We sat. Robert’s parents, Mr. Armstrong Sr. and his wife, Susan, joined us moments later. Mr. Armstrong was a man who took up too much space in the world, his voice a gravelly, self-important boom that demanded attention and obedience. Susan was his shadow, a woman who had spent fifty years meticulously making herself small enough to fit in his pocket, her gaze perpetually fixed on her lap.
The tension at the table was a physical thing, a wire pulled taut to a screaming pitch. It snapped, as it always does, over something trivial, something meaningless.
The sommelier, a young man with a nervous tic in his eye, approached. Robert, without consulting the menu, ordered the Dover sole, a dish famously delicate and expensive. Olivia, staring at the menu as if it were a complex architectural’ blueprint she couldn’t decipher, whispered, “I think… I’ll have the Pinot Noir, please.”
The air left the table.
Robert didn’t shout. He didn’t have to. His power lay in his chilling restraint. He slowly, deliberately, turned his head toward her, a predator locking onto a sudden, foolish movement. “Red wine?” he asked, his voice deceptively soft, a silken threat. “Olivia, you know perfectly well that I ordered the fish. Red wine does not pair with sole. Are you trying to embarrass me?”
“I… I’m sorry, honey,” Olivia stammered, shrinking back into her chair, her shoulders hunching. “I didn’t think.”
“No,” he said, turning back to the sommelier with a dismissive wave. “You never do. Bring her a glass of the Sancerre.”
The waiter froze, caught in the crossfire. I intervened, my own voice trembling with a mixture of anger and conditioned deference. “It doesn’t matter, Robert. Let her drink what she likes.”
Mr. Armstrong let out a dry, barking laugh that made heads turn at a nearby table. “Leave it, Narissa. The boy is right. He’s teaching her. Women today don’t even know how to order a drink properly. In my day, a wife waited to see what her husband chose, and she chose accordingly. It’s called respect.”
Olivia, desperate to dissipate the tension, reached for the bread basket. Her hand was shaking so violently that the basket rattled against the table. As she stretched her arm across the white linen, the long, modest sleeve of her beige dress rode up. Just an inch. Not even. But it was enough.
