Silent Affairs (Part 4)

Once again, the stage was filled with same elegance, confidence, boldness, and the much dreaded soliloquy sequences. With the new self-realization, he felt certain that it was not his place to be and wanted to leave as soon as possible. There had to have been a lot of sequences because at some point a familiar pattern in her actions was becoming increasingly noticeable to him. She’d look up and down, to the right and left as the scene required, but during each sequence, he'd catch her glancing at him at least once.

The consequent discomfort was well justified because even after eight years, if there was one thing that remained unchanged, it was the effect of her gaze fixated on him. It still intimidated him because her eyes could unmask every layer of pretense he'd put on, and he dreaded this.

The play came to an end about an hour later. He got up to join the applauding crowd as the theatre crew appeared one by one - the production crew; followed by technicians, special effects team, stage crew; then the extras, supporting actors, and finally at the end, the main actors. He turned to leave and as he walked, looked back for one last time at the bride in white, only to catch her staring back at him. She had a frown on her face and mouthed his name to which his body responded with paralysis. She knew.

It was exactly how he had imagined it along with his rehearsed reaction to her gaze. Finally, his mind slowly regained control over the rest of his body as he struggled to put up his rehearsed vacant face in her direction. With a polite smile, thus denying her any confirmation of her discovery from his side, he blinked once, turned around and walked out.