I’m Not Cheating, I’m Poly!
How making out with two guys on a bus cured me of my anxiety around PDA
When I first started dating multiple people, the idea of PDA (public display of affection) with another partner sent me into a panic. Social anxiety has always been a part of my life, and the thought of a friend or acquaintance seeing me sharing any sort of intimacy with someone they didn’t know as my boyfriend triggered it. What would they think about me??
My partner Drake and I opened up our relationship four years in. We met in graduate school and both of us were new to the city — thus most of the friendships we developed were mutual. Everyone knew us as a couple — one of only two couples that lasted after school ended. I hated the idea that our friends might think I was cheating.
My aversion to PDA with another partner in the city I lived in with Drake wasn’t an issue for a while. Luckily, or unluckily, I didn’t meet anyone I’d want any sort of DAs with, much less in P… (that is: displays of affection, much less in public).
