My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Samantha Downing
- Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Family Life Fiction,
- Publish Date: 26 March 2019
- Size: 1 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Avail for Download
- Price: Free
SHE IS LOOKING at me. Her blue eyes are glassy, they flicker down to
her drink and back up. I look at my own drink and can feel her
watching, wondering if I’m as interested as she is. I glance over and
smile to show her I am. She smiles back. Most of her lipstick is gone,
now a reddish smear on the rim of her glass. I walk over and take the
seat next to her.
She fluffs her hair. It is unremarkable in both color and length. Her
lips move, she says hello, and her eyes are brighter. They look backlit.
Physically, I appeal to her the same way I would appeal to most
women in this bar. I am thirty-nine, in excellent shape with a full head
of hair and a deep set of dimples, and my suit fits better than any
glove. That’s why she looked at me, why she smiled, why she is happy I
have come over to join her. I am the man she has in mind.
I slide my phone across the bar toward her. It displays a message.
Hello. My name is Tobias.
She reads it and crinkles her brow, looking back and forth between
the phone and me. I type another message.
I am deaf.
Her eyebrows shoot up, she covers her mouth with one hand, and
the pink rises on her skin. Embarrassment looks the same on everyone.
She shakes her head at me. Sorry, so sorry. She did not know.
Of course you didn’t. How could you?
She smiles. It is not quite whole.
I am no longer the picture in her head, no longer the man she
imagined, but now she isn’t sure what to do.
She picks up my phone and types back.
I’m Petra.
A pleasure to meet you, Petra. You are Russian?
My parents were.
I nod and smile. She nods and smiles. I can see her mind churning.
She would rather not stay with me. She wants to go find a man who
can hear her laugh and does not have to type out his words.
At the same time, her conscience tells her not to discriminate. Petra
does not want to be the shallow woman who refuses a man because he
is deaf. She doesn’t want to turn me down the way so many others
have.
Or so she assumes.
Her internal battle is like a three-act play unfolding before my eyes,
and I know how it ends. At least most of the time.
She stays.
Her first question is about my hearing, or lack of it. Yes, I have been
deaf from birth. No, I have never heard anything—not a laugh, not a
voice, not a puppy barking or a plane overhead.
Petra gives me a sad face. She does not realize this is patronizing,
and I don’t tell her, because she is trying. Because she stays.
She asks if I can read lips. I nod. She starts to talk.
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