Brett Paesel: Keep your wimpy stories about falling in love at first sight and how perfect it all went. First of all, probably not true. But second, where’s the triumph, the vindication, the B-plot and the poetic justice? … These days, when I see them [the author’s parents] in my mind, they are almost always together — leaning into each other conspiratorially, as if guarding the precious and overlooked truth that love rarely looks like the stories we’ve been sold. It’s quiet, personal, hard and deep. Those lucky enough to know this love are mostly keeping it to themselves.