It’s that time of the year. Parties, time-off, and Instagrammable-worthy moments galore.

You can’t wait. On paper, this is what you’ve been wanting all year. More space and joy. Time to reconnect and feel good.

Your partner’s leave is finally here, and you take a sigh of relief. “We will finally have some 'us' time,” you both agree.

But instead of the desire-fuelled evenings and flirty-filled days you had in mind, a tension starts to build. And it's not the good type of tension either; it's a sense of dread. An emptiness, even.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a version of: “I thought the time off would help us reconnect, but the more I felt like we should be close, the less I wanted to be touched,” I would be a very wealthy woman.

Why pressure shuts desire down

Sex research

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