The Untold

I can't say that everything was completely normal.

I spotted him from across the street, sitting there at the corner table, in front of the restaurant, his back to the window, eyes moving as though he was always on the look out.

I always thought it was kind of cute, the way his eyes narrowed and flitted here and there - like a meerkat. Like one of those cute meerkats that keeps a look out while his friends are eating. I thought it was just a tick, or a twitch.

I looked right and left and crossed behind a taxi that blared its horn at me for no reason. That's when he spotted me. I caught his eye and he beckoned me over quickly, his smiled flashing only for a moment before it faded from his lips.

'Is everything alright?' I asked, sitting down. He scooted closer to me and leaned in. I could see now that his face wasn't the usual cool, chiselled marble, but drawn and gaunt, as though he'd had a fright. My throat tightened.
'James, what is it? What's wrong?'

I feared the worst. A 'it's

not you, it's me' sort of conversation that would end with tears and heartbreak.

'What is this, James? Tell-'

'Shhh,' He hissed, closing his eyes and dragging in a solemn breath. 'There's no easy way to say this,'

'Oh god, you're breaking up with me, aren't you?' I bleated. A pang of anger rose in me. Just last week, he'd said he loved me so much that it hurt. So much that he wanted to run off together, and live in a straw hut on a beach, just him and me. What a fool I was. I believed it, like some sort of stupid lamb being led to the slaughter.

'What? No!' He said exasperatedly. He snatched my hands up and held them together in his so tightly that I could feel my blood throbbing in them. 'I love you, Eleanor - more than words can express.'

I tore my fingers from his iron grip, my consternation icy. 'Then what is this?' I demanded. 'Is there someone else? Is that is?'

Fire flared in his eyes. 'For god's sake! Just let me speak!' He rasped in a tone I'd never heard before, the slightest