So me and my girlfriend met on FB dating last summer and instantly hit it off. We were completely infatuated with each other. After about 8 months, though, it became evident to me how differently we approach relationships.

I’m a very dry-humored sarcastic guy. The way I flirt and chit chat with people I’m close with is by teasing them. Everyone in my life is able to tell when I’m joking and “taking the piss”. She never could really catch on, though, and always took everything very personally. She was a rainbow baby raised as an only child with severe medical problems and so was (understandably so) very coddled in her upbringing, resulting in what I think is very thin skin.

Every time we get into little spats she just kinda submits to whatever I say and that’s not what I want. It makes me feel like shit. I still love her, but not in the way I did when we first met, and not in a way that I think can support a relationship. She says she still loves me the same way, if not MORE than she did when we first met. It’s become evident that what she and I look for in a relationship are very different things.

But I don’t want to break up. It pains me to think about. I don’t want to hurt her, and she’s said several times she would be crushed. She’s genuinely such a ray of sunshine in this world and I don’t want to hurt her, but I also don’t want to waste her time in a relationship that’s becoming one sided when there could be someone out there for her that is exactly what she’s looking for.

So what do I do? I feel like I know what I need to do, but I’ll take any advice to try and avoid the inevitable.