At first, I thought the flowers were just a sweet gesture and a tired man’s way of holding on to what brief romance we had left. But I never expected a folded note buried in the bouquet would send me following my husband through town… straight into a secret I never saw coming.
Not in big, dramatic ways. It’s a slow shift. The way your hands brush less often. The way your “good morning” gets swapped with “Did you pack the kids’ lunch?” You stop noticing it, like how you stop noticing the ticking of a clock on the wall until it halts.
You learn to stop expecting surprises. You let little things slide, thinking it’s just life piling on. Until something unexpected happens. And suddenly, you don’t know what to do with it.
A distressed couple sitting on the couch | Source: Freepik