“Because you have hands.”
“See? That’s exactly what I mean. You don’t make my life easier anymore.”
I laughed in disbelief. “So that’s what a wife is?”
“You don’t make my life easier anymore.”
“Don’t twist my words.”
He rubbed his forehead, then looked straight at me.
“I’ll put a ring on your finger when you start acting like wife material.”
The man I’d spent my entire adult life with had just told me I was still auditioning, and I was standing there in my birthday dress with a dog licking my hand. Normally, I would have argued.
But instead, I was going to do something completely different.
“I’ll put a ring on your finger when you start acting like wife material.”
***
Simon left for work at eight, kissed my forehead as if nothing had happened.
I don’t know why. Maybe nine years of habit doesn’t switch off overnight. Maybe I thought that if I just tried harder, last night would turn out to be a bad dream.
