18. Present
The memory of our first I love you was still vivid in both of our minds and I wondered how we could have let anything ruin that passion, that love that we shared. It was supposed to be indestructible. I thought it would live on forever and that I had found the man I would spend the rest of my life with.

"I feel the same way I did that day at the concert Cal," I said, interrupting the silence.

"I do too."

It wasn't enough though. It didn't suffice to allow our relationship to survive.

"Why is this so difficult?" I whispered.

"Because it's life I guess. Nobody said it would be easy."

"It was though," I argued. "It was easy between us before. We told each other anything and everything. We shared our deepest, darkest secrets with each other without fear of judgment. We laughed at the same movies, cried to the same books, listened to each other's song recommendations. I met your family and then you agreed to meet mine. You proposed. We got married. It was easy. We had it all figured out."

He swallowed and I could see hearing all of this was as difficult for him to hear as it had been for me to say out loud. It was like a slap in the face to know all of this, all this love, could be destroyed.

"But then Noah..." He completed, his voice breaking down as he said his name.

I nodded, feeling tears prickling in my eyes.

"Every time I look at you, I see him and it hurts Sky, it hurts so bad."

I saw tears fall down his cheeks that he didn't bother wiping off. Hesitantly, I put my hand over his and he let me. Here we were, trying to gather the broken pieces of our marriage, crying silently while holding each other's hand.