Given and Denied

Chapter 12.

But this did not happen.

Instead, I became acutely aware that we were not, in fact alone!
I could now distinctly hear the sounds of other people moving around somewhere else in the house and their idle chatter coming through from another room.
I realised very soon that we were not entirely on our own.
This had grossly disappointed me when I realised this and suspected that one of the voices I was hearing must surely belong to that of Silva.
But I was quite wrong.
The people who then came to join us in the kitchen were not familiar to me at all and although Alan introduced us, I was still not certain of each of their names.
There were four of them altogether, three men and one woman all of a similar age to Alan and all of them seemed very comfortable about being here. Even helping themselves to the wine and going into the fridges to fill their plates of canapés and other such delicacies.

I sat there, on one of the breakfast bar stools, listening as they shared stories of each others  escapades whilst on stage and I very quickly came to the conclusion that they were in fact professional stage actors.
They seemed really nice though and totally humble as they regaled tales of missed lines, costume malfunctions and any number of other things that could and ultimately did go wrong whilst setting up a stage play.
I had to admit I was absolutely fascinated by each one of their stories and listened intently as they took turns in speaking.
So intently had I became enthralled by each tale,  I didn't even notice that Alan was sat there watching me with his fingers pressed hard against his lips, until the woman of the party, actually pointed this out to me.

"Well, then Alan, I can quite clearly see that  someone's caught your eye. You've hardly glanced at any of us lot all night".   She cooed.

I had wondered what she talking about and quickly turned around to look at him, just in time to see him looking down into his wine glass and taking a sip from it.
Nothing odd there I had thought to myself!

"Aye, leave the poor man alone will you".   One of the men answered,  "He can't help being smitten by a pretty face. Sometimes you just have to stare". 

Alan stood up suddenly and went towards the fridge that was situated behind him and took out another bottle of white wine.
I had sensed a bit of embarrassment possibly, on his part but was a bit confused about how to really handle this situation I now found myself in, surrounded by strangers and not really having a clue what was going on.
So I had smiled shyly at the woman, before announcing that I was extremely tired and should now be going home to my bed, after all it had now gone way past three in the morning, according to the large silver kitchen clock positioned on the wall opposite me.

I noticed Alan staring hard at his very fine wrist watch. He always wore a lovely big chunky watch, that was something that I had really noticed about him. He was never without one.
He frowned at it, has if he did not truly believe the time. But I did.

As fascinating and as intriguing as it all was listening to these stories about professional theatre life, my eyes had started to feel very achy and extremely heavy and I really needed to go to sleep.
That was when I had the invitation to stay.

"It's very late".  Alan said, now putting the bottle back into the fridge again, "Maybe it's time we all called it a night now after all".

"Aww.... Al my dearest, I haven't yet recalled the tale of Eliza and Brucie babe to you yet and oh my....... You just have to hear it. Its simply such a hoot darling!".   The woman said, in a disappointing tone.

I noticed Alan looking under his eyes at her.

" As much as I do enjoy idle gossip, I'm afraid my ears cannot take anymore infringements on their listening ability at the present time. It's a pity, I know, but there it is. Now then, if you all don't mind, I believe Miss Stevens here has a valid point in her decision to leave the conversation and I have to, however disappointing it may seem, agree with her".