Page 16 of The Tides Between Us

Much to my dismay, when she finally slid her phone back to me, there was only one simple sentence.

Giana

I don’t have a story to tell.

My lips pursed. I refused to accept that. I looked back up at her, just as our server appeared with our drinks. She asked if we were ready to order. I looked to Giana and she shook her head.

“I’ll give the two of you a few more minutes to look over the menu,” our server replied with a smile before disappearing once again.

My eyes met Giana’s. “I refuse to believe you have nothing to tell. Figure out what you want to eat.” She attempted to reach for the phone, but I pulled it away and shook my head. “No arguing, princess.”

She cut her eyes at me and it lit a spark inside of me. I knew there was more to her than the peaceful, happy persona she projected to everyone. There was a fire burning inside of her and I wanted to see her flames.

Giana picked out a fresh fruit crepe and pointed it out to me on the menu. Our server came back to the table shortly after and I ordered a breakfast sandwich for myself before telling her what Giana wanted.

“I’m so sorry. We actually ran out of strawberries this morning,” she said with a frown. “Would raspberries be okay to substitute with?”

I looked over at Giana, who was staring out at the ocean again. She was completely oblivious, not necessarily by choice. I reached out and touched her forearm again, gaining her attention. She whipped her head to look at me, her eyes slightly panicked as she looked at me and the woman standing by the table.

“They’re out of strawberries. Are raspberries okay instead?”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed roughly and nodded. She forced a smile on her face and looked at the woman and nodded at her too. I didn’t miss the look of confusion and curiosity on our server’s face as she wrote down our order and left the two of us alone.

I stared at Giana, watching her as she pulled her silverware from the napkin in front of her. She positioned them one by one before laying the napkin across her lap. I wanted inside her head. I wanted to read her damn thoughts. She looked back up at me.

“Does that happen a lot?”

She raised a questioning eyebrow for me to elaborate.

“Communicating with people. Is it always like that?”

She frowned, nodded, and grabbed her phone. I watched her expression, her eyebrows pinched tightly together as she furiously typed something out and handed the phone back to me.

Giana

It’s been like that since I lost my hearing as a child. It’s easier for me because I can read lips, but there aren’t many people I encounter who are able to do the same or who know sign language. My notepad and pen help. I didn’t bring them with me this morning.

I wasn’t expecting that. Well, the communication part, I was. Not about her losing her hearing as a child. That was slightly unexpected.

“What happened?” I paused for a moment. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”

Her lips twitched and she motioned for me to hand her the phone, to which I did. I enjoyed watching the way her face transformed while she was typing and deleting and retyping her message. She was so expressive without even realizing it. It was amazing, in all honesty. Her sense of hearing had diminished, but her nonverbal communication was compensating for her loss.

Giana

I was eight years old when it happened. I was incredibly sick from the flu and it was damaging my heart. My body responded to the medications they put me on to protect my heart and fix the damage, but I ended up having a bad reaction that caused permanent profound hearing loss.

I read her message once, twice, three times as the words sank in. My heart broke for her as the reality hit me in the chest like a ton of bricks. The thought of her once being able to hear and then having it ripped away from her so abruptly. I couldn’t even imagine.

In that moment, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I wanted to make things easier in her life, not harder. I needed to learn how to communicate with her, the way she knew how to. I was going to learn ASL.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I told her softly. “That must have been frightening.”

She shrugged and offered a sad smile as she picked up the phone and typed something else out.

Giana

It was, but that was a long time ago now. I honestly don’t really remember what it was like, except I still can hear in my dreams, so that’s always comforting. Now, tell me something about you.

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