1. He reminds you of his love.

He never wants you to forget how much he loves you because he wants to be with you, and stay with you. The man who sees a forever with you doesn’t want you to question whether or not he cares about you, because he does and always will. When there’s a moment of doubt, he reassures you, even if it’s the smallest reminder. His love never feels absent or misleading, it’s always there and is always easily understood.

2. He can’t help but talk about the future.

No matter how hard he tries to pretend like he hasn’t imagined forever with you, he has. He imagines what your first home together will look like, whether it’s a tiny city apartment with leaky faucets and loud neighbors or a quiet country cottage in a town where every store owner knows your name. He imagines you as a wife, and what your first name would sound like attached to his. He imagines you as a mother and whether or not your children will have your smile, or your laugh. He imagines all of the happiness you both will bring into each other’s lives. He imagines your future together.

3. He asks about how you see your future.

He knows what he wants for his future, and he wants to know if you want the same things. He will ask subtle questions that help him figure out where you see yourself in 5, 10 years down the road. Whether you aspire to start your life in one place and finish it there, or whether you have a yearning to travel the world with the person you love. He sees a future with you, but he needs to know that you see one with him too. He needs to know you both are on the same page, that you both want the same things.

4. He shows (some) interest in your interests.

He may not share the same love for every hobby or passion that you have, but he loves you, and because of that he’s not only willing to learn about your interests, he wants to. He never cared about modern art before he met you, but that’s because he was never in love with someone the way he’s in love with you. To him, you’re different. He cares about the things you care about because he cares about you.

5. He worries about you.

When you take a spontaneous road trip with your best friend he tells you to be careful. When you fly across the country he tells you to call him when you land. When you text him drunk-barely-comprehensible messages from the bar on “girls’ night” at 3 am he tells you to get home safely. He worries about you when you need to be worried about. He worries about you because he wants you in his life, healthy, well, and still standing.

6. He tries to get along with the people who matter to you.

He enjoys spending time with the people you’re close to because he wants to be close to you too. He wants your mom to love him, your dad to trust him, and your brother to take him golfing on Sundays. These people allow him to learn more about you. He wants a future full of friendship and love, not of conflict and enemies. If he can’t get along with the people in your life you love besides him, forever is something you might not spend together.

7. He includes you in most aspects of his life.

He doesn’t feel obligated to invite you anywhere, if he extends an invitation it is because he wants to, and he lets you know this. If he didn’t want you there, he wouldn’t have asked. And when he does things on his own, he doesn’t make you feel unwanted or left-out, because the way he includes you in his life confirms that he wants you in it. He shares every part of his life that matters because he wants you to be a part of it, because he wants you to stay a part of it, forever.