The long part
Meeting takes a few months, living together a few decades. Yet it is the meeting that fills the books, the films and the apps, and the rest that people are left to discover on their own. This section is the other way round: it gathers what comes afterwards, in the order it comes.
What wears a couple out, and what holds it together
The most commonly cited reasons for separating are not the most spectacular ones. They are the division of domestic work, money, and the feeling of no longer being seen. Three subjects that can be worked on, and each has its page here.
Conversely, couples who last do not avoid arguments: they repair afterwards. If you are not sure where you stand, the rough-patch questionnaire separates, in seven questions, what passes from what settles in.
Including the end
Separation belongs in this section because it belongs to life as a couple, and because a prepared separation costs infinitely less — in money, in time and in damage to children — than an improvised one.