Page 81 of Wedding or Not

“It triggers my migraines.”

Understanding floods me now with relief (for me) and sympathy (for him).

“Oh no! You had a migraine all day? Why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t even know you get migraines!”

“I don’t normally. I almost never do. The only thing that does it is strong perfume or cologne, and I’ve always been able to avoid it. If I catch even a whiff of it, I make a quick escape.”

“I had no idea.” I’m gaping at him, trying to wrap my mind around this new fact about him.

“I know you didn’t. You’ll never know how grateful I am that you don’t wear perfume.”

“I’ve never really liked it. It feels like a foreign substance on my skin. But even if I did like it, I would have stopped for you.”

“Thank you,” he mumbles, still staring at the floor but shooting me a quick look.

“But I wouldn’t have known since you never bothered to tell me! So all day you’ve had this migraine and never let me know, so I was left thinking you were ignoring me all day.”

“I responded to your photo.”

“With an exclamation point. And nothing else all day.”

“I didn’t think you’d even notice.”

“Of course I noticed. I had a good time this weekend, and I thought you did too.”

“You know I did. Best weekend of my whole life.”

I gulp at his muttered admission. “So you should have said something.”

“It was embarrassing.”

“Why the hell was it embarrassing?”

“Because it feels stupid. To go into a collapse over a little perfume. I didn’t… I didn’t want you to see me like that.”

If it’s possible to be filled with exasperation and exhilaration at the same time, I am. “It’s a migraine. You can’t help that. Maybe I wanted to know. Maybe I could have helped.”

“How would you have helped?”

“I don’t know. I could have applied cold compresses or rubbed your feet or something.” There’s an edge of amusement in my tone, and he immediately picks up on it.

“Maybe you could have sung lullabies to me too.”

“Exactly. But you didn’t let me do anything, and you left me wondering if you were trying to blow me off.”

“What?” He stiffens. “You didn’t think that.”

“I did too.”

“How could you think that?”

“Because you didn’t say a word to me all day. What was I supposed to think?”

“You were supposed to know I’d never do that to you.”

“Okay.” I’m feeling kind of shy, so I drop my head and hide my face with a curtain of hair. “Well, if you want me to know that, you need to act on it. Don’t do this to me again.”

He sighs. “I’m sorry. I guess it was pretty stupid. In my defense, I was suffering from a migraine all day, and my mind wasn’t working at its best.”