Tiffany Haddish Says She Doesn't Mind Time Apart from Boyfriend Common: 'I Need Space'

"We're not up under each other every day anyways," she tells PEOPLE

Spending the holidays apart from her man is no big deal for Tiffany Haddish.

The comedian and actress, 41, tells PEOPLE that she and boyfriend Common won't be cozied up with each other this holiday season, instead opting to enjoy the year-end weeks with their respective families. Haddish says she wants to "get as much time as I can with my grandma." The rapper, 48, meanwhile, is headed to see his loved ones in Florida.

But the time apart is a welcome aspect of their relationship, she says.

"We're not up under each other every day anyways," says Haddish, who's gearing up to release new content with Bumble ahead of Dating Sunday. "He's recording his album right now, I'm working on a television show right now. Even before when the pandemic first happened, we weren't together every day. It was three, maybe four days out the week."

"That's kind of how I like it, because I need space," she adds. "I like to be able to create whatever I'm trying to create, and if I'm with somebody, I want to focus on them a lot and it can become a distraction. That's also what I like about him. He's like, 'If you need to go, you can go. I'm not trying to hold you back.' "

Common and Tiffany Haddish. Lester Cohen/Getty

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The intermittent separation keeps the time they are together that much more special.

"Way more special," emphasizes Haddish, "and we have so much fun together — I think we have so much fun you need a little time to recover from it! We play games, we be laughing, we dance and stuff, or we'll just curl up.... We make time for each other. We have fun."

"I like playing. I keep calling it 'playing together,' but it's not. We're not playing, but it feels like I'm with one of my best friends in school, you know?" she adds.

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As for how Common and Haddish decided on their respective holiday arrangements, she says it was an unspoken agreement — though she still wanted him to invite her along!

"I was looking at him sideways for a second, because he's like, 'Yeah, I want to go to Florida. I'm going to go see my mom and my grandma.' And so I'm waiting for him to say, 'Do you want to go?' " she recalls. "But I know I'm not going ... I'm waiting for him to ask me so I can say, 'No.' He never asked."

"So a day goes by and he's like, 'Yeah. So I'm leaving on this day.' Hold on. What?... And I was like, 'Oh, you're leaving on that day, huh?' He was like, 'Yeah. I said so.' So I'm just, 'You're just going to leave?' He was like, 'Yeah. Tiff, I would have asked if...' He could just read my face, this was on the FaceTime. He says to me, 'Tiff, I would have asked you, but you've been talking about how you want to spend more time with your grandma.' I was like, 'I know, but you should've asked me anyways so I could just turn you down!' "

"I'm pretty easy to read. I mean, you can see it on my face," laughs Haddish.