While many couples are willing to fall into the routine of their relationships and let their initial feelings for each other fade into the past, 27-year-old Ava Martinez and 26-year-old James Lake are not one such couple. The two schedule regular date nights in order to keep the awkward small talk alive in their relationship.
“Yeah, sometimes it feels like we just get too comfortable with each other, you know?” Ava told reporters. “We like to do these date nights to keep the spark alive.”
She clarified that by “spark” she meant “long, tense silences and stilted conversations about the weather.”
James agreed, saying that he and Ava had been seeing each other for so long that they’d reached a level of conversation that was so intimate, stimulating, and interesting, that it was nice to take time occasionally to get back to what got them together in the first place: asking what each other do for work.
“Obviously, I know what she does for work,” James explained to reporters. “But it’s not so much the subject matter of the conversation that’s important , but the icy awkwardness that builds between us. It really brings me back to our first date.”
Sources say the couple’s first date was notably bad and had it not been for a whirlwind second date that really made them feel connected to one another, they likely would’ve never seen each other again.
“Sometimes you just have to push through the awkwardness in order to get to something really good,” Ava said. “Which is why these dates help us ‘unconnect’ in a sense, and remind us that, at our core, we really are just two weird strangers that happened to meet.”
Reporters weren’t really sure why this was a good thing, or why anyone would want to perpetuate this feeling in a relationship, but were happy that it seemed to be working for them.
As of press time, Ava and James had already scheduled next month’s date night: grab drinks at an overcrowded bar they both hate and listen to music so loud they can’t hear anything the other one says.
“It’ll be just like the day we met,” Ava said. “Awkward and humid.”
