Steven walked down the stairs with the box under his arm, causing them to creak as he descended into the kitchen, where Grace was brewing a pot of coffee. She looked more beautiful than usual even though she had only just woken up, her blonde hair fell on her shoulders gracefully and her blue eyes stared off at nothing, beautiful but sad.
“Hey hon, how’d you sleep?” Steven said as he set the box down on the table and gently hugged her from behind.
Grace turned in his arms and nuzzled into his chest “nightmares”
“Yeah, me too.”
Grace looked at the box “Is that the last one?”
“Yeah, I... don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Me neither.”
The two held each other quietly for a moment before Grace broke the silence.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked as she looked up at Steven
“We’ve gotta move on Grace, and that room-” He let out a deep sigh
“I agree with you.” Grace smiled up at Steven “Do what you need to do, if you don’t let go, we’ll be doing this all day.”
Steven gave grace one last squeeze before grabbing the box off the table and heading out to the driveway, he placed the box in the trunk of his car along with the others and was about to head inside when he froze “One last look, just for the road.” He opened the box; the sound of the cardboard rubbing against itself was unusually loud in his ears. Inside were her things, Steven had hoped it wouldn’t be, but it was, her sweaters that she always wore, even when it was too hot outside for it, the pink toothbrush that had sat next to his in the mug next to the sink, her collection of silver hairclips that she would use to put her blonde hair up when she was working on something. It was their life together in a box, and Steven couldn’t keep it all around anymore.
Steven closed the trunk of his car and walked back inside, Grace wasn’t in the kitchen anymore, or rather, she’d never really been there. Steven poured himself a cup of coffee and took a sip. Cold. He leaned against the sink and took Grace’s wedding ring out of his pocket, and then he broke down, and cried.