A photograph of joined hands leaves out the small negotiations that keep them reaching.

Images record results and never the maintenance behind them. Two hands together look effortless, and what does not appear is the apologising, the adjusting, the hundred small accommodations needed for both people to still be there. Anybody comparing their own relationship with the picture is comparing daily work against a finished surface, and what holds people together is largely invisible to a camera.

When a couple looks easy from outside, assume there is effort you are not being shown. In your own life, count the small repairs as the relationship rather than as interruptions to it.