Page 43 of Cowboy Falling Hard

“I see. I guess sometimes marriages just get stale.”

“I guess they do. If you don’t make the effort to keep them fresh.”

Maybe that was a weird way to talk about it, like they were talking about a marriage like they were talking about bread. But he understood exactly what she was saying.

“I don’t think it’s either one of their faults. And I don’t think there was any cheating or abuse or anything like that going on. They just...don’t seem to love each other anymore.”

“That’s something you have to guard against in your marriage. Not that you have to keep staring into each other’s eyes with stars in your own, just...”

“Exactly. You have to make a point to put your spouse first. To do little things to make them happy. To stop doing things that irritate them. You have to make a point to spend time together and enjoy each other.”

“Yeah, I do know a few couples who have let themselves go, not in a physical sense, although that happens, but just they’re miserable to be around, and they don’t even realize how miserable they are. Sometimes I wonder how their spouse can stand to be in the same house with them.”

“Maybe that’s what’s going on behind closed doors. I don’t know. They’ve always been super sweet and kind to us whenever we visit.”

Dwight nodded. He wasn’t an expert on marriage or relationships or romance. Far from it. He’d obviously needed advice of his own to get to where he was, which was firmly in the friend zone. But sometimes it was easy to look at someone else’s marriage and see little things they could do to fix potential problems.

Orchid didn’t seem inclined to leave. Maybe she was as disappointed as he was that they weren’t going to be together today.

After he’d been married twenty or thirty or fifty years, would he be that disappointed that he didn’t get to spend the day with his wife?

“You know, people would say that communication is important in a marriage, but you know it takes two people to communicate. If one refuses, no amount of communication from the other can fix anything.”

“Or when one spouse gets angry when their wife tries to talk to them. I played with a couple of fellas like that. Their wife could say something as simple as ‘can you stop at the store and pick up milk,’ and it would set them off, either on the phone with her or after they hung up. Like I don’t know, maybe she did treat him like a slave, but it seems to me that if your wife can’t ask for something as simple as a jug of milk without getting cut down, she’s probably not going to talk to you about anything deeper.”

He liked the way Orchid was looking at him, like he knew something important.

Not that he agreed with her necessarily, because obviously his track record in relationships wasn’t that great, but he did know that if someone tried to talk, the other person had to listen and actually hear what they were saying. Not ignore them or get angry.

“There’s no fixing things if you can’t talk. And you’re absolutely right. If one person isn’t listening, all the talking in the world isn’t going to make a difference.”

She grunted and shrugged her shoulder apologetically. “I’m sorry. I’m putting this off. I... I was looking forward to spending the day with you.”

“Maybe... Maybe we can do something later this week.”

“I’d like that.”

A thrill went through him at her words. He felt like it proved the things that Miss Charlene had said were completely right. He just needed to back off, stop thinking about himself, focus on her and just being a friend. Not about making himself look the very best he could.

It made sense, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before. Sometimes he was dense.

---