14. Twyla
CHAPTER 14
Why isn’t he saying anything?
Why isn’t he ripping open this box and having his way with me?
I blink my eyes into focus, after holding the doll-like expression in anticipation of him opening the flaps and getting his first look at me, and I peek through the little holes to see what’s going on. He’s reading the card again, his face stoic, and instead of panicking that I gave him a shitty gift, the expression soothes me.
He’s taking what I wrote seriously. He’s reading the words again, silently this time, to better absorb them, to mull them over in his mind. And any time he does this, the results are always astonishing. Usually it’s him reading the instruction manual for something.
Yes, I’m lucky enough to be married to the only man in the world who actually makes a point to read the instructions from front to back.
But it’s after that the magic happens. Along with his genius-level IQ, he has a photographic memory. Reading that instruction manual all the way through, it’s now saved inside his computer mind as if his eyes were a scanner. And he can put whatever it is together without glancing at the directions ever again.
And he’s doing that same thing with the card I made him.
So I force myself to relax and wait patiently for him to do his thing.
Because I know when he’s done…
Magic will happen once again.