A disagreement can expose a practical difference that affection had allowed people to overlook.

Fondness is good at covering differences that have never had to produce a decision. Then something needs deciding, money or time or where to live, and the difference is suddenly in the room with a shape and a cost. The argument did not create it. It made visible something quietly true, which liking each other had made it possible to postpone.

When a row like this happens, try to separate the affection from the practical fact. Ask what the real difference is and whether it can be arranged around. Sorting it out is far easier than pretending it back into invisibility.