The Honeymoon Effect
For R.M.
They had only been married for six days.
As the ocean sighed against the shore, Michelle lay beneath a white canopy on the Boracay beach and checked under her bikini strap for signs of too much sun. Her husband, Aaron, was caught up in animated conversation with the young island bartender, ordering another round of umbrella cocktails. The sky was an impossible pink, the kind that no matter how hard you try, you just can’t capture it properly on camera. She could still feel the gold band on her finger, the small weight of it, the symbol that after fifteen years of chaos, of breakups and reconciliations, of promises that fell apart and were built again, they had finally arrived at forever.
