She Always Had a Thing For Tall, Dark, and Sallow
**
The man in the photo was tall, thin, and sallow-skinned with black hair and a beak-like nose. Hugo looked into his black eyes and wondered what his mother saw in him.
"He's not that handsome, is he?"
Mum cocked her head as if looking at it from a new perspective. "I suppose not, in the traditional sense. But he has other admirable qualities."
When she told him the man's name, he remembered the copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame that Mum had given him, and something clicked in his eight-year-old brain.
"Mum, did you name me after your ex-boyfriend?"
The man in the photo was tall, thin, and sallow-skinned with black hair and a beak-like nose. Hugo looked into his black eyes and wondered what his mother saw in him.
"He's not that handsome, is he?"
Mum cocked her head as if looking at it from a new perspective. "I suppose not, in the traditional sense. But he has other admirable qualities."
When she told him the man's name, he remembered the copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame that Mum had given him, and something clicked in his eight-year-old brain.
"Mum, did you name me after your ex-boyfriend?"