He held her hands and gave it a little squeeze. Neither knew what to say, but both knew what to feel.

She stared at his hands for a long time.

“What is this supposed to mean?” She tugged his hands.

They were at the airport, standing in front of the check-in counter. She had to leave him for three months to head for Sweden. Her colleagues were flying too and they’re bidding goodbye to their loved ones.

“This means..” He sighed. “What do you think this means?”

She let go of his hands, and placed hers in the pocket of her jeans. “I don’t think we should contact each other while I’m in Sweden. No calls, no texts, no emails - nothing,”

He widened his eyes in shock, he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. He looked away from her, biting down on his tongue.

“If anything, let’s just get updates from each other on social media,” she insisted.

“So you want us to have some time apart?”

“We never had any time together for us to be spending any apart, Dan,”

He sighed, unable to deny the truth. “But you know we feel something,” He looked right into her eyes.

“That’s why we need to cut contact,”

“What, because we feel something?”

“No, because I need to figure out what I feel. We’re married, we’ve been together for eight months, but we both don’t-”

He cut her off, “I agree that we didn’t marry out of love, but-,”

“Look, at this point, we don’t know if we love each other or not, Dan. This longing feeling? It’s probably there because I’ve been living with you for eight months. It’s probably because we’re used to having each other around. This.. might not be love, Dan.”

His shoulders dropped.

“Okay, so you want us to spend three months apart, to figure our marriage out?”

“Yes,”

“So what happens when you come back and you don’t think it’s love? Do we get a divorce? Because I-”

She flinched. “We’ll think about what to do when I get back, okay? But now I need to leave, they’re all waiting for me,”

“This is an unfair decision,” he gave up talking her out of it. If she made up her mind, no one can change it.

“But Daniel, look-” she leaned in, closing the gap between them. Her face was inches away from his. “- I know for one thing that I’ll be miserable there too. Just- just let me have my time, okay?”

“But what am I supposed to do here while you get to have your time there?” His voice was that of a whisper. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, their foreheads now touching. They didn’t have much time left. She had to leave.

She sighed in response.

They stood there in front of the departure gate, bodies close to each other but not hugging, both were unable to move.

“I’ll come back. Come home. To you. It’s only three months, Dan. We’re going to be okay, I promise,” She wrapped her hands around his waist and buried her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent.

He hugged back. “I hope you miss me like crazy,”

“Well, they say that absence makes the heart grows fonder,” She stifled a laugh. “Daniel?” she looked up.

“Yes?”

She let go of him. “Can I have this jacket you’re wearing?”

He furrowed his brows. “Why? This is my favourite-,”

“- because it’s your favourite one,”