It was just a peaceful day out in the woods, practicing target shooting. I set up behind a fallen log, got comfortable, and snapped a picture to share with my husband. To me, it was just another day enjoying the outdoors, with the sun filtering through the trees and the rifle in my hands. I sent it, expecting him to be impressed by my aim and the peaceful setting.

But instead, I got a message that threw me off.

“Whose hat is that?” he asked.

I stared at the picture again, confused. “It’s mine,” I replied, thinking of the white cowboy hat lying next to me in the picture.

“No, it’s not,” he shot back. “You’ve never had a hat like that. That’s his hat.”
His words hit me like a punch. I realized exactly what he meant. The hat next to me in the picture wasn’t just any hat—it was the same style of hat my ex-boyfriend used to wear all the time. And worse, it looked almost identical to one he had once given me, which I thought I’d gotten rid of long ago.

My heart raced as I tried to explain that I had just grabbed a random hat before heading out, but my husband was already spiraling. To him, it wasn’t just a coincidence—it was a sign that I was still holding on to something from the past. The fact that I had taken this picture while wearing that hat made him feel like the past was creeping back into the present.

No matter how much I insisted it was unintentional, that I hadn’t even thought about where the hat came from, the damage was done. The image of me lying there, next to that hat, was all he needed to convince himself that something wasn’t right.