When you entered the shop, you were hesitant. Bashful, even.

I tiptoed in, not knowing what to expect.

No?

Oh, I knew what I wanted alright. It’s just that I didn’t think I would get it.

Well, she found that shyness charming. It was so different from the men she had known until then. Might I add, disarmingly so. You pretended to look through the racks. It was a brand you had probably never heard of before.

I hadn’t. And, it didn’t really excite the compulsive shopper in me.

And she said, “If you see anything you like, just tell me. Feel free to try anything on.”

The standard boutique chit-chat. I almost said to her, “I like what I see now.”

You’re lucky you didn’t.

Why?

You would have broken the Spell of Misperceived Impressions.

The wha’ o’ what?

The Spell of Misperceived Impressions.

Huh?

Listen: impressions influence how people see reality. They may not be accurate, but they will shape how someone sees you and interprets everything that you do. Akané saw you as shy, bookish, serious. All the things her past boyfriends were not. Haruka, on the other hand, thought you were an “elite salaryman” when she first saw you in the club wearing a new suit. Even when she learned that you were just a teacher, she still perceived you as a go-getter, a man with a bright future, someone who was going places. You laugh, but when a woman discovers that her impression of the man she’s dating has been utterly wrong, it can be devastating for her. She may even feel that she’s been betrayed, lied to. This is why Yumi found you to be such a loathsome scoundrel after fawning over you for so many months.

Ugh, must you bring that woman up?

Yes, I must. A woman risks a lot when she dates a new man, Peadar. Her future will be bound, more or less, to the fortunes of the man she ends up settling with. That’s why so many women want to marry up, to marry a man who has a better education, a better job with a higher salary, a man who comes from a better family. That family, after all, will become hers, that job and salary will eventually be supporting both her and her children. Whenever a woman lies down with a man, it is as if she is placing all of her chips on the table. She’s betting her life without quite knowing the hand she’s been dealt.

A Woman's Hand and other works are available in e-book form and paperback at Amazon.