When Harold and I started dating, we were working together at Next Island. I really loved working with him, whether it was there, or last summer when we worked on Star Trek: Rivals together, or when we met at Merscom five years ago.
When I introduced Harold to my parents… well, this was more when I introduced him as my boyfriend than the first time they’d met. My parents had already met him, as my friend and then as my in-denial-about-dating friend. (I found one of my old journals when I was packing for Yangzhou, and there were literally pages and pages about how just because I spend all my time with Harold, that doesn’t mean he’s my boyfriend or anything. Delusional explanations I wrote to myself. I am great at emotional maturity.) My parents already liked Harold but my mom wasn’t really happy about me dating someone at work.
She raised some pretty reasonable objections: Dating at work doesn’t usually end well, and if we broke up, I’d have to see my jerkface ex-boyfriend every day. If the relationship did work out well, in such a volatile industry, it would be foolish to have all our income tied to one company. Pretty legit concerns.
Anyway, now Harold and I are married and in two different countries and still working on cool game projects together.
