Maybe you're dating someone right now—and who could blame you, because, what hotter time to hook up is there than the Kali Yuga? You and your partner might live in the same place, or far away (which, now, can even mean "around the block"). Possibly, you've been seeing this person a while, or maybe you're getting to know each other via Zoom dates, squinting at each other's shaggy haircuts/newly shaved heads.

2. Learn a new language , including smutty things to say to each other. Supplement an app like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone by making flashcards or quizzes for each other based on your inside jokes, memories you two have, or your partner's tastes or best physical qualities.

Sometimes, intimacy with another person can make you feel more equipped to be safe, smart, and healthy, and right now is a good time to feel that way about and with someone else. Here are some ideas for being sweet and feeling closer indoors, only a few of which are specific to in-person arrangements.

Whether you and the person you're crushed out on/committed to are crammed into one place or pining for each other, it might be difficult to do more, when you're spending whatever kind of time, than mutter, "This sucks, I hate it," in unison. So how can you and any person you're involved with, whether new or tried-and-true, find respite in being together?

The rigorous pain of this crisis can put us at an emotional remove from those we want to feel closest to. Like the people we're dating, for one example. (Ha ha, those of you who are single may say right now, screw you. That's correct.) Good, cool, here is death is not a fun 'n' flirty mode of thinking/living. I can't believe the government continually fails people does not make me, exactly, hard.

For the purposes of this guide, which is about dating during a global pandemic when you have to stay inside or else get sick or make someone else sick: It's OK for the two of you to be apart physically as you figure out how to make the best of your time together.

6. Play Gentlemen's Disagreement . This is the perfect unhinged debate game. I don't just say so because I invented it. When I did, it was literally as a way to defuse tension between me and people I love—in that case, three sisters traveling together for a week, aka, an absolute powderkeg for arguments. The game works for transforming bad moods in any kind of relationship.

5. Invent your own holiday . I like these directions: Activities Day, Pizzaversary, deciding for yourself your adopted pets' birthdays if you don't know them, Fright Night, and The Week of the Great Feast. If you like your co-celebrant a lot, casually mention that it's an annual holiday.

4. Write fan mail to someone important to the two of you . It could be the person whose song you first hooked up to, or who created the video game you bonded over, or whose restaurant you had your best date at—DaBaby, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Nikki Giovanni, Toby Fox… whomever! Write to that person together and say, "You helped us be a part of each other's lives, and here's how," except just like you would say it to a friend. Before you and your partner actually send what you write—which you should!—read your letters to each other.

3. Plan to do an online yoga class , immediately decide against it (flaking with your workout clothes already on and everything is completely acceptable here), and yell out answers along with old episodes of Jeopardy! on Netflix instead.

How Gents works: You assign the other person something—any topic you want—and they have to argue strongly in favor of it for one minute. Like they would lick its shoes if it told them to, or kick over a public mailbox for it… that's how into it they are. You don't argue AGAINST each other's topic, just ardently for your own. Ideally, play this with another couple or with friends over Zoom, scoring each round as you go, however you want to do that.

Some of my favorite past topics, in the years I've played this with everyone I know: choreography, baby dolls, bucket hats, the Kool-Aid man, belly button rings, Oprah, when you see someone fall down and don't know whether it's OK to laugh, the New York Knicks, bees. Having to be relentlessly positive about something, whether you like it or not, is hilarious and bad. The only rule is not ALWAYS trying to engineer your partner having to make the case for things that suck—note that all of the above topics are, like lyfe, at their best because of what you make of them.

7. Trade one enormous and juicy secret each—the gossipier, the better; the more it involves any sort of crime and/or unsolved mystery, the best. When I tried this exercise, my boyfriend told me the "true identity" of the person behind one of history's biggest conspiracy-adjacent FBI cases! Who can say who was behind it? Well, my boyfriend could!!