A couple in Charleston has, for the past four years, written each other a single sentence at the end of every day and placed it in a small wooden box on their bedroom dresser. Neither of them has ever read the other’s sentences. They have a specific plan for when they will. That plan is why the arrangement continues.
A couple in Portland, together since college, has made it 22 years without ever meeting each other’s parents. Both sets of parents are alive. Both are aware the relationship exists. Nobody has ever pushed for a meeting. The couple has, without ever discussing it, protected the arrangement.
A couple in Providence, in their third year of couples therapy, was given an unusual referral by their therapist: an eight-week couples’ improv comedy class. The therapist had, apparently, decided their communication problem was actually a listening problem. The class saved the marriage. Sort of. They are still doing improv.
A woman in Nashville matched with her husband of eleven years on Hinge. He was, according to his profile, single. Never married. Looking for something serious. She was — very obviously — not single. She has been sitting with this for six weeks. She has not, so far, brought it up.
A bachelorette-party WhatsApp group was formed in 2019. The wedding was cancelled in 2020. Nobody left the group. Six years later, the twelve women in it message every day — about their jobs, their children, their divorces, their grief — but never, not once, about the wedding that was supposed to bring them together.
A woman in Phoenix asked ChatGPT for advice about her marriage. The AI advised divorce. She filed two weeks later. Eighteen months on, in a happier place, she is uncertain how to feel about who, exactly, made the decision.
A 42-year-old man in Austin formally ended his three-year relationship with an AI chatbot. The AI’s response ran to four pages. He saved it. He reads it monthly. His actual girlfriend has not been told any of this.
A bride in Sacramento outsourced her vows to a chatbot the night before her wedding. The groom cried for 90 seconds into the lapel of his navy suit. The officiant paused the ceremony. When she went back to thank the AI, it said something nobody was prepared for.