Thomas held her as they moved to the gentle beat of the song. He didn't want to remember that day. No, not now."Are you sure you are fine?" he asked his wife again.
Reyona tilted her head back as she looked keenly into the eyes she had come to love so much. The eyes she had believed she would stare into for the rest of her life.
"Yes, honey," she said breathily. "I am dancing with you, the love of my life, ain't I?"Thomas nodded.
He had no idea what else to do but to nod. He knew he should let it go. He should let her have her moment, but he couldn't shake off the niggling feeling that something was not right. He had to ask her.
Reyona saw the look that entered his eyes as they moved without missing a step-the way they have moved for years. They were so perfectly synced, and she thought that he was not so closed off with his expressions after all. She must have been the one who had not noticed.
She knew he wanted to ask something, just as she knew what he wanted to ask, so she laid her head back on his shoulder as they waltzed and sighed. "This is perfect. You always know what I need," she whispered into his ear.
Thomas tamped down his guilt. "Babe?"
"Yes, darling?"
"Did you come back home this morning after you left for work? I mean, after I have left for work."You couldn't hold yourself, could you? Reyona thought in disdain.
Then, "I think I..." she felt him tense and she deliberately paused for a while to make him sweat before she finally completed, "Oh, no. I did not come back home."
Breath rushed out of his mouth before he said, "But you were saying..."
"Oh, that was yesterday. I almost mistook yesterday for today. I did come back home yesterday for a file I forgot, but not today. Why?" She raised her eyes with a curious look.
"Oh, nothing, nothing at all. So you did not." He stopped himself in time as he thought of leaving it be. She definitely couldn't have seen the paper and still acted like this towards him. Reyona was more sensitive than anyone he knew, and she would not let such a thing slide.
"I did not what?" she asked with a smile.
"Nothing, nothing at all. Ooh, look, the song has ended," he said suddenly as he thought "Thank God, I didn't write the note after all. Now I can focus on other things, as that is already out of the way."
Reyona gave another command to the system, and another soul-stirring song started playing. She encircled his neck with her arms as she looked lovingly into his eyes.
They were barely moving in the same spot as she thought, "How had I gotten it wrong? Where did I fail you? Where did I fail myself?"
She could remember how she had kept herself through school. When her friends were going out, partying, and falling in and out of love,. Reyona had been focused on her studies. She had been hellbent on making something of herself, believing that the right man for her would come when the time was right. She had believed that Thomas was that man.
When her sister, Toria, decided that the gym was the new rage for getting hot men, she dragged Reyona along despite all the protests. After guilt-tripping Reyona into being her training buddy, Toria had not spent up to one week before she decided that she had rather stay fat and single than put herself through any torture called exercise again, and she bowed out. Reyona, at this point, had become hooked on the habit of going to the gym, and she just stuck to it.
That was when she met him, the handsome, responsible-looking gym operation manager. Theirs had not been love at first sight. He had been consistently pursuing her before she gave in. Even when she stopped going to the gym to dissuade him, he still found her. Her company was just a startup then; she worked for about a year after college and decided to start her own. Thomas had been patient with her, consistently showing her love. Even when she was not giving him attention after accepting to be his girlfriend,
Finally, she fully accepted him into her heart when she realised that he had grown on her and that she couldn't even imagine her life without him. Who could have thought it was all a lie? Such meticulous planning. Reyona laid her head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. The heart she had believed beat for her. Just as hers beat for him. Another lie.
As the current song blended into the next, she closed her eyes tightly against the tears that wanted to pool in her eyes."No, girl. You cannot afford to be soft now. He does not deserve your crying. Let this be a passage rite," her mind whispered to her as she held him more tightly. She reached around and placed his hand more firmly around her.
Reyona knew that after this dance, it was truly over. Her nurtured dreams for many years would be truly over.
"And that song is over as well. I could dance with you forever, babe. You know I could, but I need a drink."
Reyona smiled and stepped back, her hands reluctantly leaving his body. Reyona looked at his back as he went to the bar after he asked if she wanted a drink. Renewed disappointment filled her heart as she realised that she had held little hope in her heart that he might decide to confess to her now that his plans had failed, but he seemed adamant. Yet she had to give him one last chance.
"Babe?" Reyona called.
"Ye.. yes," he said as the scotch whiskey he was taking to his mouth splashed on his shirt. "Oh damn, sorry, that was... Well, you wanted to say something?" he said as he looked at her.
Looking at the face she had trusted for ten years of her life, she asked, "Tommy, do you want to tell me anything?"
"What? No, why would you think that? No, babe. I can't think of anything I might want to tell you," he said as he downed his whiskey, then looked at her appreciatively "Except maybe to tell you how gorgeous you look in that dress," he said as he dropped his glass. Then he moved closer to pick her up and twirled her.
"Lying till the end, I see," Reyona thought as she laughed when he twirled her. "Good, there is no going back now."She looked down at him when he raised her above his head.
And kissed his lips.