How do you feel about casual dating?

I was seeing a biracial woman with a young daughter for a few weeks. She wanted a serious relationship, but I didn’t. It got awkward fast.

Even though she was beautiful and confident, the cultural differences were hard to deal with. I met her daughter, and we stayed over at each other’s places once. But I just wasn’t feeling it - especially since my front window looked straight into my abusive ex’s apartment. That brought up too many issues.

She was upset that she had invested time and emotion in me, but I was clear I only wanted casual dating and casual sex.

After that, I started seeing a playwright I already knew. She had invited me and my previous date to see her play. She’s really nice and also wanted something casual. We finally went on a real date in late December.

She told me about the “Make Out Date” - a casual way for women who are nervous about jumping straight into sex. Basically, you meet up just to make out, with no pressure for more. I thought it was interesting.

We ended up having sex the first two nights anyway - hot, fun, and totally casual. She left around 2 a.m. both times.

Now we’re regularly seeing each other casually. Our friends keep joking about when one of us is going to show up with a U-Haul, but that’s not happening anytime soon. We both have good rent-stabilized apartments in Brooklyn, and neither of us is in a rush to change that.