Sometimes when a person was in too much pain, they blocked it out. Doing it so masterfully that they could almost convince themselves that they were not hurting. But the moment they got a bit of relief, only then could they appreciate how badly they had been hurting.
In that same way, after weeks of dodging her husband, Ariel had been able to convince herself that her longing for him was not so bad.
But the moment that she'd heard the door open and had turned around to find Tristan there. The lie that she had tricked herself into believing had turned to dust so quick, it might as well have been a centuries old relic. Looking at her husband, she had lost her mind for a bit. Ariel had wanted to just start laughing uncontrollably, to squeal and jump up and down. The urge to just drop the knife that she'd been cutting the aromatics for the chow mein with had been so strong
