Taking time apart does not always mean an end, it may be a new beginning. Sometimes space is a necessity.
Absence does make the heart (and other, more malleable organs) grow fonder.
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We want what we can’t have and we take for granted that for which we already hold. It is why abrupt loss of someone in your daily life can quicken your need for them. For months, years, decades, you develop a sense of understood comfortability in the commonality of a life share. It is only the absence of their presence that makes you keen.
It is one reason I guard my time and privacy so closely, choosing when and with whom I spend my time with. Overexposure leads to a lack of mystery, a loosening of the coil around their hearts and mind. Even with those closest to me, such as NE, I quietly put specific space between us to achieve a certain affect. I may be less communicative, a touch colder, weeks before a scene. I cultivate her hunger and nervousness, bringing it to a fine edge.