He said nothing.
“I bought new clothes because of you.”
His expression changed.
“I changed my hair.”
“Linda…”
“I stood naked in front of a mirror wondering which part of me had become too old for my own husband.”
His face crumpled.
“Oh God.”
“I thought you didn’t touch me because you didn’t want me anymore.”
Robert stood and came toward me, but stopped a few feet away.
“I wanted you the entire 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.”
