2) Guess what!

Meg nearly missed Christine at the ballet class the next morning. Most of the night she had had very pleasant dreams involving Raoul and her. For some strange reason Christine hadn´t appeared in one of them. Maybe that had made them so pleasant.

"Hey Meg!" Christine waved. Sometimes she really had the impression that her friend needed glasses. "Oh, it´s you!", Meg said, sitting down next to her on the floor. Christine beamed at her. "Guess what!" "What?" "Raoul invited me for dinner tonight." "Oh, great!" Meg didn´t sound too enthusiastic. ´That´s only the 37th time this month.´, she added in her mind.

Then she remembered that she was the one with the exciting news today. She grinned. "Guess what!" "What?" "Guess who´ll take singing lessons with the same teacher as you!" Suddenly Christine stopped smiling. She whispered: "Carlotta?". Meg shook her head. "M.Piangi?" "No!" "Monique?" "No!" "Your mother?" "No!" "M.Fir-?" "No, it´s me!"

Christine looked at her in shock. "You?" This was impossible. Erik had told her she would always remain his only student. But then, Erik had also told her he was an angel sent by her father… Anyway, she didn´t like the thought. He was her teacher. Would he also take Meg to his underground house and sing for her? Would her make her an own dummy and let her sleep in Christine´s bed? Her eyes filled with tears. It was simply not fair!

Meg enjoyed her friend´s reaction. All she had to do now was take a few lessons, make some occasional comments on them and watch Christine suffer.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"Guess what!" Somehow Christine didn´t sound as cheerful as the first time she had said it. "What?" "Meg´ll have singing lessons with Erik, too." Raoul looked at her, puzzled. "Who on earth is Erik?", he asked. "The Angel of Music, the Phantom of the Opera, Opera Ghost – he has many names, you know.", she explained. "But you´re calling him with his first name?" "Well, he doesn´t have a last name…"

"And he´ll teach Meg?", Raoul wanted to know. "Yes, isn´t it unfair? He´s my Angel of Music! I mean, did Meg´s father tell her these stories when she was younger? No! It was me who…" He listened to her complaints about the injustices of the world for a couple of minutes before saying: "But that´s the best thing that could have happened to us!".

She was starting to become annoyed with him; she hated being interrupted. "What do you mean?" His chest swelling with pride about his idea (though Christine also noticed a swelling of his belly because of the 37 dinners they had had this month) he said: "When he has another student he can stalk her instead of you.".

Raoul sighed deeply. "I feel like he´s watching us in this very moment." "That´s because he is watching us in this very moment.", Christine said matter-of-factly. She pointed at a large pot plant in the corner of the room, behind which Erik was standing. Only the lower half of his body was hidden behind the leaves and twigs.

"Oh! This explains a lot.", Raoul remarked. Christine pulled the blanket away from their bodies. "Can we continue now what we did before I started talking about Meg?", she asked, letting a hand glide down his chest. "Sure, but … but I can´t do it as long as he´s looking at us.", he answered hastily, before Christine´s hand reached its destination, making him unable to utter coherent sentences.

Christine rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. If Raoul had known how many times he had been perfectly capable of ´doing it´ with him watching them … ! "Erik?", she called over her shoulder. "Could you please…?" Erik turned around. "Better now?", she asked Raoul. He nodded.