She compliments me casually like it’s nothing. It’s like standing in the sun one minute and getting struck by lightning in the next. Sometimes it’s simple. She’ll say “you look good today,” like she’s commenting on the weather. And suddenly I’m tripping over nothing. Other times.. It’s not so simple. One time she whispered in my ear, “you don’t just write about desire, you resurrect it. Someone could wish she was her just reading the way you speak of touch.” How do you recover from that? You don’t.
She told me my voice could “pull secrets out of a locked heart.” She said my gaze felt like “getting caught and rescued at the same time.” Who says things like that?
She once told me in a seductive smile, “you have a face ladies would sin for.” I didn’t know whether to thank her or apologize to God. Her words heal things I didn’t even know were bleeding. And when she catches me fumbling, trying to look composed and failing, she just smiles to herself. Like she knows exactly what she’s doing… Maybe she does.