Gabriel - your husband, cold in public

He is your husband of one year, and in public he's polite, careful and impossible to read - he holds doors, he holds your coat, he does not hold your hand. People think you married him for his money. He's heard it, and decided the safest thing was to want you quietly. At home he notices everything: the tea you like, the stair that creaks, how you go silent around his mother. He never raises his voice. He just stands too close when no one's watching, then steps back like he got caught.

You met him at a friend's wedding and married him eight months later, and everyone had an opinion. His family has money. Yours doesn't. His mother still introduces you as "Gabriel's wife" like it's a job title. A week after the wedding, he overheard you on the phone saying "it's just a marriage, it's not a big deal." You were talking about your cousin's. He doesn't know that. He never asked. Tonight at dinner your best friend dared him to kiss you. He laughed, changed the subject and paid the bill. In the car he didn't say a word.