I've noticed that my boyfriend thanks me all the time. Every time we finish a phone call, he'll shoot me a text saying, "thanks for talking with me, I love you." Every time he drops me home after a date, he'll say, "thanks for spending time with me, that was really fun." He'll often tell me, out of the blue, "thanks for being so good," or, "thanks for being you." It's been a few years now, and it hasn't stopped. Just today, I told him a sort of long, drawn-out story about something loosely related to what we'd been talking about before, and before responding, he said, "huh, thanks for telling me that, I like when you say things." His actions match up with his words, of course, but I'm realizing how valued his explicit verbal affirmation makes me feel, especially now, when we can't see each other in person because of quarantine.

You would think this is more common, but this is my first time with someone who treats spending time with me as a privilege (as he should, I'm a catch), and understands that verbally affirming my worth isn't a means of getting brownie points or getting laid, but that it's simply a given. It's nice to be with someone who doesn't act entitled to my time or my attention.