The man stormed into the house, barely shutting the door behind him, his coat still on and his shoes unlaced. His voice was sharp, urgent.
“Emily! We need to talk.”
He stood there, chest heaving, eyes wide with something between panic and exhilaration.
“I’ve fallen in love.”
Emily froze. *Here we go,* she thought, *the midlife crisis has finally arrived.* But she said nothing, only studied his facesomething she hadnt done properly in years.
They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. For Emily, it was their shared history that unspooled in her mind.
Theyd met the modern wayonline. Shed lost three pounds before their first date; hed gained an inch in height. Neither was perfect, but theyd just about met each others standards. She couldnt remember who messaged first, but his words had been witty, self-deprecating. Charming.
At thirty-three, with no illusions about her place in the dating world, shed gone into that first meeting armed with homemade biscuits, a book, and sheer determination.
To her surprise, it had been easy. Six months later, under pressure from hopeful parents, he proposed. A small wedding followedquick, before anyone could change their mind.
Life had been good. Not wild, not passionate, but steady. Warm. Hed shed his “sensitive romantic” act early, revealing himself as a simple, hardworking man in well-worn joggers. She, in turn, abandoned the “mysterious intellectual” facade, especially after the children came.
Twelve years passed without so much as a flirtation. She wasnt the jealous typebut the idea of him trying to charm another woman made her smirk. His version of flirting had always been staring, wide-eyed, like an overgrown puppy.
And now, here he stood, trembling, eyes bulging.
“So whats her name?” Emily asked dryly.
His hands shook as he reached into his shirt, his voice breaking.
“Howhow did you know it was a *rat*?”
Before she could react, he pulled out a tiny grey creature with pink ears and beady black eyes.
“I couldnt resist,” he whispered. “Look at her. So soft. So perfect. So *like you*.”
Emilys throat tightened. Then, against all reason, she laughed.
Of course hed fallen in love with a rat. A rat that looked just like her.
And somehow, impossibly, that made her happier than anything else could have.
