Thu 13 May 2021 03.00 EDT “Hugs,” everybody keeps saying. “Who do you most want to hug on 17 May?” It’s an absurd act of prudishness. The real headline of next Monday is, of course, that this is the first day on which it will be legal (in England and most of Scotland, but not yet Wales or Northern Ireland) to have sex with a stranger since 22 March 2020. As we look ahead to the post-Covid dating world, the rules are very much a work in progress. From every quarter, one hears the same message: there is no such thing as zero risk. An acceptable gamble to one person will look like outrageous recklessness to another. The pandemic hasn’t treated us all the same, and we’re likely to emerge with different versions of what “moral” and “responsible” look like. Old friends have a hard enough time navigating new schisms, but what about total strangers? How do you meet new people in this scared new world – and what to do if the worst comes to the worst: you also fancy them?