Welcome to the latest edition of True Romance. It’s the first Thursday of August and the Hall of Fame game takes place later today.

If that doesn’t sound romantic to you, seek medical attention. I know it’s not going to be a great game, but it’s more about what the game represents.

Football is back, and we’re still in the beginning stages of the season. The butterflies are there, and we haven’t been crushed by the team we love yet.

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It’s a lot like a relationship. We haven’t reached that point where the butterflies are long gone, and we can’t stand to be around one another but keep powering through for the kids. We’ll get there.

Speaking of love and football, last week I congratulated Justin Herbert and Madison Beer on their engagement. Finally, a real love story in the NFL between a singer and a star player.

That was before the developments this week at Chargers training camp. I’m talking, of course, about the lack of focus on display by Herbert. He’s not locked in. He’s on the field after practice with his fiancée.

I get it. As a hopeless romantic, it pains me to say this, but the franchise quarterback can’t look like he’s part of a teenage couple at a summer job. Do this stuff away from the field.

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Hit up an IKEA showroom bed if you want. Just like a couple, we’ll get to in a second, but there’s enough romance in football itself that there isn’t a need to bring your significant other to work.

Let’s get to less disappointing couples, shall we?

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Couple gets caught in intimate act on IKEA showroom bed

As promised, we’re going to take a closer look at the couple who apparently decided that they needed to take an IKEA showroom bed for a test drive. An obvious case of letting romance get away from them.

The couple took their shoes off, got on the bed, and according to the Daily Star, were caught on camera as they “explored each other’s bodies.”

The two, who turned the showroom at the IKEA location in Taiwan into a different kind of showroom, “seemed completely lost in the moment,” witnesses said.

The video taken by an understandably upset mom went viral on social media. She had no sympathy for the two who allowed romance to get the best of them on a showroom bed.

A couple was caught getting intimate on an IKEA showroom bed. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

She did, however, have some solid advice to pass along to them. She wrote, “Go home, get in the car, or rent a room.”

If only they had that advice ahead of time. Even a sign, one serving as a reminder, something to say, “Hey, this is a bed, but you’re not in a home. Keep everything packed away until you get home, get in a car, or are able to rent a room.”

The couple, while there reportedly hasn’t been an official statement from IKEA or the local police, could find themselves in hot water under Taiwan’s public indecency law.

Punishments of up to a year in prison or a fine could be heading their way. Even if that isn’t the case, we can always hope that a lesson is learned from this.

The lesson, others before them have had to learn, is about conducting such intimate business in much more private settings. It could be difficult for some to understand, but not everyone wants to watch you bump uglies.

Grab a sheet or get under the covers. Something.

This Week In True Romance

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Horny school bus drivers were allegedly getting it on while on the clock

From one inappropriate setting for intimate business to another. School bus drivers in one Georgia county are under investigation for having sex while on the clock again.

Channel 2 Action News reports that Gwinnett County Public Schools has reopened an investigation after a school bus driver admitted under oath to having sex on a school bus with another bus driver.

Several other bus drivers for the county were aware of the allegations made against their coworkers and told the outlet that district officials were provided with “stone-cold evidence.”

The allegations were initially investigated by the district in 2025. That investigation, according to Gwinnett County Public Schools, didn’t find any of this so-called stone-cold evidence.

Bus drivers in a Georgia county are under investigation for allegedly getting it on while on the clock. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

They said in a statement, “no evidence was found to substantiate the claims.” Channel 2 was able to find some.

They obtained an audio recording allegedly of a female driver who said she met a man during work hours in a church parking lot. They positioned their buses so they would avoid being seen on their cameras.

If you take away the setting and boil it all down, it is a little romantic. They’re putting in a lot of effort to spend time with one another. Effort that you don’t always find with couples who aren’t meeting up on the clock.

The male bus driver’s testimony under oath confirmed that he was doing more than driving a bus on the clock. An attorney asked, “Some of the sexual acts actually took place at the workplace on the bus, correct?”

He, according to the local outlet, responded, “Yes.”

Again, I don’t want to discourage romance. That’s the last thing I want to do, but you can’t drive off a cliff because the navigation told you to turn right.

You have to allow romance to lead you. We all know that. You also have to avoid those turns right off a cliff. Romance can be tricky.

What’s the darkest secret you discovered about someone after you married them?

How about secret kids and “surprise gifts?” There’s that and there’s bizarre eating and grooming habits.

If you had to pick, you may go with something more in the eating and grooming habits category. But those darkest secrets aren’t any fun.

Let’s have mistresses you don’t know about until the divorce proceedings and cheating with his brother’s girlfriends. Those are entertaining.

All that and more from the folks on Reddit who enjoy oversharing:

• My friend found out that her husband lied about his age, was actually 8 years older than he claimed and had a daughter that she didn’t know about. She found out about her at a pharmacy because the daughter was on his insurance and so was the daughter that she had with him. The pharmacist mixed up the names. They’re still together.
• He eats the banana strings. Like, peels them off and eats them.
• That the dog he had when we met, who lived another 13 years with us, was a “surprise gift” from his legitimately mentally unstable ex gf. I was under the impression she was a planned addition to the family, but no. His ex randomly picked up a dog off craigslist and told him he could “bring her back if he didn’t like her.” He fell in love with the dog, and didn’t want to leave her with his ex once they broke up only a short while later. This derailed a lot of plans he had to travel and live on a boat, etc. He didn’t tell me the truth because he was worried it would affect my relationship with the dog. He didn’t tell me until after the dog passed away!
• When he brushes his teeth he moves his head not the brush
• I started to divorce him because of the abuse. During divorce proceedings I found he was cheating with multiple women. He’d bring home their jewelry and give it as a gift. He genuinely enjoyed watching me wear his mistresses things. He remarried a year to the date of our divorce finalization. What a weirdo.
• She got married to have a kid, because having one out of wedlock would have made her mother and grandmother angry. But having a kid and divorcing me was totally acceptable.
• My husband was never in love with me. We were together almost 13 years. He married me out of obligation because i got pregnant . We’re divorcing now. I was madly in love with him and could have spent my life blissfully unaware loving him and taking care of him. It broke me when he told me and I spent five years putting myself together enough to file. I thought so highly of him it shattered every part of me.
• My husband was an alcoholic. I didn’t notice during dating because we never lived together. He literally had to have a shot to do something I noticed after marriage. He quit smoking and it got worst. He is now 6 1/2 years sober
• He took breakdancing lessons as a child.
• He was cheating on me with his brothers girlfriend (his neice and nephews mother) who was pregnant with his child at our wedding (obviously I didn’t know that at the time). We split 5 months after marriage and they got together. They now have 2 children together and she has 2 kids with his brother. The kids are biological siblings and cousins. I found out recently that they split a while back because he stole thousands from her inheritance to spend on drugs. It took a long time (many years) but my divorce was finalized at the beginning of this year
• Didn’t affect either of us, but after we had been married for about 20 years, my wife’s, fathers family found out that the had a whole other family because his father had run away with his oldest daughter and had a whole other family with her. And no one knew.
• Her & her best friend were in a secret friends with benefits relationship for 8 years before we met. The “best friend” was awful to me and my wife had to cut off the friendship & their entire friend group. I’m still pissed about it but whatever

Love and romance

– not likely to love again writes:

I was married for 38 years. To my knowledge, quite happily. She is 11 years my junior. Right after my 70th birthday she dumped me like last night’s meatloaf.

Turns out, she was knocked up as an underage teen by a married man. Her first “love.” They decided to abort the result. She married him one year after throwing out our entire family (two grown kids).

Now, at 81, my only goal left in life is to out live her, so I can deficate on her grave.

Signed…not likely to love again.

SeanJo

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Romance is messy sometimes. If “not likely to love again” has his way, it will get a little messier before all is said and done. Best of luck to you.

Blue Collar Men Flirting

– Anonymous writes:

Sean,

Ran across this lady on Instagram this week. She’s hilarious. Even my wife thinks so.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dal0702B2o8/

SeanJo

The instagram post wasn’t embeddable, but she is funny and who doesn’t want to hear about blue collar men flirting?

Song of the week

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That’s it for this week. I know the song isn’t a perfect fit this week, but it will do. Keep the song of the week suggestions coming. You can reach me, anonymously if you prefer, at sean.joseph@outkick.com.