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“Professor and Doctor Edwards’s family, say it ain’t so?”
“We are far from the perfect family, trust me.”
“Come on, your mother is recognized as one of the country’s leading authorities on the Bible.”
“That’s true. The only person that I know who knows more about the Bible than my mother is my father.”
“I thought you said he taught history?”
“To him, the Bible is history.”
“Oh.”
“But like I said, we are far from perfect.”
“Right.”
Natasha paused, and the look on her face became reflective. I imagine that was the same look that I had on my face when I was deciding whether I would share my story with her.
“Would it surprise you to know that I’m the only one in my so-called perfect family that’s speaking to everyone?”
“You are?”
“Yup. Remember, text book middle child; that makes me the mediator and negotiator in the family.”
“I find that hard to believe, Natasha. Everything that you’ve told me about them screams close and happy family unit.”
“We were at one point,” Natasha said, and I could see the pained look on her face before she turned away.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to change that?”
Now it was Natasha who took a deep breath; then she turned and faced me, and I prepared to hear her sad story.
“My parents divorced my senior year in high school.”
“I see.”
“I guess you want to hear the story?”
“I told you mine.”
“My father had an affair.”
I wasn’t expecting that, so all I could say was, “Oh.”
“He went to a symposium, met a woman in the bar, and they slept together.”
“I guess your mother found out about it.”
“Yes,” Natasha said, and the blank expression on her face told me that it was difficult for her to recall the emotions that she must have felt in that moment.
“I know this must be hard for you. You can stop if this is too painful.”
“I’d be lying if I told you that it wasn’t. But for some reason, and please don’t ask me why, I want to tell you.”
After hearing Natasha say those words, I took a second to marvel at and draw strength from, the fact that she was in the same place that I was, because I wanted to tell her everything. It made me feel confident that she was into me like I was into her.
And this was a good thing, right?
