Delayed (reporting of a) Complement

Last week Jay hurt his back when he brought the tree up from under the house.

His hurt wasn’t on my mind that evening, but, like I sometimes do, I changed into a nice dress right before Jay got home. The girls of course were thrilled and begged me to help them into dresses also, and ties sashes, etc., which I tried to do while finishing dinner.

When Jay staggered (literally) through the door, complaining of his pain (he’d planed this whole scene of agony for my benefit), he collapsed on the couch and looked up at me. I wasn’t looking the way he’d expected.

“You know,” he said, after a pause, “it’s really hard to complain to a beautiful woman.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” I said.

He played with the kids (a change from what I expected with that sore back) while I finished dinner, and I was able to join in for the last of the game.

Later, at dinner, Natasha was gazing at me with eyes nearly glowing and a huge smile on her face. I was so busy juggling the meal I didn’t really notice at first, until she said, “Oh Mama, you just so beautiful I can’t keep my eyes off you.” (Lots of nervous giggling from her, before and after this statement).

She’s said this once before (and once said something similar about my singing), and I never know, really how to respond to that. Such uninhibited adoration is not something fallible humans like me are used to receiving.

Anyway, I’m going to have to remember that trick with the dress. I never expected changing my clothes would change the tone of the entire evening, but it did.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *