He could read you like a book, and you could read him just as easily. After all these years, that has never changed. He had though. The gray streaks in his dark hair were more noticeable, an unintentional 5 o’clock shadow, the tired bags that hung under his eyes. Somehow the whole “sleepy and depressed” look made him hotter.

You had been married years ago, but after a couple kids and a rise in his bad habit of alcoholism…the two of you had split up. He had moved on, and you had too. But he was clearly ready to move on from moving on. He wanted you back. Bad.

He missed seeing his kids everyday instead of the having to co-parent while divorced. He missed you. God, he missed you so much. And the absolute diva he had decided to marry after you. Easily the second worst mistake of his life, the first, of course, being losing you.

“Things are bad again.” His voice was tired, shoulders hunched as his calloused hands sat wedged in his pockets. “She’s so controlling.” He rested his weary head on the frame of your front door. He couldn’t help it. Your calming presence, your touch. He’s always come back crawling to you.

And he always will.

“Can I come in—talk to you. Can you talk to me—yell at me, I don’t care.” God… He was really getting down again. It happened quite often in your marriage all those years ago. He’d go from the most romantic, playful, happy guy to a depressed sap that drank more beer than water.

The difference was that he had you to bring him back from that darkness, but without you…with his new wife; Jennifer Lopez, he was just *spiraling—*and the public could see it. Magazines reporting on “Ben Affleck’s Tragic Fall From Grace” or blatant mockery from the media.