Editor on WFH with Boyfriend: “I Miss the Warm Breath of a Stranger Blowing Directly in My Ear on the MTA”

Ah, the luxury we all dreamed of not too long ago: working from the comfort of our own homes. It sounds perfect—no more waking up hours early, getting dolled up, and enduring the miserable commute punctuated by the warm breath of a stranger blowing directly in your ear on the MTA. Most of us will not miss that, except for one New York–based style editor who now finds herself oddly nostalgic for the sensation after being forced into the WFH life with her photographer boyfriend.

Things are far from “business as usual” for the couple, whose work performance has suffered tremendously from enduring each other’s constant presence.

“Oh, we are definitely breaking up,” admits our editor friend. “That became pretty clear by the end of the eighth consecutive hour we spent together—that’s equivalent to how much time we usually see each other in a month, by the way.” Their previously complementary schedules were part of what brought them together in the first place. “We met at a shoot and hit it off. He’s always traveling for work, I’m always at work, except for the brief moments I stop by the apartment to sleep. Our mismatched schedules combined with our mutual fear of dying alone somehow made us compatible.”

On the financial side, the outbreak has been surprisingly beneficial: dodging future divorce fees. As the interview wrapped up, we caught our friend whispering, “I have no idea what the f*ck we are going to do about the joint lease we signed before Christmas.”