I don’t just want a relationship. I want to write a story.

Fast-food romances are making us all jaded and unwell.

There seem to be only two options for the modern dater: the one-night stand/casual fling or the fast-food romance. The one-night stand is self-explanatory, and the fast-food romance is not so much. The fast-food romance is quick and straight to the point. It looks like the guy who changes his lock screen to a photo of you by your second date and tells you he’s deleted all his dating app profiles because you’re the one. It looks like the guy who writes a letter confessing his love to you when you’ve only known him for three weeks.

The fast-food romance isn’t sincere: it’s a state of limerence. Fast-food lovers want not to be single more than they want a relationship; they need to know they have someone, preferably someone who will make them look good to others. They don’t care what they can bring to the relationship and honestly don’t care about the person they’re dating. They don’t want to be single anymore, and the end goal of online dating is to quieten the dark thoughts in their head and their deep-seated insecurities through the distraction of a shiny, new lover who eventually always becomes the new target of their inner demons. Fast-food romances are cheaper than therapy, and it’s easier to stop shooting daggers in your own back if you have an external target…