She’s teasing, of course. Giggles furtively at the card in her hand, pale purple envelope, and crouches low to hide in the space between two wardrobes. She expects him to look for her—to search for the match.
She waits. Not as long as she’d waited in games past; suddenly it seems too mean. She emerges from the crevice and wanders out of the room, into the darkened hallway, a long narrow passage with many doors and an occasional window.
Alone with the moonlight.
Until: the sconces on the wall burst into warm illumination. Through a door on her left, a horde of formally-dressed people bob celebratorily past her; arms waving, mouths agape in laughter, ties not yet loosened. Not one of them looks at her. A figure in ivory sails by beaming. A wedding party? At the same time she notices the door behind her has closed, she sees him among the revelers.
The wedding party disappears gradually, like water down a drain, through another door, further down the hall.
She follows.
Through the door, everyone has taken their places. She sees him separate from the group and understands: he is not among the revelers, he is for them. He’s the purpose of the celebration. Staring blankly ahead, he takes a seat at a table spotlit in a shaft of orange light and begins eating quickly from a plate.
She feels sorry.
As she approaches the table, he raises his head, but his expression doesn’t change. Reaching into the interior pocket of his suit, he withdraws a pale purple envelope and hands it to her.
“Do you want mine?” she says.
“No,” he replies.
She’s disappointed as she backs away. Now she has both cards and they have lost all meaning. She backs straight out the door of the joyous room, into the moonlit hallway, where the sconces have gone out.
She searches for another door. The twin envelopes share the sweat on her palm. She continues down the passage until she sees a door slightly ajar, the only one open as far as she’d walked. She peers inside, and recognizes a few of her friends, gathered around a plastic card table. For the rest of the evening, her friends help her untangle several necklaces; most of which were gifts.