rivener – n. a chilling hint of distance that creeps slowly into a relationship – beginning to notice them laugh a little less, look away a little more, explain away their mood like it’s no longer your business – as if you’re watching them fall out of love right in front of you, gradually and painfully, like a hole in the radiator that leaves your house a little colder with every passing day, whose only clue is a slow, unnerving drip-drip-drip.
This chapter of the book seems to be a bunch of feelings that people have earlier in relationships, or maybe during bad relationships.
I’m sure I’ve felt rivener in the past, from former girlfriends, but I’m blessed that this isn’t the case now. My wife loves me and I feel the same way. There’s no rivener on the ranch between us.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows