I met someone online recently who lives near me and we hit it off. We went out for dinner, went back to her place, etc. I told her before we planned the date that I'm poly/ENM and she said her best friend is poly so she's not totally unfamiliar with what it entails and she's very open to 'trying' polyamory/ENM, though she has no experience with it herself.

Since we're both liking just being casual first before committing to a relationship, we haven't delved into this further, though we already agreed we'll discuss ENM more in-depth if/when we reach that point.

One thing she said which I found interesting was that she sometimes needs to take a few days to herself when she's feeling overwhelmed, so us not being monogamous might be a good thing there so that my needs aren't neglected if she needs to make space to recoup. I'm totally fine with this, especially since the implication is that it has no bearing on our relationship if it needs to happen, and I understand the feeling.

The reason I say I found it 'interesting' is because I've never thought of that potential benefit of ENM before! Being able to give a partner space without it meaning anything for the terms of the relationship with them, while still being able to have one's needs met by spending more time with other partners. But it also might imply that she's more likely to be overwhelmed by having multiple partners?

Which begs the question: should I be preparing for the possibility I'd be dating someone who effectively is monogamous? And/or that I might run into the troubles that ENM people usually run into when dating someone monogamous? I have no idea if she'd be pursuing other partners herself. Obviously I'll be asking her more about this, and she's going to be a lot better at answering that herself than reddit is! But I would like some advice on how to tackle this situation and make sure we come out with full understanding of our expectations, especially since I'm quite new to ENM and haven't even turned 21 yet lol so still have a lot to learn in general (but lots of time ahead to do so).