The moment I knew the marriage was really over...

It was a Tuesday night in our kitchen in Phoenix, and he asked what was for dinner for the third time that week without even looking up from his phone. I just stood there holding a bag of groceries, realizing I hadn't felt heard in about 8 months at that point. I put the groceries down, grabbed my keys, and drove to a diner called Fred's where I sat alone for two hours eating a BLT. When I got back, he was already in bed, never asked where I'd been. Has anyone else had that one small moment that hit harder than all the big fights?

4 comments

4 Comments

mark_chen624mo ago

oh man, that BLT dinner at Fred's hit me hard. I had my own "small moment" with my ex - we were at Ikea and she asked which curtains I liked, I said the gray ones, and she just went "no, those are wrong" and walked off. I stood there like an idiot holding a floor lamp for like 10 minutes thinking "wait, when did my opinion on curtains become a wrong answer?" looking back, that shoulda been the red flag that I was basically furniture in my own marriage, just something that existed in the house but nobody asked how it felt.

ivan_harris4mo ago

This is real talk Mark (@mark_chen62) - once you realize you're just a piece of furniture in your own relationship, you gotta ask yourself if you want to spend your life being a lamp that nobody thinks to turn on. Walked out on a similar situation myself, best decision I ever made.

olivermason2mo ago

Five years ago i stayed and guess who just bought new drapes without asking, @mark_chen62.

abby_morgan184mo ago

The curtains thing is brutal. Imagine being outranked by IKEA textiles. Next time she'd probably have you ask the lamp for its opinion on dinner too. At least the floor lamp didn't argue back, right? Sorry, I'll stop. That BLT really was the main character of that whole story though, can't blame you for picking Fred's over that.