Between Mirrors and Roses (A Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction) ✓

23: A Long-Awaited Day

Christine

A few days later, I had another fitting for my Aminta costume. It took place after the main rehearsal concluded so that I could make use of every moment of practice. Meg joined me in my dressing room, sitting cross-legged on the floor out of the way of the seamstresses and costume designers hovering around me like vultures on a carcass.

After an hour of colloquial chatter, the women helped me carefully out of the last pinned costume. I only had underthings on, so I reached for my dress to get changed.

Meg closed the door behind them and turned to me, a mischievous glint in her eye. "All right. Tell me what is going on with you and your man. I haven't heard about him in ages!"

I couldn't help myself from smiling. I finished buttoning up the dress in the front and knelt on the ground.

Meg copied me, her hands clasped in her lap in anticipation.

"Meg, I love him," I said. There, it was out.

Meg could hardly contain herself. She sprang to her feet.

"But," I bit my lip, struggling over whether to continue. "But there is something you should know."

At this last statement, she managed to pull herself back to earth and take my hand. "Oh, love, what is it?" she asked. "You can trust me. It's true I love to gossip," she waved this off, "but I never betray my friends, and I'm excellent at keeping secrets."

I decided to believe her. She hadn't done a thing in all the time I had known her to make me doubt her words. Intelligence and control were under her bubbly exterior.

"All right," I said and leaned toward her. "The man I am in love with—and he loves me back—is the Phantom of the Opera." I watched anxiously for her reaction.

Her face fell in concern. "Oh Christine," she said, "that sounds like a tragedy waiting to happen." She squeezed my hand. "How long has he loved you?"

"This whole time, I think. But he's gotten to know me better these past few months, and I him." I needed her to understand—to tell me that I wasn't crazy for loving Erik.

"But," she whispered, peeping at the walls as if the Phantom might even then be listening, "didn't he kill someone?"

I was confident that Erik was not spying from behind the mirror; he'd told me he would be gone most of the day on business. I shook my head at Meg. "There was a misunderstanding. Believe me: Erik did not kill Buquet."

"That's his name?" she asked. "Erik? I knew that he had to be a real person, but part of me always wondered..." She glanced at the walls again.

"Meg," I said, bringing her attention back to me. "He is so good once you get to know him. He's been nothing but kind to me, and he's so intelligent and talented." I giggle. "He has an adorable cat that still gets jealous of me sometimes."

Meg's face shone. "You really do love him, don't you?" she asked wonderingly. She pulled me into a hug. "Oh, Christine! I'm so happy for you if he's as wonderful as you seem to think."

I responded to her hug enthusiastically. "He is. I promise that he is."

Meg released me to look at my face, a smile creeping onto her own. "Is he going to propose, do you think? You've been in love for quite long enough, I should say."

That was the question, wasn't it? Old doubts cluttered my mind. Did Erik want a wife or just a live-in girlfriend? I had to believe that he loved me enough to marry me. "I don't know Meg," I admitted. "I hope so."

With the crucial matters out of the way, Meg berated me with trivial questions. "Is he rich? Is he handsome? I do hope he's handsome; then it wouldn't even matter if he was rich or not!"