Curated fiction · A Velmora fantasy scenario

The Language of a Look

Neither couple spoke the other's language — not really, just the scattered phrases you pick up traveling. Amara and Ben were three days into a trip through the Douro Valley when they were seated beside a French couple at a candlelit dinner the hotel had arranged for six. Words failed almost immediately. Gestures took over — a raised glass, a shared laugh at a mispronounced word, the particular eloquence of someone refilling your glass a half-second before you'd have asked. By the second course, an entire conversation was happening in looks alone. Ben caught Amara watching the French wife's hands as she talked. Amara caught the French husband watching Ben in exactly the same way. Nobody said anything. Nobody needed to. The whole table already understood the only language actually being spoken.

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