A
cool, unemotional stare was the last thing he had imagined. Normally,
he would have been able to see exactly what she was feeling just by
looking at her, but today was different.
The
half-smile she reserved for him even in her most hostile moods was
nowhere to be seen. That unexplainable twinkle in her eye was gone. Rage
would have been preferable. A screaming, crying fit of attack would
have been easier to deal with than this. She was calm, almost serene
in her reaction. She'd had time. It was as though she'd been
expecting it all along. Her quiet, unfeeling demeanour gave nothing
away, and that cut him to the core. His mind raced through all the
things she could be thinking, but found nothing that fit. 'React!'
his mind screamed, but as she calmly cultivated her emotions, she
gave nothing away. He'd never been so worried. He knew what he had
done, and he'd prepared himself for what he thought would be all of
the eventualities, but this one never occurred.
Still
nothing. Weeks could have passed in the moments he'd been standing
there, but her only movement was to slowly remove a strand of hair
from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
His
mind started to wonder if she ever even cared. Surely, news like this
deserved some sort of reaction?
She
took a seat in her usual place, in her usual manner. She got on with
her life as though he was never even there. He didn't know what to
do. Her reaction, or lack thereof, had never been part of the plan.
He knew she'd have something to say at some point, but he had no idea
when, or what it would be. A short laugh escaped her lips as
something funny happened in the tv show she'd returned to watching.
Her life had just been turned upside down, and she was laughing. She
was calm, and he couldn't work it out. His mind raced as he stared at
the side of her head. The woman he thought he
knew was baffling him, and all his decisions that led to this were
thrown instantly into question. She wasn't the woman he thought he
knew. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. She was
stronger than that. She was calm. She was peaceful. She had control. She was unreadable.
