In a way, this story perfectly encapsulates the challenge of a long-term marriage/relationship. Two people living together in harmony all the time is an ideal, but not real. They have to learn each other's boundaries, and where they are willing to have their boundaries transgressed. You handle the tug and pull very well. The realization is that an ideal is not real, but that perhaps something short of ideal is acceptable. The question becomes, how short, and what compromises are acceptable.
Good story, with significance for many readers.
Thank you so much! Relationships are so much more complicated than the movies make them out to be because people are complicated creatures. I do hope that this helps someone somewhere.