Voted Out Before I Do

The night before he and Clara are due to collect their marriage license, Asher picks up her phone to set an alarm and finds a poll running in her family group chat. Every relative, including the mother-in-law who calls him the son she never had, has voted for Clara to fly to Iceland instead, to help a depressed Sean chase the Northern Lights. Clara has already booked two one-way boarding passes and tagged Sean to say she is on her way.

For eight years, Asher's plans have given way to Sean's fragile emotions: an anniversary dinner abandoned, a night of fever spent listening to Clara talk Sean through a panic attack. This time he says nothing, quietly cancels the City Hall appointment, and watches her pack thermal layers, hand warmers and Sean's medication while his own fever goes unnoticed.

Clara promises to make it up to him when she returns, certain he understands. As her cab pulls away before dawn, Asher lies awake in the quiet, weighing what her family's vote has decided.