" But if they could
live without each other, and do better without each other, then this could not be
true and must never have been true.
They did not need each other. There was no particular reason for them to be
together. Then what was it all about? They were dragging each other down like
two people who couldn’t swim. If they were lucky, they might keep at it long
enough to grow old in the same house. "

― Tobias Wolff , Back in the World