Rock Paper Scissors

by Alice Feeney

Marriages don’t fail, people do.

All people are addicts, and all addicts desire the same thing: an escape from reality. My job just happens to be my favorite drug.

I think I’ve learned to live with a less than perfect marriage, too. But doesn’t everyone? I’m not being defeatist, just honest. Isn’t that what successful relationships are really about? Compromise? Is any marriage really perfect?

limerence noun. An involuntary state of mind caused by a romantic attraction to another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one’s feelings reciprocated.

Everyone thought we were crazy and that the whirlwind romance wouldn’t last, but I’ve always got great satisfaction from proving people wrong. As have you. It’s one of the many things we have in common.

I’ve gotten used to playing second fiddle in the orchestra of us, and I accept that there will always be three of us in this relationship: you, me, and your writing.

I’ve always thought there must be something seriously wrong with people who write dark and twisted fiction.

I don’t have to see her face to know when she isn’t telling me the truth. You can feel it when someone you love is lying.

The ability to write a good book doesn’t make someone a good person.

Some people say that marriage is like wine and gets better with age, but I guess it all depends on the grapes. There are definitely years that were more pleasurable than others, and I’d have bottled them if I could.

Affection is like playing the piano and you can forget how to do it without practice.

We’ve tried date nights, and marriage counseling, but spending more time together isn’t always the same as spending less time apart.

I wish people were more like books. If you realize halfway through a novel that you aren’t enjoying it anymore, you can just stop and find something new to read. Same with films and TV dramas. There is no judgment, no guilt, nobody even needs to know unless you choose to tell them. But with people, you tend to have to see it through to the end, and sadly not everyone gets to live happily ever after.

Word of the year: biblioklept noun. A person who steals stories. A book thief.

Enjoy the stories of other people’s lives, but don’t forget to live your own.

But marriage changes people whether they like it or not.

Lies can heal as well as hurt.

I want to fix him. And I want him to love me for it. But not everything that gets broken can be repaired.

Life is unpredictable at best, unforgivable at worst.

“It means sometimes life changes people, even us. We are both different versions of ourselves compared with who we were when we first met. Almost unrecognizable in some ways. But I love all the versions of you. And no matter how much we change, how I feel about you never will,”

If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.

Funny how another person’s misfortune can make you realize what you have.

The only good thing about losing everything, is the freedom that comes from having nothing left to lose.

redamancy noun. The act of loving the one who loves you; a love returned in full.

The first thing I want you to know is that I never stopped loving you, even when I didn’t like you, even when I hated you so much I wished you were dead.

We are our parents’ echoes and sometimes they don’t like what they hear.