All About You

She was the kind of woman who smiled in public and cried in silence. Behind the soft hum of household routines and the polite exchanges with her husband, loneliness had settled in like dust quiet, invisible, but suffocating. Years had passed since she had felt seen. Conversations with her husband had become functional, their intimacy reduced to routine, their laughter replaced by silence and sobs

Then he came along unexpected, uninvited, and yet, so perfectly timed. He noticed things. The way her eyes lingered on sunsets, the tremble in her voice when she talked about her past, the way she hid her pain behind politeness. He asked questions that weren't about dinner or errands or bills. He listened like her words were worth something.