August 24, 2017:
Hot and cold.
Sometimes she's gregarious, reaching out with jokes or videos or hilarious self-deprecating stories. Other times she's distant, uncommunicative, even a hair snippy.
His reactions are predictable. He's delighted when she initiates contact. It makes him feel valued. He's nervous when she's silent. He worries she doesn't care for him, or he's bored her, or she's unhappy with him in some other way. He takes silence personally, when the reality is more likely that she's busy, or sleeping, or entertaining family.
If he's rational he realizes that he's the one she reaches out to in times of crisis. When her father died; when she lost her job; when she had a bad medical scare. Proof in practice of his value to her.
Still, he's lonely, with an intensity beginning to verge on codependency. It's not clear to him what the right relationship is. Perhaps, not to her either.