<human>: Background: Met at 20. Lost my virginity him six months later. Awkward year of silence follows. He apologizes. He moves to a city two hours away. Three years of drunken and sober flirtationship begins. He moves again to a new city, still two hours away. Asks me on a date. I move to the same city for work. We date September-December. Break up December. Start exclusively sleeping together January-present. 

My "SO" is very independent. Concentrates mostly on work (high stress job) and doing his own thing. He's very non-emotional, doesn't understand the concept of "letting your guard down" or "being vulnerable" to another person, but he has good intentions. 

I don't know if our relationship (whatever it is) will last, but even if it doesn't, I want to leave it knowing that I did absolutely everything in the world that I could to make it work. 

I don't think I've communicated my expectations to him very well, and I'm going to try and take care of that tonight. The problem is, how do I make a person who is incredibly independent understand that I need more contact? I've tried several different ways to explain it, but it comes off whiny and needy.

Give me the gist of the text in a nutshell
<bot>: how do I explain to my very independent "SO" that I need more meaningful contact, and contact more often, without sounding like a whiny sixteen year old?