I whispered into his ears. I waited for a reaction.
Nothing.

I asked, 'What's wrong?'
Nothing.

'Why're you so quiet?'
Nothing.

'Okay then, I'll go.'
Nothing.
__________________________________________

The story goes like this:

There was once a man, married to a woman for as long as he could remember. He was a wealthy man, respected and well known. His woman, a lesser known yet respectable woman. On the exterior, they looked like the perfect couple. On the inside, they made believe they were the perfect couple.

As their lives unfolded, they seemed to drift apart (big surprise!) Soon he lost interest in her and she became yet another lifeless entity in the house. She realized it but didn't address it. Denial, they call it. Days went by and things were still unchanged, and soon enough he fell in love again. This time, with a different woman. She was prettier, smarter, funnier and everything seemed like an adventure with her. It's like when young love reels out. The oozing passion, the constant laughter, the ceasing moments, the hours of conversation and all those sickening acts of adoration for one another. They spent a chunk of time together. While the wife ran errands and took care of all the other objects in the house, all the other objects except herself.

The time had finally arrived when the new woman wanted legitimacy. The time had come, he realized, to break the wife's heart. He was determined to do it but he decided to do it in a decent way. For old time's sake, he thought. He called her and arranged to meet at their favorite restaurant for dinner. She had butterflies in her stomach. What if , she thought. What if this was the moment when all that she had subconsciously wished for was about to come true. She wore her best outfit, wore make-up just the way he liked it, and headed to meet him. She walked in to find their patent table empty. She sat at the table and ordered a glass of wine. While she waited she thought of a million and one things but everything seemed fuzzy because of the overwhelming emotions.

He finally arrived, he looked haggled. He was walking slowly and rather unsteadily. He eyes were filled with purpose. He sat across her, smiled at her. She smiled back, a half-smile. She knows, he thought. Beads of sweat gathered at his temples, his fingers twitched and for some odd reason his left arm had gone numb. Damn the spondylosis! They ordered the meal in silence. He couldn't even look at her face. Guilt, was an overpowering feeling. He was rehearsing the monologue in his head, for the thousandth time. The sentence formed, and he was about to spit out the cruel words, when just then, she broke into hysterical tears.Perplexed and amazed at the woman's intuition, he lost track. As a reflex, he held her hand and asked almost sincerely, 'What's wrong?'. She just sniffled sadly. Her dessert plate now looked like a runoff and she grabbed his hand tighter. He asked again and this time she looked up. Her brown eyes had never looked so empty like they did now. He shuddered. She tilted her head to the left, like she always did when she was about to say something important. And then the ominous words came out.

'I have leukemia. I have 3 months.'

Something changed right then, all the words that he had so carefully gathered over the period of time, seemed to chant incoherently in his head. Everything became white noise and his head felt like it was about to explode. Just then he decided against all his plans and his careful calculations. He just held her and they walked home- quietly and passively. He started to take care of her, take her to her favorite places, read her favorite books with her, sit with her for hours go fro long walks to unidentified places.

The new woman, kept calling him, he kept ignoring the calls until one day he sent her a text message saying it was over. No one knows for sure, what became of her.

And then the 3 months passed and so did the wife. He cried for a month.
He still walked to those unidentified places, alone this time. And it was on one of those walks that it suddenly struck him that in pretending to love her for those 3 months, he had in fact fallen in love with her again.

______________________________________________________________

Nothing.