“So it was revenge.” Jane seemed to have shrunk a few inches—and her voice with her.

“It was no such thing. It was nothing. Just one of those things that happen.” A man and a dog on a leash walked past on the other side of the road. Annie took the time to inhale deeply and rearrange her thoughts. This conversation was not going in the right direction at all.

“It was not nothing, Annie. Just because nothing happened between you two, doesn’t mean it was nothing. And at the very least, it was—is—a symptom of something going wrong between us.”

“I disagree.” Annie tried to look Jane in the eye, but Jane couldn’t meet her gaze. “There is nothing wrong between us.”

“Things aren’t exactly hunky-dory either.” Jane’s voice had grown louder.

“Then please enlighten me with what you think is wrong.”

“Your sarcastic tone isn’t helping me to open up about it.” Jane was beginning to sound snippy—as snippy as Annie was being?

“I’m sorry,” Annie said. “Let’s start this conversation again.”

“I know I’m not much of a talker and you’re not used to having to listen to me, but I need you to hear this.”

This was beginning to sound like a match to measure who could be most passive-aggressive. Perhaps, Annie thought, it was as much par for the course in a long-term relationship as having the occasional crush on another woman.

“Last night when we went to bed, I was glad we talked and I felt better. But I was awake a large part of the night trying to figure all this out and then this morning, you… had the audacity of trying to have sex and it all felt so off. As though we’ve lost the ability to read each other the way we used to. We’re not on the same wavelength anymore. Something is broken here and I can’t believe you can just sit here and say nothing is wrong while I have the exact opposite feeling, which pretty much proves the point I’m trying to make.”

“You can’t hold it against me that I don’t feel the same way as you do. I’m not you. And yes, I do agree that things are not stellar right now—how could they be? But they’re not as bad as your mind has made up they are. I can assure you that. You see things differently. Circumstances have made you see them differently, and I totally get that, but we shouldn’t lose perspective. We should focus on what we do have instead of what we think we lack.”