“What if I’m not ready?”

“I don’t know. I thought we’d just, you know, stop being married and move on.”

“But, we’ve got the kids, the house, the cars… the dog… the dishes… pictures… all of it.”

“I know. I haven’t thought through all the details, I just know I can’t be married to you any more.”

“I don’t know what to say, ” he sobbed.

There was nothing to say. Things had been broken for a while, and when things are left untouched, unexamined and unused, they decay. That’s what had happened to their marriage and she, at least, had finally realized that in all senses but the legal, they were no longer husband and wife. They were cohabitants in a life neither of them really wanted.

“I think we should talk to a lawyer and see what our options are. I don’t want this to be harder than it has to be.”

Wiping his eyes, he looked up, “Shouldn’t it be hard?”

“I don’t know. I know it can’t go on.”

“I love you,” he said quietly, his red wet eyes on the floor.

“I know, but that’s not enough anymore.”