My wife has been peeking at me from around corners and behind furniture. It’s gone from weird to terrifying

My wife "Lynn" and I have been together for seven years and married for 3. I’ve been exclusively in love with her the entire time. She is the only woman I have ever loved, and I planning on her being the only woman I ever love. Other than work, I spend all of my time with her. We go on vacations together, we go to the grocery store together, we go running together, and I even tag along with her to the nail salon. I do have one major issue though: she has people-watching habits that I absolutely cannot stand. Lynn likes sitting in the middle of busy places like the mall or airport to watch people. She spends hours at a time, sometimes with her hands covering her nose, other times with mirrors on her shoes. It’s hard to describe, but if you have seen the movie *Phantom of the Opera*, you know what I’m talking about. In an airport or mall, she’ll sit in a crowded corridor and look up and down at all the passersby. Other times, she’ll sit in a quiet corner and look over her shoulder to see who walks by. She refuses to make eye contact with anyone while she is doing this, and if I interrupt, she gets angry. Her friends and family know how weird she is, but none of them have firsthand experiences with her habits. The people-watching isn’t the problem. It’s just weird and something I have to live with. I was used to it and knew how to handle offending situations. The problem is that she has recently developed a new habit that is terrifying. She likes to hide and peek at me. It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed her peeking at me from around a corner. I was walking down our hallway toward the living room and saw her peeking at me from the opposite side of the corner with her hands covering her nose. It was the same thing she does when she’s people-watching. I thought it was silly, so I hid behind a nearby piece of furniture and waited for her to come out. A few seconds later, I heard her take a deep breath followed by light, rhythmic breathing. When she heard me jump out from behind the furniture, she yelped so loud I thought she was going to pass out. She refused to talk about it and went straight to our bedroom to express that she was very upset. A couple of days later, I was walking in the opposite direction when I saw her peeking from the opposite corner. Again, her nose was covered and she took deep, long breaths when she saw me. I decided to ignore it. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, and it wasn’t worth ruining her mood over. Besides, she seemed to enjoy it. I had to deal with weird looks from other people in airports and malls for years; I can live with her doing this. The next time it happened was when we were at the grocery store. I had walked ahead of her because she was reading the ingredients on the spaghetti sauce. I turned a corner and saw her hide behind an aisle. Her hands were over her nose and she was breathing deeply. I recognized the breathing as the same she took when she peeked around the corner in our hallway. I hid behind another aisle and waited for her to show herself. I heard her take a single deep breath followed by long, rhythmic gasps. This wasn’t like her. I didn’t know she was so turned on by my mere presence. I was about to jump out and show my face when I heard a man’s voice. “Is there something wrong?” He said. I peeked around the corner and saw my wife standing in the middle of the hallway. Her nose was still covered, and she was still gasping for air. “Oh, no. Nothing’s wrong,” she said. I drew my head back. I don’t want her to know that I am listening. I heard her take a deep breath, and then the rhythmic breathing returned. Now the man was breathing heavily as well. “I said, is there something wrong? Are you okay?” “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were behind me. I’m fine,” Lynn said. “You know, if you’re in distress, I don’t have any problems helping you.” “No, it’s okay,” Lynn said again. I heard the man take a few steps toward her. The breathing was getting heavier and more intense. Lynn had to stop. I jumped out from behind the aisle and waved my hands toward the man. “Hello! She’s my wife, sir.” For a moment, I saw a look of dismay in his eyes, but he quickly covered it up. “I was just asking her if she was okay.” “Oh, she’s fine. Thanks for asking.” “I’m glad to hear,” he said before he turned and walked away. I turned toward Lynn and saw her face covered in shame. “You told me you stopped doing that!” “I told you I stopped *people-watching*. This is entirely different.” “Different? How?” I saw tears start to form in her eyes, so I stopped. I don’t want to make her cry. I knew it was just an old habit that she couldn’t shake. Lynn is a difficult woman to deal with. She has mood swings, sudden anger, and an unannounced need to cry. There’s no use in trying to change her, I just have to live with her idiosyncrasies. So I apologized and told her to stop doing that in public. As we continued shopping, I noticed her hiding behind objects to peek at me. Every time she would cover her nose and take deep breaths. It was embarrassing. I felt like I was a zoo animal with her gawking at me constantly. I couldn’t tolerate her behavior any longer. When we left the store, I told her she had to stop. She refused to listen. I told her she was embarrassing me. She refused to listen. I told her if she didn’t stop, I was going to have to take drastic measures. She refused to listen. I told her that I was going to embarrass her just like she was embarrassing me. She laughed. We drove home in silence. I couldn’t stand her anymore. I hated her. I had never hated her so much. She was embarrassing, and I needed to teach her a lesson. When we got home, I sat in the living room and read a book. I didn’t even look at her. I knew she was hiding and peeking, but I wouldn’t make the mistake of acknowledging her again. I was going to treat her the way she was treating me. I was in a horrible mood when I went to bed. I couldn’t stand the thought of her. I didn’t even look at her. She climbed into bed and read a book. I think she knew I was upset because she didn’t take a single breath while I was in the room. The next morning, she was back to her old self. She was hiding behind objects and taking her deep gasps in the morning. I couldn’t tolerate her. She was embarrassing me and making me angry. I was finally fed up. I decided to embarrass her back. I hid behind furniture and peeked at her until she would notice. I covered my nose and took deep breaths. The first time I did it, she got so flustered she had to go into the bedroom. That did it. I had to do it again. I hid behind the same piece of furniture and waited for her to pass. When she noticed me staring, she ran through the kitchen and into the hallway. I had never seen her move so quickly. Now it was my turn to play a joke on her. That night, I got into bed before she did. I had to treat her the way she was treating me. So I hid under the sheets and peeked over them to watch her change her clothes. I covered my nose and took deep breaths. She yelped so loud she grabbed her heart. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was fun to finally get her back. The next morning, my buddy, Eric, came over to chat. He is my best friend and has known Lynn almost as long as I have. So when he is over, she lets her guard down and acts the way she truly is. So imagine my surprise when I heard her peeking around the corner while Eric and I were in the living room. At first, it was just the breathing, but it eventually sounded like she was scratching the walls to get a better look. I heard her take a deep breath, and I saw her eyes peering from around the corner. I knew she was covering her nose. “Don’t mind her. She does this all the time,” I told Eric. “Does what?” He asked. I shook my head and continued watching the TV. She took another deep breath, and I heard her turn around and leave. “You know she’s weird, right?” I said. “Yeah, I know. But I never knew she was *this* weird.” &#

My wife has been peeking at me from around corners and behind furniture. It’s gone from weird to terrifying

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