Maintenance Stage
The maintenance stage is the adjustment period after an exciting launch of a relationship where the engine of romance runs on inertia. Captivating conversations are reduced to morning greetings and read receipts and daily micro gestures morph into life support for love. Passion dwindles as obligation balloons turning each day into a highway turned local road. Successfully cruising through it is mistaken for progress to the next phase failure triggers a cold war reboot. Unread thanks on social feeds become the only proof that you are still in operation.