I loved reading this as a divorced person.

I had my own "Latte" moment. I think there had to be multiple moments when I slowly realized my marriage had to end.

There had also been the big dramatic incident where I had moved out. I was living away from him, but was willing to give it a chance and get therapy with him. I didn't want to make any rush decisions after 10 years of marriage and 9 years of dating. 19 years altogether.

I had spent the day helping him run errants, taking him to the bank and to the pharmacy. He didn't drive. He asked me if we could get some food, and we were eating some chicken at a fast food restaurant. I had paid, of course, he was going through tough times and I was helping out.

A woman selling flowers walked into the restaurant. I wondered if people were allowed to sell flowers there, but it appeared she knew the owner and everyone was cool with her. I had a sudden fantasy, maybe because I had been doing things for him all day, he would buy me flowers. Then I would realize he cared about me and things would get better. It was the sort of thing he would have done in the past before Rome had burned.

"That woman's selling flowers!" I told him.

He looked at her. "So she is" He then returned to his chicken. He was hungry.

"She has sunflowers" I told him. Sunflowers had a significant role in our relationship. He used to always buy me sun flowers.

"Do you want me to buy you flowers?" he asked me.

I told him yes. He explained he didn't have any money. I told him I would pay for it, I had some cash in the car. He could go get the cash and use it to buy me flowers. I handed him my car keys.

He kept eating his chicken.

The woman with the flowers started to get ready to leave.

"She's leaving" I told him.

"There she goes" he said. And with her I could see my marriage walking out the door.

I told him to go after her. He said it was already too late, she was leaving. I told him to go after her and ask her to wait. He reluctantly got up and talked to her. He returned, without flowers.

"Her price was more than the cash you have in the car"

He explained the flowers were 15 dollars, and I only had 10.

I realized the meal I had bought him was the same amount as the flowers he wouldn't buy me. After all I was doing for him, he wouldn't even try to do a loving thing for me. He was to into his damn chicken. He sat down and kept eating.

I was so upset I got up and ran outside down the street and cried on some stranger's lawn.

When I came back, I eventually drove him to a grocery store, where I gave him cash, and he bought me flowers, with my own money. But only because he wanted me to keep doing stuff for him, driving him places, feeding him, etc. In therapy he explained that was what he wanted from his relationship with me. He saw me as a strong woman he could take and take from and never needed to care for back. This wasn't the person I married. I needed to be cared back for.