(I’m going to refer to him as G)
This was right around the time that we’d first started dating.
I had been with him and his family all day, we had went to a get together and since we were all going we rode together. Anyway, fast forward to when we’re heading back home; his parents decided we should stop for ice cream.
So, we stopped at a Dairy Queen, we went inside and sat at a table to eat. We were talking and laughing the entire time but after a bit I noticed him kind of just stirring his spoon around in his ice cream and he’d gone more quiet, (he’s not a big talker anyway), than even his usual. I moved my hand under the table to lightly rub my knuckles against his side and he leaned into it some, relaxing for a bit. After a few moments his mom was joking around, poking at his sides and he turned into me to block it. Now, he doesn’t enjoy being tickled, but he also normally doesn’t react so strongly negative to it.
At this point I had a feeling something was up. When we got back in the car to head home we were in the back (they have an expedition so it has three rows, the middle one has a console between the two sets), he was sitting not fully leaned back against his seat which I thought was strange but kind of brushed it off since he was talking to his parents in the front seat.
He’s a very physically affectionate person so I automatically laid my arm across the console to let him hold my hand like usual, but instead he sort of shifted so my fingers were touching his side. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly so I subtly started lightly rubbing my fingers against his side, that’s when he brought his hand down over mine and pressed my palm to his belly, leaning forward slightly and pulling my hand a little more onto his middle.
I froze for a moment because he had never done anything like this before, in fact he doesn’t like anyone touching his stomach, but after I snapped out of it I started lightly rubbing my thumb against his tummy.
He leaned into the touch, turning more towards me without a word. I was really curious at this point if something was wrong so I quietly asked,
He looked over at me and smiled a little, shaking his head in response. Knowing he didn’t want to talk about it in front of everyone else in the car, I gave him a look to say ‘I know something is’ to which he responded by pulling my hand a little further onto his tummy and squeezing it lightly.
I knew that was all I would get from him so I dropped it, continuing to lightly rub my thumb against his belly occasionally. Slowly throughout the ride home I felt him relax, leaning back more in his seat but keeping my palm pressed against his tummy until we got home.
