Page 65 of Juliet's Echo

“Well?”

“Well what?” I played along.

“Psalm,” she signed, aggression all in her hands.

“You asking me if I can answer your question?”

“Boy, don’t play.” She sucked her teeth.

A hearty chuckle erupted from my diaphragm. “My fault. Go ahead, remind me of your question.”

She hesitated. “Why Lucky?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. For some reason, admitting this felt more vulnerable than asking her to be my girl. Taking a seat next to her, I sighed. “As you know, Mega and I became cool after the incident at Sunday’s.”

“Speaking of,” she cut me off, her eyes widening.

“Aht, aht,” I cut her off right back. “Water under the bridge, young lady.”

She rolled her eyes.

She wasn’t about to have me looking like a simp, just down bad in my own study. From Sunday’s to the studio, she knew why I did what I did. Just like a woman, always wanting a nigga to spell shit out loud.

“My bad. Continue, Mr. Mitchel.”

“Thank you,” I joked. “So, I asked Mega about your condition. No disrespect, but your voice doesn't sound like that of a deaf person. From my experience around someone deaf, their voice has a distinct cadence and flow. Yours, although very clear and sounding normal at first contact, has pauses in it.”

She tilted her head.

“Pauses?”

“Yeah. Like your voice has to play catch-up with your hands.”

“Well yeah,” she smiled. “In a way, it does.”

Her smile gave me reassurance to continue.

Lord knows I didn't want to offend her.

“Mega told me surface-level information, so I looked up Selective Auditory Processing Collapse on my own. And although it's a condition, its characteristics were fascinating. Selective mutism? I can only imagine how overwhelming it can be for someone experiencing it, but as a man in medicine, it sparked my interest.”

I paused.

“I also got a better understanding of the episode you had that night, and for that, again, I'm sorry.”

I signed the last part.

“You researched my condition, huh?” she asked, smirking.

“I mean, yeah. I hyper-fixate on what intrigues me. Want to live and breathe it.”

The moment those words left my mouth, I realized I had just lost a punch on my playa card. Juliet’s cheeks turned pink and her dimples made an appearance, making the whole confession feel even worse because hell, after saying that shit out loud, my face probably looked a little flushed too.

I quickly looked away.

“Anyway,” I continued. “I clicked on an article about Dr. Pristine creating your hearing aids. Do you know your ears cost more than Rwanda Gorilla Trekking?”

“While I've never priced Gorilla Trekking, Yahya never lets me forget the cost of my ears. She calls them my Birkins.”