But lately, it wasn’t that he’d lost those tendencies, it was perhaps that they’d become a little stiff, a little more perfunctory this past year. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the change in career and it was simply a case of him becoming more complacent as their second year of marriage progressed. That was normal, wasn’t it? The honeymoon period couldn’t last forever.

Although was it normal for the sex to slow down as much as it had? When they’d first started sleeping together, Andrea had discovered that in contrast to his old-fashioned ways, he was quite adventurous in the bedroom — keen to experiment with role-play or games. Andrea felt like it added an extra dimension to their relationship. It was exciting knowing that the conservative man everyone else saw was unexpectedly wild in the bedroom — and that she was the only one who got to see that side of his personality. Although as much as she enjoyed his exploratory side, she did have to suggest that once in a while they might just relax and have some ordinary vanilla sex.

Was that why things had slowed down? Was he disappointed that she didn’t always want all the extra bells and whistles, metaphorically speaking, of course. Although now that she thought about it, there might have been a game involving a bell once. Perhaps she needed to try harder, put more effort in.

As Andrea approached 5A now, she stepped lightly and slowly, creeping up on the door so she could listen and decide whether or not it was necessary to knock. When she reached the door, she held still, leaned up close and pressed her ear against it. At first there was nothing, but eventually, as her senses tuned in and she blocked out everything else, she heard it. The sound of quiet crying.

Her heart broke as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she knocked.

*

Darren

Seeing Charlotte’s name flash up on his phone still gave him that jolt, deep in his gut. And this frustrated him. He knew it wasn’t going to be the phone call he dreamed about — the one where she would tell him she’d made a terrible mistake and she wanted him back. The truth was, even if her new relationship broke down, she’d still never come back to him. She was playing for the other team now. And as much as he’d held out hope that her switch of allegiances would be temporary, he understood now that it was permanent. This was her life. Her truth. And he could see how happy it made her.