2) Wait and see

Meg was late. She had promised to come to him at eleven o´clock, and now it was already seventeen minutes past that time. A normal person wouldn´t have pondered too much about it. Dinner could have taken longer than expected, the coach could have been held up or there could have still been people in the opera and the girl´d have to wait till they were gone to use the secret passageway. But all these sensible explanations didn´t occur to Erik. After all, he wasn´t a normal person – he was a man in love.

Everything was prepared for her arrival. The bottle of red wine was uncorked and stood next to two glasses and a jug filled with water. Meg´s very slim dancer´s body had slight problems in coping with alcohol, so she needed to mix it. Three weeks ago she had had two glasses of wine with their dinner. The evening had ended sooner than expected when she had fallen asleep on the sofa in the living room half an hour later.

Erik smiled reminiscently while his fingers played with the corkscrew. He would have never taken advantage of her state by doing things she didn´t want. Come to think of it, he hadn´t even done things she wanted him to. She had clung to his chest and asked him to undress her, and he had only made her lie down and wrapped a blanket around her, watching her till she had slumbered peacefully. He loved her far too much to risk losing her feelings.

´Oh, and by putting her through all this you don´t risk losing her feelings at all.´, a little voice in his head remarked sarcastically. ´Which decent man would force his beloved to meet other men?´ Erik didn´t need this voice to tell him how strange his idea was. He had heard more than enough objections from Meg and Mme.Giry. Yet they could talk as much as they wanted – he wouldn´t waver in his decision.

He would never forget Meg´s face when he had told her that they would keep their relationship secret. ´You want me to hide my feelings?´, she had asked in a small voice, her cheek pale. ´Would you prefer to display them in public? People would start throwing you sideway glances. They wouldn´t treat you like a normal human being anymore. And every time you get a part in an opera the ballet rats would think it wasn´t because of your talent, but because of me. Would you like that?´ This had finally make her give in.

So the girl had continued her ´normal life´, a life in which the man she loved played a smaller role than her daily ballet practice or the rehearsals. She could only sneak away every now and then, so that they had the chance to exchange some hasty kisses and terms of affection before she had to return. Of course they also met at night. But it wasn´t possible too often since Mme.Giry was worried about the young girl´s sleep. Admittedly sleeping was something they did very little when she spent the night at his home.

Sighing Erik poured himself a glass of wine and took a gulp, in vain trying to drown his disappointment. What was the point in waiting any longer? Who knew whether Meg would come at all? Maybe she liked the new patron of the opera by now and preferred his company. The thought that one day she could find among the spoilt sons of rich businessmen his replacement was his greatest fear. It was paradoxical. After all, it was he who kept encouraging her about going out, about doing things she couldn´t experience with him.

He lifted the glass to his lips again, but stopped in mid-movement. He had heard something. His sensitive ear didn´t fail him: A second later the door was pushed open, and Meg appeared, panting slightly. Apparently she had run the whole way down to him. "I´m sorry, Erik. I just couldn´t get rid of M.Devoiraux today. He talked and talked and ordered one brandy after the other. What a terrible evening!", she exclaimed, trying to catch her breath.

Erik´s glass fell from his hand, and the content poured onto the carpet as he jumped up from his seat, but he didn´t care. He rushed to her and took her into his arms. "In this second the terrible part of the evening is over. From now on it´ll become better.", he assured her. "I´ve missed you so much, my little princess. When did we last see each other?" They played this little game every time, just to show that they had thought about each other constantly. "Forty-seven hours ago.", she replied at once. "Forty-seven and a half.", he corrected her softly.

"How much longer will it have to go on like this?", Meg asked, looking up at him. "This is madness, Erik." "I know, I know.", he muttered, burying his face in her hair. The scent was more intoxicating than every wine he had tasted so far. It was making him light-headed, and he felt the urge to simply kiss away her sorrows and his own. He leaned down and brought his lips to hers. Meg reacted instantly. ´We´ll be able to talk later.´, she thought, just like so many times before.