I am writing my novel in first person singular in the past tense as narrated by the protagonist. So obviously the narrative is in past tense, but I am confused about how to write dialogue, whether it is as was said or it will also be in the past tense.
For e.g. I have written;
“You don’t understand, Ella is my girlfriend. She knows everything about me, it's almost 2 years that we are together. We are in a relationship.”
Or
Should it be written like;
“You don’t understand, Ella was my girlfriend. She knew everything about me, it's almost 2 years that we were together. We were in a relationship.”
Thanks