The Space Between

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Every marriage has its secrets.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Some are small - a white lie about where the money went a hidden annoyance never voiced aloud. Others are larger heavy truths buried beneath routine and compromise truths that no one dares speak for fear of what might happen if they were unearthed.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Kayla had always believed she knew where the lines were in her own marriage. She and Quinn loved each other deeply built a life together raised a child paid the bills endured the monotony of errands and late-night arguments about whose turn it was to do the dishes. Their love was ordinary in the best of ways. Safe. Predictable.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But safe is not the same as fulfilled.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It began quietly almost innocently - curiosity disguised as conversation. A passing comment. A joke that lingered too long. The spark of possibility where there had once only been routine. Kayla wasn't looking to upend her life not consciously. Yet the thought once born refused to be buried. What if marriage didn't have to mean limits? What if desire didn't have to be denied?</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Quinn for his part had never imagined himself the type of man to question fidelity. He prided himself on being steady on being the anchor in their partnership. But anchors can grow heavy and in his quiet moments when Kayla wasn't looking he felt the same pull of what-ifs. What if there was more to love than the familiar? What if sharing didn't mean losing?</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>They never set out to invite strangers into their home their bed their hearts. They never planned to test the fragile boundaries between love and lust between devotion and desire. But life rarely follows the plans we write for it.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It was supposed to be an experiment. A controlled risk. One night to scratch an itch they didn't fully understand.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Instead it became the unraveling of everything they thought they knew.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Because once you cross a line - once you open the door to what lies on the other side - you can't pretend you never saw it. You can't pretend you don't crave more.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>For Kayla and Quinn the question was no longer whether they loved each other. That was certain. The question became: could love survive the hunger for something more?</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And what happens when the third person you let in isn't a stranger at all... but someone much closer than either of them expected?</span></p>