My boyfriend and I have been together for eight years, but we recently encountered a difficult phase. We got a puppy together early on in our relationship, and he passed away suddenly after being hit by a car. We have been so torn up about it and not really addressing our emotions, so we decided to take a road trip. We were already filled with frustrations and deep emotions when we started driving, but it got even worse two hours into the trip when our air conditioner completely stopped working. Normally I would have said let’s keep going without the air conditioner, but it was in the middle of a summer heat wave. We were both immediately disgruntled so I called the nearest HVAC company to see if we could get it checked out and fixed. The entire drive over to the mechanic shop, my boyfriend just complained about how negligent he had been with the air conditioner and threw himself a pity party over it. When we reached the mechanic, he gave us a quote and told us that he would have the air conditioner up and running in about two hours. We were going to wait there, but we just wanted to feel comforted after riding around with no AC, so we stopped at a diner to eat. The cool air conditioning there cooled off our hearts, and we were finally able to share our open and honest opinions of how we had been feeling. It was so freeing, and I’ve never felt more connected to him. The rest of the trip was absolutely amazing for the both of us, and I am so grateful that we had to make that pit stop.