The Truth Behind a Smile

“What did you do after dinner?” I asked.

“We were both quick eaters, and it was still light out when we got the check, so we took a little walk around the neighboring field. I’m sure she was having a better time than I was because I was a nervous wreck, but she always knew how to save our conversation whenever I let it stall. Eventually, it got dark, and I thought I should take her back home.

“I was a lot more comfortable around her after spending the evening together, and, as it turned out, once that girl got going there was no stopping her—she could talk the legs off a chair. But I didn’t mind too much. I loved hearing her voice.”

Stephen smiled again, but this time, although his lips stretched across his face, they hid his teeth and there seemed to be a sadness hiding behind his smile.

“She talked so much she didn’t even notice when we arrived at her house, and that I had been parked for a few minutes already. When she finally realized, though, she turned a little red and told me I had to come inside because I had to hear the end of her story. I was a little hesitant, but she was quite persuasive, and eventually, she led me in and sat me down on her couch while she got tea ready for the two of us.

She didn’t stop talking the entire time and I couldn’t stop smiling. Just hearing the excitement in her voice as she told me all her stories and adventures made me grin from ear to ear. She came and sat next to me once the tea was ready and went on with her storytelling, sharing every little detail.

I began to drift off, and, to tell the truth, I don’t remember every word she said—I got lost just looking at her. I analyzed every aspect of her face down to the smallest parts, which I hadn’t truly seen when I first met her or at dinner, when I was so focused on saying the right thing. Now I began to notice her little imperfections. Like how her face was not actually symmetrical but more rounded on one side and slimmer on the other. How one cheek was just a millimeter lower than the other, or how her chin was not perfectly aligned with her nose but tilted ever so slightly on an angle. How her right eyebrow was slightly more rounded and raised when compared to her straighter left one, which was probably an effect of her general curiosity and the amazement she found in the world. Or how one side of her smile pulled back just a little more when she genuinely enjoyed something but was too shy to show it.

All these imperfections that society thinks of as flaws, I began to see as other aspects of her character that helped to make her more genuine, more real, they made her imperfectly perfect.”

He looked up from his palms and glanced at the window. “She was the first person I was able to truly fall in love with, and the only person besides you I’ve told most of these stories to. Although I didn’t dive into as much detail when I told them to her, there was something about her presence that allowed me to finally talk about everything.

We talked until maybe four in the morning, when I just laid my head in her lap, and she ran her fingers through my hair, playing with the little waves. I fell asleep and woke up the next morning to the smell of the breakfast Ana was cooking a few feet away in the kitchen. I have no words to describe the feeling I had that morning when I woke up and the first person I saw was her, but I just knew, that I wanted to feel that way again.”