Most evenings you are in the same room, paying attention to different things. Do that for long enough and you start to miss someone who is sitting right there. It changes when both of you give your attention to one thing, at the same time.
Forty-five minutes, once the house is quiet, and for about twenty of them all you have to do is lie there.
What you need
One album, on one phone, from wherever you can play it in order with no ads
A small speaker, or one pair of wireless earbuds, one each
A blanket and two pillows from the couch
The plan
Pick the album together, standing in the kitchen, before you set anything up. One album by one artist. No playlist, no greatest hits. Each of you names one. If you cannot agree, play whichever came out first and save the other for next time.
Find the album on one phone. Shuffle off, track one, volume at about a third. The other phone goes in a kitchen drawer.
Blanket on the living room floor, two pillows from the couch. Not on the couch. On your backs, side by side, close enough that your shoulders touch.
Turn off every light you can see from the blanket, the TV and the hallway included. Then press play, set the phone face down on a shelf you cannot reach from the floor, and lie down.
No talking for the first five songs, which is roughly side one of a record. Eyes closed or on the ceiling. Count the songs as they end. If one of you falls asleep, the other lets the fifth song finish before waking them.
When the fifth song ends, whoever named the album gets up, pauses it, and brings the phone back to the blanket for the questions. The lights stay off.
The conversation
One. Whoever named it: why this album? Then the other one: what did you hear in it that you did not expect?
Two. What is something you used to make time for, just because you liked it, that you would like to make time for again?
Three. What were you thinking about while it played? Which part of that do you want me to know?
Add this date to your calendar
It lands on Wednesday night. Move it to whichever night works, then invite your partner so it is on both calendars.
Reply with the album you picked and how it went. I read every reply.