“So this is the woman who brought you back to life.”
The remark was made with affection, across a table of sandwiches at the centre’s December gathering. Hugo knew the speaker meant to welcome Lavinia. He also knew, from the half-second before she smiled, that she had heard the history being taken out of him.
“I was alive before,” he said. “Rather inconveniently for a number of people.”
The man laughed, surprised. Hugo let the joke settle before adding, “I’m very happy we’re getting married. That part is new.”
Lavinia put her hand on his arm. Conversation moved to the wedding date they had begun considering, late April, and then to whether the sandwiches contained enough mustard. Nobody had been publicly corrected into humiliation. Still, Hugo found himself quiet afterwards, aware of how much he disliked an explanation that could make their lives sound so flattering and false.
He had…
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