We’re married. Married! But he still sat across from me as an adversary. Not beside me like he used to insist on when we were in Japan.

“No,” he answered. Man, he loved that sign to death these days.

“Then where are you taking me?”

He didn’t answer.

And just in case you were wondering…no, getting the silent treatment from someone who can’t talk didn’t feel any less irritating.

“I have to report in for an internship in New York on Monday,” I pointed out. “It’s a little clinic, and they need me there.”

He began to sign before the words were entirely out of my mouth. “Actually, you’ve already been replaced.”

My stomach iced over at his answer. “What do you mean?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a device shaped like a rectangle.

My eyes widened because it looked like the iPhone 3GS that Steve Jobs had just announced at a special conference. But it couldn’t be. They weren’t even out yet.

Yet, here Victor was, extending a phone that looked exactly like the one showcased in the latest “Stevenote” to me.

I took it. Partly out of shock. Partly out of curiosity. “Is this an iPhone 3GS?” I asked. “But how did you get this? I thought they weren’t coming out until June.”

“Check your email,” he signed as if he didn’t hear any of my other questions.

I did as he said. I’d never had a smartphone. They’d come out the summer after my sophomore year of college, and I was barely keeping up with the annual tuition raises at Mount Holyoke, so no fancy iPhone for me. But all the hype I heard about it had been correct. It was ridiculously easy to navigate, and I instantly found the envelope icon.

I pressed it, wondering whether I’d have to use some kind of syncing process to get to my Yahoo account. Nope. Both my school and Yahoo accounts immediately popped up on the front screen. And the Yahoo account had a 1 beside it, which I assumed meant I had a new message.

I clicked on the mailbox, and my heart dropped into my stomach when I saw the sender. Dr. Olivia Glendaver. She was the assistant director at the Women’s Disability Clinic, the small medical center where I was supposed to start interning next week.

The subject line didn’t bode well. Re: dropping out of the internship

I pressed on the message anyway.