Watching Her

ALEX

My eyes were locked on the woman standing on the stage, and I felt blown away. I rarely had that feeling, but it occurred the moment her chest rose with a deep breath and she began to speak. I was stunned by the way she exposed herself as if she had nothing to hide. She talked about her past effortlessly, even though I could feel the weight of her words expressed in the brief tensing of her jaw and creasing of her forehead. Funny… I asked for a detailed report about her, but I felt that she had just given me more information than my specialists could gather.

Then my mind drifted to everything that had happened before her speech, and restlessness built inside me. It was something I couldn't fathom. I had imagined our confrontation many times. I had imagined she might be confused, uncomfortable, perhaps scared, but not angry. What I saw in her eyes then in the corridor was far from what I had expected. She seemed… hurt. Why the fuck would she be hurt when she was the one who asked