Rebuilding broken relationship... Next Step?? Help!
My story is similar to others, but rather confusing at the same time. My girlfriend and I dated for almost 3 years. About 3 months ago I was graduating college and really confused about my future and saw that it was stressing the relationship. My girlfriend decided to finally force me to talk and decided to end things because we didn't communicate well. I admit that I took her for granted and didn't tell her I loved her enough. We have been through a lot, even went to italy together for about 3 weeks for a short study abroad experience. Since we broke up I figured it was just another break, I waited a couple weeks and wanted to start to patch things up, but she considered us over. I really messed up and now realize how much I want to be with her and want to marry her. I decided to try to fix things about 2 months ago by sending her a dozen roses and had a conversation with her about how I had changed and I would never hurt her again. Since then I have been trying to show her that I can love her in the way that she wants and that I have changed. She is in a state of confusion as well since she is starting her senior year of college, and in the middle of a very stressful situation figuring out if she has a job with the company she loves and whether she can study abroad. 2 weeks ago she was leaving town and told me that she loved me before she got on the plane at the airport. Things seemed to be going well, but when she got back and there was more stress added to her job situation she began to push back again. Last week I decided to give her space and so far it seems to be helping. She called me to talk about work and stuff. The next day I left her favorite flower and a card that told her that I'd "support her no matter where life takes her" at her house because she had a big interview at work. It turned out that she didn't get very good news and when she got home and saw the flower she started crying and immediately called me to tell me about work and also because the flower meant so much to her after a bad day, she also called her mom and told her about the flower and also showed her roomates... I still want to give her space and not talk about us, so I took her to eat and told her that I realized she needed space and that she knows how I feel. I told her the best thing for us would be for me to give her space and to start by working on our friendship and she agreed to that. The next day I didn't hear from her, but today she sent me a picture of the flower in the morning with a message that said "good morning sunshine". It seems like a good sign, and she might hang out with me this weekend. My biggest fear is that she just expects to be friends and nothing more... or that she doesn't have the heart to tell me that we don't have a future or something. Over the past few months she hasn't given me any confirmation that she sees a future for us, but at the same time hasn't said that there isn't. How do I give her space and work on our friendship and still let her know that my intentions are toward rebuilding our relationship and a future together? So far I've been using the strategy that if she loves me she will come back to me... so I'm kind of just waiting and not talking to her unless she talks to me. Should I wait to talk about our relationship until she brings it up? Who knows how long that could be and I don't want her to think that I think it's fine to see other people... however if I said that it might push her away and seem like I'm jealous or something. Help!
