For some couples, sharing their hearts doesn?t mean sharing a home When my friends Brittany Mytnik, 28, and Ben Nicolaysen, 27, come home from work, they like to cook dinner together and talk about their days. They?re like most couples in that way. What they cook might vary, but there?s a familiar cadence to their routine: Nicolaysen follows the recipe in his head and plucks ingredients from the fridge and off the wire pantry rack in the kitchen. Mytnik plays the part of sous chef, following gentle instructions to prep and chop all the vegetables.
But for a year, they acted differently from most other couples in one big way: When they were finished cooking, they would plate the hot food in his apartment and carry it upstairs to her apartment to eat. Visiting one night after work, we stood around chatting and preparing stir-fry, and I asked them why they don?t stay in one place for dinner. Nicolaysen, as the consummate chef in the relationship, has all the equipment and food, they told me as broccoli sizzled and popped in hot oil?in his wok, on his stove?but they eat upstairs because Mytnik has the bigger, nicer table and the homier decorative aesthetic.
It struck me that they were getting the best of both worlds: all the benefits of coupledom without any sacrifice of individualism. Put more practically, they were sharing an IP address without having to share an actual address.
?There are two things that just about everyone wants, though in vastly different propor...