“I understand no one has ever liked me. Everyone always says I’m slow, useless.”
“That’s why my ex abandoned me, leaving me to raise five sons alone.”
“When my father loses at gambling, he beats me. When my sick mother is moody, she calls me cheap. Even my own children say I’m worthless.”
“Now, even your wife hates me, fighting with George, wanting a divorce because of me. I might as well die.”
She finished and moved as if to smash her head into the wall.
George hurried forward, gripping her gently, eyes brimming with helplessness.
“Kristen, don’t do this. I’ve never despised you.”
“You’re not slow, really. You’re very cute.”
A smile broke through Kristen’s tears. “Really?”
George reached out, running his fingers through her hair, raising his voice deliberately.
“Of course, unlike some people who keep a cold face all day, stiff in speech and movement, with no trace of femininity, who would ever like that?”
Kristen suddenly laughed, glancing at me with a mischievous sparkle.
“George, she seems to be exactly the kind of person you’re describing.”
“The first time I saw her, she was in a suit, hair perfectly tied, not a strand out of place, I almost called her brother,” she teased.