Me: Hey
Severin: So… that was the worst first date ever, right?
Me: Might be.
The three dots bounced and stop, then bounced and stop again. Finally, his response came through.
Severin: Shit. I am so fucking sorry. I promise I’m usually nicer to hot rugby guys.
I bit back a grin.
Severin: Seriously, I was such an asshole. I’m sure your stutter sounds lovely. I just couldn’t hear anything you were saying. When I tried to read your lips, the stutter threw me off. No excuses, of course, just wanted to say again that it was me, not you.
My instincts told me to give him a chance, so I went with a light response.
Me: You can read lips? I should take you to a rugby game and you can tell me what my opponents are saying.
Severin: I’m not near as cool as all that. Unless you’re saying something simple, I’m kind of terrible at it.
Severin: Don’t ask me about sign language, either. It’ll only embarrass me
.
Hm.
Me: So, let me get this straight. You don’t keep up with the battery on your implant, haven’t learned the language, and you don’t know how to read lips. Something tells me you prefer to be left alone.
Severin: Fair assumptions. I have become a bit of a hermit since I lost my hearing. Pretty pathetic that I’m still mad after all these years, but it’s the truth.
Severin: Though, in my defense, that was a freshly charged battery and it shouldn’t have died like that.
Me: Sounds frustrating as hell. Sorry for assuming otherwise.
Severin: I’m an asshole, but I’m not that big of an asshole.
Severin: Well, I take that back. Pretty sure I accused you of making our date an experiment which… cringe.
Me: I was wondering if you were going to apologize for that.
Severin: It’s not even like I’ve had bad experiences with people who were new to their sexuality. I’ve just known I was gay since I was eight and in love with my third-grade homeroom teacher.
Me: I’m super comfortable in my sexuality, but I’m not used to having this number of eyes on me. I don’t know my team well enough to know how to approach it, so I was just being cautious until I had more information.
Severin: Meanwhile, I was totally yelling, wasn’t I?
Me: So. Loud. I was jealous of your deafness for half a second there.
Severin: Is it weird that at the end of the day I can’t wait to take off my ear and just enjoy the silence?
Me: You take off your ear?
Severin: That’s what I call the damn processor.
Severin: Tell you what. I read through your profile, and I can see why the computer put us together.
Me: Me too.
Severin: And I bought this enormous steak that I will never be able to eat on my own.
