somewhere in Michigan
“I put the ring back on today. It’s heavier than I remember, but it feels like hope squeezing my finger tight, drawing me back into the vow I made three years ago…before we started hurting and losing and stonewalling.
We’re gonna find [fight] our way back, baby. It’s us against ourselves, and I think we’re finally winning.”
Nebraska
“I lost count of the times I heard “Y’all are so perfect for each other”.
The truth was, it was all an illusion. No one knew we were putting on pretty faces in public and barely speaking in private.”
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
“Somewhere along the way he stopped looking at me like he did when we were 16. What I would do for him to just take a minute and really look at me. I don’t think he’s called me beautiful since our wedding day.”
Kentucky
“Do I really love him or do I stay bc I I left my marriage for him?
I would’ve left eventually anyway. I just expected more.”
Colombus, Ohio
“I keep holding my breath for the moment you realize that I’m too much work and I lug around twenty years worth of baggage that reeks of pain. I think I might pretend like its not there but some moments you catch whiffs of the stink and I cringe. If you open that baggage and see whats hiding, won’t you leave? There’s a part of me that wants you to; so I can prove to myself that I’m not love-able, that I’m better off alone. But there’s a growing part that begging you to open up all the bags and help me unpack. I don’t want you to do it for me, just support my folding and sorting. Oh, how that desire terrifies me.”
Colombus, Ohio
“And then he stopped the car, looked at me, and said, “you are my every what-if”.”