I didn’t move.
“A couple of years ago,” he continued, “I started having a health problem.”
He struggled even to say the words.
“It affected… that part of our marriage.”
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Suddenly everything made sense.Get Writing Tools
The excuses.
The
time.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because every time you came close to me, I was terrified I would disappoint you.”
That sentence broke something open inside me.
Not anger.
Something sadder.
I started crying.
Robert did too.
“For two years,” I whispered, “I thought you saw an old woman when you looked at me.”
He shook his head.
“No. For two years, I was afraid you would look at me and see an old man.”
Neither of us spoke for a while.
Then I started laughing through my tears.
Robert stared at me.
“What?”
I wiped my eyes.
“You idiot.”
A small smile appeared on his face.
“I know.”
“Thirty-one years, and you still think you have to hide things like this from me?”
“I was ashamed.”
“Well, I spent two years blaming my thighs, my wrinkles, my stomach and gravity.”
That actually made him laugh.Get Writing Tools
And strangely,
hearing him laugh made me laugh harder.
Saturday evening, we still went to the hotel.
