful people I know. But on our first date, I noticed something unusual. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown, stopping for coffee, browsing a bookstore, and eventually grabbing food to take back to her apartment. Rachel didn\u2019t …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9839,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions\/9839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}