Anyone able to talk some sense into me?
I'm 40, no great looker (just being honest here not self deprecating, it's the truth), and completely battered emotionally after an 11 year relationship with someone I really thought was The One broke down in very difficult circumstances 3 years ago. I'm now a single parent with a disabled DC and my ex isn't very helpful [understatement] so I've not really been looking to meet anyone new because the whole thing seems a bit impossible logistically and fucking terrifying emotionally
Just pre lockdown I met someone entirely incidentally who I ended up going out for a drink with and who I might well have gone for a second drink with but then lockdown happened and he moved a bit further away (not very far really but not exactly round the corner either). He is very very nice, we have lots of the same interests/sense of humour/politics etc, he's also a single parent with resident children and seems extremely understanding of my situation. We've been in almost constant contact over social media for the last couple of years and he's recently told me that he would like to try and pick up where lockdown interrupted and meet up again. He's telling me he has felt fairly strongly about me since we met but didn't want to make a twat of himself because I was so spiky at the time and he couldn't tell if I was interested or not (this is a known fault of mine, combined with being rubbish at spotting signs of interest from men 
)
I know from the chats we've had that we both have a similar idea of what we want, and I do really like him a lot, so this should be great news, but... I'm just so scared. I don't know how to try and start again. I'd bloody love to have sex again for example but I'm also terrified of trying to do that with someone new after so long, which isn't really second date conversation, but then when and how do you talk to someone about this stuff? I have no doubt he'd be understanding btw, it's not about that, I can't even define what I'm scared of. Maybe I'm just not ready to try and do this, but then when will I be? I can't afford therapy or anything like that so I've got to muddle through somehow and I don't want to be on my own forever, and I do really like him and think that if I can get over myself a bit then this could be really lovely.