Foe

by Iain Reid

I don’t know if he understands marriage or how committed relationships function. You can’t really understand a relationship until you live it, unless you’re in it. That’s part of what made everything so exciting for Hen and me. We were starting out together, we’d committed to each other, but we still didn’t know all those small details about each other at first. Living with someone can’t be simulated or rehearsed. It has to be experienced, in real time. There is no substitute for shared involvement, for creating actual memories. Like, I know how Hen blows her nose. I’ve never thought about it until now, but I do. I know the cadence, the rhythm. She does it in the same tempo every time. These observations—her footsteps, how she blows her nose—they’re like little secrets.