Do you want to know, or should I keep it to myself? Is this a private matter between me, and your husband, and the employees of Instagram? 

It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t mean anything, he’s just watching my stories. He occasionally likes, he rarely reacts with an emoji. Just now he sent a comment, but it means nothing to him. It means nothing to me. It should mean nothing to you: Your husband, watching my stories. Watching all of my stories.

All husbands watch stories. That’s why stories were invented, to give husbands something to do, somewhere to focus, to keep them from unionizing, from gaining too much power. “Husbands Are Stronger Together!” Better they stay on their separate phones, on their separate toilets, hunching their separate backs. They must be kept busy.

I am watching your husband watch my stories. I am watching his name appear in the list of “Who viewed this story.” I am watching myself watching him watch me, licking up a sliver of thrill. We are watching each other, eyeballs through fences, dogs lapping at our own sick.