They made up.

They tested boundaries and came back to the table expecting love to remain.

Watching them, I began to understand that a family could survive a conflict without someone winning it.

I carried that lesson into meetings at work, where it made me a less impressive tyrant and a far more useful colleague.

None of this brought Lauren back romantically.

We became capable parents together first.

By the time I recognized that as a kind of love, I had stopped treating it as the consolation prize.