:-)

............

"Christine, you have to go," says a voice, prodding me gently with one long finger.

I roll over and ignore him.

"Come, Christine. You have to go."

"A few more minutes," I say, keeping my eyes closed.

Two hands roughly turn me over and my eyes fly open in shock. "No," Erik growls. "You leave now. You told him you were going for a walk. Nearly three hours is going to make his suspicious. It is already dark out."

I sigh and search for my dress. "He doesn't mind. I left him dinner this time."

"Christine," he says reproachfully.

Nearly four weeks into my marriage, I am sneaking out every few days to further my relationship with Erik. The more it happens, the less guilty I feel—It is something natural that happens between us. I am glad I have Erik to do this with, for it would just be too humiliating to do this with Raoul.

"I'll come back soon," I promise, kissing his lips lightly before I head for the door.

"I know," he says heavily, as I close it behind me.

It is much darker than I expected, and I hurry home with a little hesitancy in my step as I try to formulate a better explanation.

Raoul is waiting in the front room; I can see the ripple his shadow makes through the sheer curtains. I plaster a smile on my face as he swings open the front door for me.

"I was getting worried!" he bursts out at once, his eyes traveling up and down my figure as if to make sure I am whole and unscathed. "I would have had to come out there after you."

"I met some old friends outside of the Opera," I say dreamily. "Then I had to walk all the way back. It grew dark so quickly."

"You must be more careful," Raoul scolds, helping me inside.

I grow impatient with his overprotective attitude. I am not a child. "I can walk by myself," I snap at him. "Just because we are married does not mean I cannot continue to do things by myself. I have always been by myself. And it's alright! It's alright to be by yourself every now and then!"

I can feel him staring at me as I hang up my shawl and prowl into the kitchen.

"I left you some fruit," I hear him say very quietly.

Once alone again, with Raoul unable to question me, I calm down and wait for a while before I go on up to get ready for bed. He is reading one of his heavy books, his legs on top of the covers.

"Raoul," I saw, crawling next to him and kissing his cheek. His face is scratchy, and it scrapes the side of my face. "I did not mean to worry you."

"Well, you did," he says emotionlessly.

"I am so sorry. Next time, you can come with me. We'll go for a nice long walk."

He seems to struggle for a moment. "That sounds absolutely lovely. But—are you sure? I thought you wanted to be by yourself."

"Oh Raoul," I sigh. "You just have to understand… I am so used to being by myself. But that's why it makes me so happy that I am with you now. I love you. You are such a good husband… so understanding…"

He lets me kiss him again, and then he says, "You know, it is almost time for us to get a place of our own. We cannot stay here forever."

I crawl under the covers and snuggle against his shoulder. "Where will we go?"

He sets down his book, eager to talk now. "Well, I have a place for us… I inherited it; it has just been sitting there for so long… It's far out by the memorial, on the other side of the city. But it's beautiful, Christine. We'll have to go visit it, and see if you like it."

A dull, expressionless feeling is overtaking my midriff. "The other side of the city?" I repeat faintly.

He is aware of my discomfort at once. "What is it?"

The other side of the city.

"We'll be so far away from the Opera," I whisper in horror.

He looks back at me, his expression mirrored. "I did not even think of that," he says. "I wasn't even thinking… I'm so sorry, Christine…"

He strokes my hair a little as I sit there in shock.

"But it means nothing, Christine," he suddenly says eagerly. "I would travel across the world for you. You know, I enjoy opera just as much as you do… I was raised in the arts. We'll get season tickets, and a nice fancy box. We can go every week, if you want. How does that sound?"

I perk up a little at that. "Every week?" I ask curiously.

"Every week," he says earnestly. "We shall have the best seats in the house!"

I mull over this new information for a moment in silence, weighing my several options. "That sounds wonderful," I announce eventually, relaxing into my pillow and looking over at him much more fondly. "Where are the best seats in the house?"

He gives me a patronizing look, as if I should know better. "Why, the fourth row, of course. The first few rows are much too close, you can never see the whole stage. And anything farther back, why you cannot see anyone's lovely face. So the fourth row is perfect. Exquisite! And we'll have the family box, of course."

"When do we leave?"

He smiles at me. "Whenever you're ready."

I think about this for a moment. "One more week here?" I ask.

"One more week," Raoul says resolutely. He winks at me, and then begins to read his book again.

"Raoul?" I say shyly, and I kiss the side of his face again. I pull the book very carefully out of his hands. "You are so dear to me…"

"To me as well," he murmurs quietly as I kiss him again. "Are we…?"

I let him run his hands over me. I even let him take my dress off. And he seems to enjoy it, and I think about going to the Opera every week, and I am happy.

.....

Just wanted to give more credit to bwayphantomrose and to my other best mentor, Lilly (who is not a member of this site, but should be) because they are both a lot smarter than me and they gave me a plot to work with.