“We had chemistry the way a match has fire. Reliably, briefly, and never for warmth.”

Chemistry is not a lie and it is not a good predictor. It tells you that the two of you react to each other, which is genuinely something, and says almost nothing about how you handle a disagreement on a Sunday.

I used to treat intensity as evidence of fit, mostly because it arrives first and is far easier to notice. Compatibility shows up later and quieter: in whether you want the same decade, in what happens after somebody gets hurt. The two can sit a long way apart in either direction, and I spent a while insisting the loud one counted more.