I'm 37, Asian, originally from Singapore but lived in the US for over a decade for high school, university and work and then moved to Europe, currently living in a small town near Nice, Cote d'Azur.
I dated many guys in my 20s but most of them either fetishized me or just wanted sex. I'm a hopeless romantic, so by the time I hit 30, I was done with casual dating and hookups. I decided to take some time off and be with myself, enjoy life on my own, build my career in a sector that I love working in. For over 4 years, I worked hard at my job, learned to cook, read voraciously, traveled extensively and made a lot of friends, without worrying about finding love or even having sex. I did have an occasional hookup or two, but I'd go months without sex and I was fine with it. Covid years also kinda helped with the not-dating lifestyle lol.
Then came Summer 2024, when I met this charming and gorgeous Italian man in Menton, Cote d'Azur, when we both were there for a bicycle event / race. We raced each other, shared many meals and coffees, found out we both loved books and made plans to meet at the Mouans-Sartoux literary fest later that year. He's 4 years older than me, lived in Italy at that time and I lived / continue to live in a town just outside Nice. We kept texting and facetiming each other for months after Menton, and then met in Mouans-Sartoux, enjoyed each other's company at the litfest and then decided to meet again for a new year's trip to Spain. We travelled together for new year's in Spain, and I was a smitten kitten by then lol. And we finally slept together new year's day 2025, more than 6 months since we first met. We've been together since then. He moved in with me last fall and I couldn't have been happier. He cooks for us (Italian cooking 🤌🏽🤌🏽), we care for each other, travel together, spend time with each other's families, and yes, we still enjoy a lot of sex. We are about to hit our 2-year anniversary since our first date, yay!
I can safely say this is the first time in my life that I feel so loved and centered. I've never had to pretend to be anyone other than myself and he's also embraced my occasional neurotic OCD behavior. We do have our disagreements but we find a way to not let that turn into a major fight. I know 2 years isn't too long, but I can finally say I'm happily taken ☺️.
So all of you single gaybros, keep your hopes up. And don't try to push the dating thing too hard. Just be yourselves, build your careers, enjoy your lives, make friends, develop hobbies, travel if you can. Love has a way of finding you when you least expect it.