He still remembers the first time he saw her, and how from the first glimpse of her face he knew that she was someone that he had to pursue, no ifs, ands, or buts. She was beautiful, talented, smart… Even now he won’t deny that. She was—is—an incredible woman.

It was a hard blow when she told him that she felt they needed time apart, that he wasn’t there for her, that he wasn’t seeing to her needs. He remembers the days, the weeks, following her moving out and remembers people at the station literally fleeing before him. It had taken him a long, long time to emerge from that dark mood. He’s practically all sunshine and daisies in comparison nowadays.

He’d been desperate to fix things between them, and he’d tried everything, been willing to do anything to do so. In the vain hope of saving their relationship, he’d done so many utterly humiliating things and admitted to so much that he’s sure he was permanently scarred from the sheer amount of times he’d bared his soul for her and received nothing but more criticism in response. He realizes now that his wife was never interested in their marriage, in making things work. She was only interested in him and how it felt for her being with him, but when the initial allure wore off, she just didn’t care enough to try.

That still hurts. He would never admit it to anyone (he hardly admits it to himself), but there’s a certain heavy ache in his gut whenever he thinks of her that just screams failure at him. And despite knowing that it was his wife giving up and throwing their marriage away, he can’t help but feel responsible for the destruction of their relationship. And he loathes feeling like a failure. Which is exactly why it took so long for him to sign the papers when she finally demanded a divorce. That would be admitting defeat, admitting failure and he was far too proud to sign a legal document declaring that for the world to see. It was humiliating enough that his wife didn’t want him anymore.

But then Polly comes along, and within three weeks he’s convinced that he’s found someone who wants to be with him as badly as he wants to be with her. He knows it in his gut long, long before that, but the scars are deeper than even he realizes.

He’s aware that she’s the only reason he manages to choke down his pride long enough to sign the divorce papers, and much to his astonishment, he’s okay with that. The sacrifice is worth it for her.

He still loves his first wife. And he’s pretty sure he always will. But he’s moved past that, and he’s discovered that he loves Polly even more ferociously than he ever loved his first wife. He knows why too.

She loves him back.