Her husband returned home and, without even taking off his shoes or coat, blurted out, “Emma! We need to have a serious conversation…”
Then, in one breath and without a moment’s pause, he exclaimed, “I’ve fallen in love!”
“Well, here it comes,” Emma thought, “the midlife crisis has finally arrived in our family. Welcome, welcome…” But she remained silent, carefully observing her husband for the first time in what seemed like five or six years (or was it eight?).
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re near death, and for Emma, their entire life together started flashing by. They met in the most ordinary way—online. Emma had shaved a few years off her age, while her future husband had added a few inches to his height, thus narrowly fitting into each other’s search criteria and eventually finding each other.
Emma couldn’t recall who messaged first, but she knew his message was neither crude nor boastful and had a touch of self-deprecation, which she found charming. At thirty-three, with only average looks, she realistically assessed her chances on the marriage market and understood that she was, if not in the last row, then certainly in the second-to-last. So she decided to bite her tongue, keep her ears open, wear rose-tinted glasses and lace underwear to their first date, and bring homemade cookies and a volume of Austen in her bag.
Surprisingly, their first meeting was easy-going (the power of the right outfit!), and their romance developed rapidly and intensely. They enjoyed each other’s company, and after six months of regular dates and pressure from parents who had lost hope of seeing grandchildren in their lifetime, her future husband boldly proposed. They quickly introduced their families, and the engaged couple’s wish for a small, family-only wedding was unanimously approved by everyone, fearing anyone might change their mind, they chose the earliest available date to tie the knot.
Emma felt that they were living well. The atmosphere in their home was tropical, with minor seasonal fluctuations, without fiery passions but filled with warmth and mutual respect—happiness itself. Her husband, being a typical man and therefore straightforward and uncomplicated, shed his image of “sensitive romantic handyman” just weeks after the wedding, revealing himself as he truly was—a simple, hard-working, and caring guy in comfortable homewear.
Emma, on the other hand, as a more complex being, gradually loosened the tight corset of her “wise homemaker and sassy intellectual” persona. But a quick pregnancy accelerated this process, and within a year, she too dropped her splitting-at-the-seams image with relief and donned a cozy house robe.
The fact that, despite letting go of their facades, neither of them left the relationship nor made complaints to each other, convinced Emma of the wisdom of their decision and reinforced her faith in their union. The routines of life and raising two back-to-back children often rocked their family boat, but they never capsized. Once the storms subsided, they continued to sail calmly on the waves of their family life. Overjoyed grandparents helped in every possible way, and at work, they steadily climbed the career ladder, while still traveling, pursuing hobbies, and, of course, spending time with each other, staying within the bounds of average statistical data.
Now, twelve years married, Emma’s husband had never been caught in infidelity or even light flirting with others. Emma wasn’t a jealous woman, so he could have taken such a risk without fear of a scandal. She imagined him flirting and couldn’t help but smile because the thought was utterly absurd. The reason being, after several failed attempts at complimenting in the traditional way early in their relationship, her husband realized it wasn’t his strength. He switched tactics and now only gave compliments wordlessly (or via some frequency Emma couldn’t discern?), merely widening his eyes like a tarsier.
Over the years, Emma had learned to distinguish the full spectrum of his emotions by the roundness of his eyes: from wild admiration and pleased approval to involuntary surprise, unexpected confusion, profound incomprehension, and total disapproval. And so she imagined her husband giving one compliment after another to a rat, his eyes widening more and more…
Emma’s throat went dry at the thought of her husband transforming into a tarsier. She nervously smiled and croaked, “So, what’s the name of your rat?”
Her husband’s eyes practically bugged out as he stammered, patting himself down as though searching for words, “How? How did you… How could you have guessed I fell for a rat? Wow, you’ve nailed it… You see, I just couldn’t resist when I saw her. Just look at how fantastic she is, so soft, so beautiful… just like you…”
With that, he revealed from his coat a small grey rat with pink, translucent ears, a pink nose, and beady black eyes.
From that point on, Emma didn’t hear much. She was captivated by her husband, his new companion, and their mutual affection, feeling endlessly grateful he had fallen for this rat, who was so much like her.
