Secret Gifts

His face reveals defeat and despair. The girl charmed him with bright eyes, an attractive face, and athletic body, securing her target and promptly rescinding her beauty by means of cookies and cake.

He turned his passions to imaginary escape through video games and television, feeling let down, swindled, and trapped, yet remaining dutifully bound in loyalty to injustice.

Somehow, perhaps after a night of heavy drinking, they managed to have a child, an important life event she used to strategically transition to welterweight.

You never really get the full story, instead only observing the loss without a full picture of its underlying movements and confessions. Was she doomed to quickly become a mess or did she just stop caring about being appealing? Or was it angry retaliation against her husband? Perhaps profound disillusion with the princess fantasy that was not all it had promised since childhood? Or a true addiction to junk food despite terrible consequences?

It's unclear what went wrong when so many better outcomes could have been chosen, but I always feel blessed and suspect failed unsustained romances were especially sweet gifts with a parting reprieve to kindly spare me of what they knew they were going to do to themselves and their saddled partner.