Member-only story
My Glass-Eyed Boyfriend
Eye-Spy…
“Stop looking at my eye!” he exclaimed.
It was a different time when I was seventeen — a time when smartphones didn’t dictate social interaction and meeting new people happened in places like bars, not on apps.
Those where the days!
That’s when I met Ian in the spontaneous encounter that now seems almost quaint. He was interesting and engaging, and he had a glass eye.
However, the glass eye wasn’t why I was interested in him🤪
In fact, at first, I thought he just had a bit of a problem with his eye. It was only when he pointed it out, sharing a snippet of a year before in the military and an accident involving a stray rubber bullet, that I realized it was a glass eye.
One evening, our conversation took a turn when he accused me of staring at his glass eye. “Stop looking at my eye!” he exclaimed, a mix of discomfort and annoyance in his voice. Surprised, I responded, “I’m looking at you because I’m talking to you!”
His insistence that I was focusing on his eye, making him uncomfortable, led to a moment of frustration where, in an attempt to make a point, I turned my gaze to the wall, asking if he’d prefer I talk to it instead.