Words of the Week 5.25

I know it is an extraordinary cliche, but I loved Emily from the moment I first laid eyes on her. It was a manipulation on her part, I knew it then too, but the fall was as irresistible as standing on the edge of a cliff and watching a tumultuous sea pound the rocks below.
I was sitting perched on a hard couch, trying to balance a teacup into those handle my thick fingers would not fit, on it’s slippery saucer, when she stepped in. I never heard her enter, just looked up and there shimmering in the sunlight was this diaphanous creature as insubstantial, as lovely, as a spirit, smiling shyly.
She was thin, of course, in those days. It wasn’t until much later I realised how much work it took to achieve that look. The days of dieting and bad temper that went with it. But mostly I think it was her dress that did it. A diaphanous fabric so fine that the sunlight was shining right through it. Perfectly decent and yet her silhouette clear as any pin up. It was enough to have driven far tougher men than me out of their minds.

That was how I met Emily.
Now I am sitting in a equally uncomfortable chair in front of my attorney.
“I am afraid I have bad news, Mr Sloan.”
I sigh. “What is her objection this time?”
The lawyer shrugs and explains. I don’t hear him. Instead I see a fairy girl standing glowing in front of the fireplace, with sunlight in her hair, she was never more than a diaphanous dream.

Dictionary

From Mirriam-Webster

1. Characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through diaphanous fabrics
a diaphanous curtain

2. Characterized by extreme delicacy of form: ethereal

3. Insubstantial, vague
had only a diaphanous hope of success

Adverb: diaphanously
Noun: diaphanousness