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I just adore those nights when the light starts to fade early, and you know that winter is setting in. Cosy jumpers and hot chocolate to warm you up after a crisp walk through autumn leaves. Something about winter triggers a more indulgent, sensual part of me. It’s too cold to be out, after all, so being in is the only option—you can close the doors and windows and hide from the world. Your living room becomes this snug, private little nest, and no one’s going to threaten to drag you out of it with plans for picnics or other nonsense, because they’re all snuggled up inside too.

The only thing better than hunkering down for some alone time, of course, is hunkering down with someone you’re hot for. That’s me and Don. And God, I feel so lucky to have met him just in time for this, my favourite part of the year.

We met on an app—doesn’t everyone these days?—and as soon as I saw those big, beautiful eyes in his profile picture, I knew we’d end up together. You know how sometimes you just get a feeling? I didn’t even need to see his first message to know I’d say yes, but obviously, I read it in attentive detail and was delighted to find it just cemented my desire for him. He has this way of being so casual, then occasionally piercing that calm with intensity. His first message was chatty, fun, friendly—such a contrast to the desperate, terrible jokes and crude chat-up lines with which other guys choked up my inbox. Don was casual, but then at the end of the message, he flipped into intensity: “I never really understood why people want to ‘Netflix and chill’, but looking at you so cosy in that jumper in your profile pic, I realise exactly what they mean. I want to chill, warm, with you.”

See what I mean? Intense. Like those beautiful eyes.

That’s where our evenings go these days: Netflix and chill. Though far less of the Netflix than the ‘chill’ if you know what I mean. We are the king and queen of the sofa, but we aren’t sitting on it eating popcorn.