Second dates can be hard. You’re transitioning from the light, sparkling banter of a first date to deeper stuff. You know you need to be vulnerable to find out if this is a good match for you, but this person is also still basically a stranger. We’re help to help you navigate these tricky waters with deep questions that aren’t too deep. You’ll get to know the person but neither of you will leave the date feeling laid bare. Unless that’s how you want it to go (wink wink).

It’ll come as no surprise to you that we think sex is great however you want to do it, whomever you want to do it with (as long as it’s consensual). But it does bring its fair share of awkward moments, and to pretend otherwise is not doing any of us any favors. If we were to get all of our knowledge and expectations about sex from watching mainstream porn, we’d think there were never any mishaps or actual human bodies involved, but that ain’t real, kids! Bodies do weird stuff and they’re a little bit gross! And that’s fine, and sex is still great, and you still look good doing it. So here are just seven of the many, many slightly gross but completely normal things that happen during sex:

Dating can take you on an emotional rollercoaster—the high of matching with someone, the low of realizing you’ll probably have to leave your house to meet them, then the high of a first meeting that goes well, but then the low of replaying every weird thing you said. It’s a lot. We’ve got some tips for you to make the whole thing easier. Here’s how to follow up after going on a great first date:

March showers bring…wait, no, that’s April showers. So it’s still winter. But even so, the ground is beginning to shift and make room for new life to shoot up in the coming months. March will bring the first rumblings of change, and we are HERE. FOR. IT. That’s not to say that change always feels smooth or easy—we said rumblings, didn’t we? Not caresses or soft kisses. But if we can ride it out (and we can), it will be so worth it.