He swallowed hard and let out a breath, then he nodded again. He really did look familiar, and I was going to ask him where I knew him from when the sound of a scraping chair behind me caught my attention. People were taking their seats, which was my cue to start the meeting.

I smiled at Jordan and Merry. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here.” I went back to the table with my clipboard and pulled up a seat while everyone settled into theirs. They all looked at me expectantly, so I began. “Thanks for coming along tonight. We’ve got some new faces,” I said, not really wanting to draw attention to Jordan but not wanting to ignore him either. “So I’d just like to start by saying that this is an open group where we’re all free and safe to express what we’re feeling and share our experiences without judgement or criticism. This group is aimed at asexual and aromantic people or anyone who might be questioning or curious.” I deliberately didn’t look at Jordan. “But we’re inclusive to everyone on the queer spectrum and their support people, regardless of their sexuality.”

Everyone smiled at me, well, except Jordan. He blinked a few times and took some deep breaths. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “My name is Hennessy, and I’ve been attending support meetings for asexuals for a few years. I’m not an expert, by any means, but these meetings are a safe space where we can talk and laugh and gripe and discuss things that are relevant. There are no right and wrong questions or answers here. Outside of these group meetings, I’m actually kind of quiet. My closest friends might disagree,” I said with a bit of a laugh. “But for the most part, it’s true. I understand it can be daunting to talk about things here in this group, but whatever is said in here, stays in here. Okay?”

Everyone nodded again.

“So, tonight I wanted to talk about sexual identification and social media.” That earned me a few smiles and a few sighs. “On one hand, it can be a great source of information and research, and even a platform for acceptance and finding community. If you’ve googled support groups—such as this one or one like it—you can see you’re not alone and there are other people who are going through the same things as you, and that’s tremendously important. But then on the other side, you have what might be conceived as an oversexualised society. We see repeatedly, we’re told repeatedly, it’s shown, it’s implied, it’s blatant that sex equals love. That we’re not complete without it. That sexual intimacy is the pinnacle of all relationship goals.”