Last night’s argument had not been that heated. I smiled as I remembered how I had thought before marriage that he was so gentle and diplomatic that he could never argue with anyone. I had certainly been wrong about that! And yet, I groaned within myself as I recognised that yesterday’s fight had somehow marked a transition: between those golden, lovey-dovey, “can’t keep our hands off one another” years to the mundane “real world” of marriage; that real world of disagreements and constant re-negotiations about in-laws and money and who always has to be doing the brunt of the housework, that real world where you might like your husband very much – but you certainly can keep your hands off him; that real world that as a couple we had both hoped and confidently expected that we would be spared from, due to the depth and sincerity of our love and consideration for one another.
