I put it right back.
“Good.”
I go with him every Thursday now.
Only Thursdays.
That was our agreement.
And yes, I sometimes skip lunch and buy glitter.
Julian pretends this annoys him.
It doesn’t.
For years, I thought I knew my husband completely.
Coffee at 7:30.
One sugar.
Forehead kiss.
Thursday gym.
Every pot lid lifted before he said hello.
Then a stranger stood on my porch and told me where Julian’s missing phone had been found.
For one awful moment, I thought the man I trusted most had been living another life behind my back.
I was right about one thing.
There was a secret.
It simply wasn’t the kind I feared.
Sometimes the biggest thing the person you love is hiding isn’t betrayal.
It isn’t another partner.
Another family.
Another life.
Sometimes it’s simply the good they’ve been doing quietly.
Every Thursday afternoon.
On their hands and knees on a green carpet.
Wearing a paper crown.
When they thought nobody was watching.
