How did you meet your partner (if you have one)?

Weirdly, on Tinder, but I was petrified and if I didn’t have friends to encouraged me, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. We talked constantly for about a week and then met up on the moors in Devon at this little pub. I was really awkward but must’ve made a good impression because he messaged me when I returned home and things went from there. We will have been together 4 years next February and married the other year. I only had my autism assessment in the spring this year so it was a bit of a shock but he did already know about my ADHD as I was diagnosed previously and now on medication for it. Incidentally, I think he has inattentive ADHD (not assessed yet) so we are both well matched. 

Asparagus said:

were the early days of dating difficult like it was for me eg emotional regulation, waiting for a text back etc 

Not difficult at all—we didn't have mobile phones!

We were under a bit of pressure to introduce each other to our respective parents ASAP, of course. We were both living at home, so we needed to put names to faces, "This is the person who'll be calling on the house landline a lot and asking to speak to me. Be nice."

I met my husband when we were both in our late teens, through mutual friends, and we quickly became inseparable. We had no idea then that we were both on the spectrum, and it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride, but we're still together and now both in our sixties.

There were no mobile phones when we met, so no texts to wait for, but we saw each other almost every day from the beginning.

I met my wife of 24 years when I was working in Brazil (as an IT contractor) and while I had no problem meeting local girls because I looked quite different to the locals (green eyes are a rarity there) I found the language barrier was a huge problem and any attempt to have a conversation didn't last long.

A colleague (an English guy) had a Brazilian girlfriend who spoke English so I asked her if she knew of anyone who would be interested in a date. My criteria was they had to be intelligent and speak English. 

A few days later we had a team meal in a posh restaurant on the rooftop of a skyscraper and I got me meet my date. It ended up a great chat, probably because the nuances that NTs can pick up on were masked by the cultural and language issues so we got on well and I asked her out on a second date.

On the second date I was somewhat surprised by being nearly eaten alive by her in a restaurant which was a welcome surprise and quite a culture shock, and when I asked her to be my girlfriend after that she thought I was taking the Mickey as the locals would be typically noncommital so they could play the field for as long as possible - it is quite a promiscuous culture at times.

However after confirming I was serious and chalking it up to a cultural difference we got on like a house on fire. She moved in with me about 5 months later when the apartment she was in was at end of lease and I had a place supplied by my employer. 6 months after that I had completed the project to upgrade all the Latin American sites IT ifrastructure so was returning to England so I asked her to marry me and the rest is history.

We have travelled all around the world, worked in various countries and done a load of stuff, made mistakes (eg bankrupcy) but have done way more than I ever could have done by myself.

I was a YTS apprentice at a Ford dealership, next door was a pub, I started using the pub as I realised alcohol made me seem more normal. One night, my now wife’s friend came over and said that her friend really fancied me. She also asked why I hadn’t noticed as the signals were clearly there.
I now realise this is part of neurotypical social cues and unspoken hints. I still don’t really understand them. She was my first girlfriend and we have now been married for 34 years. I won’t pretend our life has been a fairytale, I’ve only been diagnosed for a month, miscommunication is still an ongoing process.