I told her I love her

[cdubs32]

I'll try to give a little background without making it too long...

 

I've been with my gf for a little over 3 months now, we met on OKCupid and hit it off from the start. Things have been perfect, and we have very good communication. She lives 10 blocks from me, so we've seen each other on average 4-5 days a week. We are both in our late 20's. She has a history of being in LTR's, most recent one was 2.5 years that she left because she realized she didn't love him enough to marry him. On the otherhand, I was single for 4 years before meeting her, half of it by choice, half of it did online dating for 1.5 years until I met her.

 

She got me a weekend trip to a resort at a lake for my birthday a few weeks back and we did a lot of fun things together and had a really romantic dinner and shared a room. Things went perfect and we had a blast.

 

That night I had such a good time and had thought to myself before this that I was in love with her, and I decided to tell her. She sorta could tell I wanted to tell her something and she kind of asked and got it out of me (but we communicate and are very honest so this is normal for us to talk about these things).

 

She told me she really appreciated me telling her that and that she's really happy to hear it, and she knows how hard it was to tell her that as I hadn't told someone that in a long time....but she said she wasn't ready to say it back yet. She had been in two relationships in her life previously where she thought she was going to get married at one point, and she wants to make sure this time that when she says it she's 140% sure she's in love.

 

I didn't know how to feel about this, but we made love right after. What's confusing me a little is that I feel like she really liked that I told her and she wants me to say it again, but I feel weird saying it to someone who I know won't say it back. I can't imagine why she would WANT me to tell her despite her not ready to say she feels the same way....I would think the opposite in that she would NOT want me to say it again. I personally would feel awkward hearing "I love you" from someone that I couldn't say it back to. She asked me the next day while making out if I meant what I said the night before and I nodded, and she smiled. I realize this makes her very happy.

 

I don't consider this a problem or anything, I'm just thrown off a little and I don't feel comfortable saying it to her again. It maybe stung a little bit when she didn't say it back but she was great at reassuring me how much she cares about me and how into me she is, so I don't have any doubts. She IS happy, so that's what is most important to me right now as she makes me very happy as well. I don't know what I'm trying to even say at this point. I just lack experience with these situations and I don't know how I am supposed to feel. Any thoughts?

Edited March 28, 2011 by cdubs32