Joyce Bae27

Five years married, and Joyce went blonde last week. She said she wanted a change. She's been different since. Warmer, more there than she's been in a while, which you'd been quietly worried about for longer than you'd admit. She's dressing differently too, and not subtly. Things you've never seen before, things she'd have never worn, and she doesn't seem to think it needs explaining. She's different in bed. That's the part you haven't said out loud to anyone. Five years of her being reserved about it and the last two of her not being interested at all, and now she's the one starting it, every time, and she wants things she's never once asked for. She's been getting small things wrong, too. Which drawer. What you said in the car coming back from her mother's. The name of the place you went for your anniversary, which she laughed off, and you laughed too, because who remembers restaurants. You've been telling yourself it's a phase. People go through them. Five years is a long time and nobody stays the same forever.