i love him but not in love anymore?

my aunt was married 18 years and woke up one day feeling the exact same way — she called it the 'slow fade' like the love didn’t die, it just evaporated when no one was looking. i know that emptiness you’re talking about, the kind where you’re right there but also a million miles away. i’ve sat across the table from my partner and realized i couldn’t remember the last time we really talked, not about bills or pickups but about anything that mattered. here’s what helped me: i started leaving little notes — stupid stuff like “you looked cute with your coffee today” or “remember that time we got lost in the mountains?” not asking for anything, just putting warmth back in the air. and then i gave him a real chance to respond by actually putting my phone down at dinner. try this — ask him to go somewhere with just you, no kids, no family, not even dinner — just a walk or a drive. tell him you want to remember what it feels like to be two people instead of two parents. see what happens when you both show up on purpose. sometimes you gotta rebuild the spark that got buried under all the right things you did.