Here’s a word for you:

Mamihlapinatapai: (Noun) Two people looking at each other each hoping the other will do what both desire but neither is willing to do.

The Guinness book of world records has it down as the “most succinct word“. Apparently it’s a noun form of a verb that means “to feel awkward”.

I think we’ve all felt some mamihlapinatapai in our lives. I certainly did when it was time for my first kiss. I was fifteen years old, at a Jewish youth group event, and I’d been hanging out with this girl I liked for most of the day. Our evening activity was to go to one of those places that has bowling, video games, bumper cars, and so forth. She and I found our way to an unused party room and sat together in the dark for a while before it became clear that we wanted to do more.

The first time we tried to kiss, we bumped foreheads because we both pulled out of it at the same time. Happened again on the second try, and the third.

We were both definitely feeling mamihlapinatapai at that moment, and fortunately our fourth attempt ended with a kiss.

I remember it being a pretty good kiss, but of course I had nothing to compare it to.

That kiss started a four-month relationship. Eventually she broke up with me because I lived too far away and neither of us could drive (I was only fifteen, and while she was sixteen, she also had a movement disability that prevented her from driving). We were only 45 minutes apart, but it was an eternity. We had some good times together, though.

So. The next time you and someone else are looking at each other, hoping the other will do what you both desire but neither of you are willing to do (for whatever reason), try taking the bull by the horns. It’s scary, but it could end positively.