Page 19 of Kiss Me Tenderly

The sound of that gravelly voice was still etched into my mind, and I had a sinking suspicion that I won’t be able to forget it anytime soon.

“Why would he call you that if he just met you? It makes no sense.”

Shit, I didn’t even realize I said it out loud.

Not that it matters now. It isn’t like I can really take it back.

“Well…” I bite the inside of my cheek. “Something else might have happened.”

“What else?” Jade asks slowly, the suspicion evident in her voice.

Letting out a long breath, I tell her everything. Well, not everything,everything.She didn’t need to know I stopped by her place before going out for a walk. But I tell her the rest. The walk, spacing out, somebody crashing into me, our fight, the moment I realized I recognized the person’s voice, only to brush it off as impossible.

Until he spoke in the music room, that is.

“What an ass! He bumped into you, and then he doesn’t even apologize? Who does that?”

“I mean, in all honesty, it was partially my fault, but…”

“Partially,” Jade interjects. “And honestly, he should have done better. After all, he’s the seeing one out of the two of you.”

He is. There was no denying that part. And yet something about this whole thing was bugging me.

I take a sip of my coffee as my mind goes over the possibility that has crossed my mind, but I brushed it off before.

Maybe…

“I don’t think he knows that,” I say softly.

“You don’t think he knows what?”

“That I’m blind. I don’t think he’s realized that.”

Silence settles over us momentarily as my words ring in the air.

“But that’s… it’s right there, written on Henry’s harness. How can he not see it?”

I let out a soft chuckle, shaking my head. “You’d be surprised by the number of things seeing people miss.”

I couldn’t even blame them. Maybe I would have been one of those people if I had my eyesight, but I was born blind, so I had to adapt, my other senses taking over and sharpening so I could navigate the darkness that’s my everyday life.

“I guess you’re right about that. It’s still not a good excuse.”

“Maybe, but there is no changing what has happened. Besides, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

“How can that not be a bad thing? You could have been hurt!”

“I know, but…” I graze my teeth over my lower lip, the feeling of excitement coursing through me. Wrapping my fingers around my left wrist, I tug at the leather bracelet around it. “In his eyes, I was just a normal girl, Jade. I wasn’t blind. I wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t weak. I was just… me.”

People’s perception of me is something that I’ve been struggling with for the better part of my life. There were usually three reactions when people realized I was blind—they either thought I was faking it for attention, some people started acting like I was dumb and couldn’t understand them, so they would usually ignore me, even when talking about me, or they started being overprotective, trying to help me even with things I was quite capable of doing on my own.

One way or the other, the stigma of my disability would catch up with me. It was a constant battle, and some days, I just didn’t have it in me to fight it.

But during those short interactions with Sebastian, I was just me, and it felt good.

“Penny…”

“It’s okay. I appreciate your concern, and I know better than anybody the risks of what happened. That’s why Henry has a warning on his harness, but I won’t lie and say a part of me didn’t like it. It feels good for people to see you as a person and not your disability.”

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