Is He Into Me, or Is He Just Trying to Get Me to Vote For Bernie?

He flirts with me

When I first met Brian, he was teasing me relentlessly about liking Elizabeth Warren. I’d come to the bar to watch the debate (and be hit on by random men), and he came to get sign-up volunteers for Bernie’s campaign. We talked for hours, and I felt like he really cared about having me around, especially because he said it helped his optics having a woman on board with the movement. Then I was super flattered when he found me on Facebook and asked me out, in addition to sending me a dozen follow-up think pieces about Bernie’s policies. Looks like someone remembered our conversation!

We text all the time

Usually it’s about work, or about how the capitalist system is built to enable the billionaire class, or which style of FEEL THE BURN mug he should order this week (because Bernie is entirely grassroots-funded, and I’m pretty sure 8% of that is Brian and his mugs). But sometimes he’ll ask about my family, and if we ever help my grandparents make it out to the polls. He’s so sweet that he even offered to give them a ride next time!

He listens when I talk

In fact, he encourages me to talk about Elizabeth Warren at length. He’s always taking notes, too, asking me why I support her specifically and coming up with counterpoints about Bernie. He’s a really good listener, and sometimes he even ends our talks with “I’ll convert you eventually. Let’s just get pizza and sit here silently.”

He wants to meet my friends

He says he wants to get to know them, like what their names are, counties of residence, and if they’re eligible voters. “Are Samantha, Allie, and Kayla registered for the primaries?” he asks. “They do realize voters 18-29 historically have the lowest turnout rate, right? And sometimes as low as 10% of the party decides the outcome of the primaries because of poor turnout?” I think it’s really cute he remembered my friends’ names and demanded to talk to Samantha on the phone for three hours because I said she jokingly mentioned Beto being “dreamy” one time a few months ago.

Brian says he’s going to introduce me to his friends next weekend when we all go phone-banking for Bernie. I hope they like me and want to yell at me on the phone for hours, too.

He takes me out on dates

Well, technically, I take him out — we have to use my mom’s minivan, because Brian says his won’t make the drive all the way to the campaign rallies in Bernie’s home state of Vermont, and he really loves taking me on road trips. Last time he even had me pick him up first, so that we got some alone time before we picked up the rest of the volunteers. He totally held my hands in front of the other guys in the van, too — well, by that I mean we briefly touched hands when he was giving me a big stack of campaign literature to pass out. But still — butterflies!

He wants to be “in a relationship” on Facebook

Brian said being in a public relationship online means promising to like his comments when he gets in arguments with members of the Yang Gang in public Facebook groups like “1% Memes for Political Tweens.” I said I’d be happy to as long as none of the Yang Gang members are hot girls!

He says he wants to be together even after the election

Brian says no matter what, he wants to be with me, and that we don’t have anything to worry about because Bernie will run again if he doesn’t win this time. “He’s unstoppable and he’s never going to die,” says Brian. His eyes always turn a little red when he says things like this. “He’s going to live forever.”

Brian’s frothing at the mouth so I get his

FEEL THE BERN mug #87 to catch the foam

“I think I love you,” I tell him. “Not me. Us.” says Brian. (When he gets worked up he can only speak in Bernie campaign slogans). It’s one of those cute things about him that really scares me because I’m starting to worry: Is he into me, or just trying to get me to vote for Bernie?

Any input before the wedding next weekend would be greatly appreciated.