Where do I even start with the rollercoaster that’s been my marriage to Alex? We had the kind of love story that kicks off like it’s straight out of a college rom-com, complete with the meet-cute at the campus café over spilled coffee and a shared laugh. However, it turned dark when I was due to give birth to our child.
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When Alex and I met, I was a literature major with a penchant for daydreaming and scribbling verses in the margins of my notebooks, and Alex was the down-to-earth engineering geek who could somehow make differential equations sound romantic.
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Back in those early days, our differences seemed trivial, cute even. I was all about Emily Dickinson and late-night poetry slams, while he was knee-deep in robotics projects.
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Somehow, we just clicked. Our dates ranged from debates over the best Star Wars movie (clearly, it’s The Empire Strikes Back) to quiet nights in, with me reading my latest piece while he tinkered with his gadgets. It was quirky, it was fun, and it was ours.
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Fast forward a bit, and there we were, throwing our graduation caps into the air, full of hopes and dreams, with the world at our feet. Life post-college brought us closer in ways I hadn't anticipated.
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We navigated the murky waters of job hunts and moving cities together, eventually settling in his hometown, Willow Creek. It made sense at the time—Alex landed a fantastic job offer there, and I figured I could write anywhere as long as I had my laptop and a decent coffee shop nearby.
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Settling in Willow Creek was a dream, at first. We found this adorable little apartment with enough space for my books and his gadgets, and everything felt just right. But, as it turns out, moving to Alex's hometown meant being closer to his family, particularly his mom, Mrs. Harlow.
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Now, don’t get me wrong, I knew the importance of family to Alex, and I admired that. But what I hadn’t fully grasped was how... let’s say, involved, Mrs. Harlow would be in our lives.
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The transition from being college sweethearts to newlyweds in a new city was challenging enough without the added dynamic of a well-meaning but overly involved mother-in-law.
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