My boyfriend and I have been dating for two years, and tiptoeing around the topic of marriage for about six months, out of embarrassment (or anxiety or shame). We’d talk about marriage, but only in the abstract. “Oh, that looks like something that will be in your wedding,” I’d say. “My kids are going to be so cute,” he’d say. We’d never discuss it as something we’d embark on together, which was fine – for a while.