Melatonin with chamomile

Neither blackmail nor watersports are my cup of chamomile, but this is SO well-done. It's why I bookmark authors who write so effectively that they can lure me to places I wouldn't otherwise go ...

Thank you for your recent comment on my story. You've commented before so I'm not sure why I never bothered to favorite you as an author, but I'm so glad I did just now. It appears I have a lot of delicious reading ahead of me in some of my favorite categories!
And I think I'm going to steal the 'cup of chamomile' phrase. I love it!

Scene: Large room with floor covered in set mousetraps with ping pong balls. You toss in a ping pong ball. Some traps go off. Try again with same response. Try again with same response. Try again with same response. Try again with same response. Try again with same response. Try again with same response...

@Rw43
My observation is based on reality and supported by data, yours amounts to moralizing.
50% divorce rate
20-30% estimated lifelong intact but expired/emotionally estranged marriages.
Very high rates of some form of cheating, even if just mere wish/desire.
https://hackspirit.com/infidelity-statistics/
Interpretations?
You moralize: But they shouldn't!.
I describe: But they do!

You moralize again.
Chronic, resistant abdication often happens for a reason: the two are of a different cut. The natural-born idiot wants to watch football constantly, she needs meaningful connection and conversation instead of doing Zach's female equivalent such as say shopping 'til droppin'.
Or the other way around.
Many consumption-driven escapist idiots make excellent matches. They are hopeless as humans, but excellent pairs. They spend a lifetime escaping, each in their pathology, not a fight in sight. Thumbs up.
If all it took you was a counselor's reminder to grow the love for your wife and an ultimatum from her, and now it's all sustainable sunshine for both of you, then you are one of the soulmate-type matches I spoke of. Good.
You just got a bit distracted but when it was brought to your attention: poof, fixed.
You do not understand irreconcilable differences. If you think this is something that can be fixed with small little gestures and an ultimatum, you are as far removed from reality as possible. It's like telling a cancer patient to drink some chamomile tea to get well.
Irreconcilable differences are much more common than people realize, especially in Diversity society. The mismatch is extremely resistant, usually due to neuro-wiring and possibly childhood trauma too, which many cannot overcome. The religious translation would be differences in yoke.
People may fake interest in growing the love for the other, pretending to pay some attention but soon revert to default since the ilks are misaligned, therefore the attempts at making it work are false and unsustainable in the long term. So they go back in circles until they realize that continuing to double down is an affront to nature.

Make no mistake about it: many more people waste precious years working on essentially unsuitable marriages (sometimes their entire life!) than people who throw away a fundamentally good marriage on a whim or moment of being pissed off.

The material, psychological and re-coupling costs of divorce remain very high, so those who think most people do it on a whim pr for failing to work hard at the marriage are simply delusional.
Most people who divorce (or split in some way) have been hurt by the realities of a poor match for a very long time. Many eventually face the unthinkable just to maintain some semblance of mental health. Unfortunately, for some this can also include some form of cheating.
It's like a 9/11 scenario: jump out the window or the flames will get you. PICK.
So have some reverence.

A story like this makes me appreciate a woman with morals, with character, with ethics, and with honor. She has none.

This was real! Palpable! Infused with humanity! Characters who meant well but struggled with life, with love, with loss, with memories, with communicating! We love their imperfections and struggles, their goodness and caring! We grow to understand and love them!