I lean forward slightly, elbows braced on my knees. “I just don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“Why she’d want me.”
The words come out before I can smooth them over.
Dr. Hale doesn’t react. Not outwardly. She taps her pen, and waits, while I shake my head, a short, frustrated movement.
“She’s…” I let out a breath, searching for something that feels accurate. “She’s got it all together. She runs her own business. She’s creative. People like being around her. She makes people feel lighter.”
I glance up, meet Dr. Hale’s eyes. “She doesn’t fit in any box anyone tries to put her in. She is who she is, and it works. And me?” I let out a quiet, humorless laugh. “I feel like something that’s still coming together, if that makes sense?”
It sits there between us. Honest, ugly, and true in a way I don’t like.
Dr. Hale tilts her head slightly, considering me with that same steady calm. “It makes complete sense, but it’s fine to be awork in progress and to also try new things, like dating someone. That should be the fun part.”
I exhale, because that’s easy for her to say.
“I know it feels different for you,” she adds, not letting me off the hook. “But what you’re describing is a different way of processing, responding, and experiencing the world.”
I look away, jaw tightening slightly.
“Ty,” she says gently, “what we’re talking about—your diagnosis—falls under Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
I nod once. We’ve said that part out loud before.
“But it’s important to understand that autism isn’t one fixed presentation,” she continues. “It’s a spectrum for a reason. There are a lot of different ways it shows up.”
I shift back in the chair, listening despite myself.
“In the past,” she says, “you might have heard terms likeAsperger’s syndrome.”
I glance at her. “Yeah. I’ve heard that.”
“It used to be a separate diagnosis,” she explains. “Typically used for individuals who didn’t have language delays and who were considered ‘high-functioning’—people who could navigate school, work, relationships, but still experienced significant differences in social communication, sensory processing, or cognitive patterns.”
“That sounds…” I hesitate. “Close and familiar.”
“It is,” she says. “But the field moved away from that term. It’s no longer used as an official diagnosis. Everything now falls under Autism Spectrum Disorder, because we understand that those distinctions were often arbitrary, and sometimes misleading.”
I nod slowly.
“So what I have—” I start.
“—would likely have been labeled Asperger’s in the past,” she finishes for me. “Yes.”
I let that sit. It feels…clarifying. And not.
“But here’s the important part,” she continues. “Your brainprocesses information in a way that can be incredibly focused, incredibly detailed, and deeply committed. You form strong connections. You care intensely.”
I let out a quiet breath. All of these things she says feel true.
“You also experience things differently,” she adds. “Overstimulation. Processing delays. The need to mask in certain environments to feel safe. But none of that makes you less worthy of a relationship. It means you bring a different set of strengths and challenges into one.”
I glance back at her.
“She isn’t choosing a version of you that doesn’t exist,” Dr. Hale continues. “She’s choosing you as you are. The question isn’t why she would want you.”
