[TheArtist]

2013

It was the beginning of 2013, the year when online chats boomed and suddenly exploded in popularity. WeChat was extremely popular, being new, and WhatsApp was starting up too. SMS was getting old and boring fast. No prizes for guessing, we started playing with these new apps as well.

My name is Tom, 32 then, an architect. Jane was 27, a business development manager. Due to our work differences, I was usually the first one to reach home, while Jane knocked off at later times. She got to wake up later though, while I had to drag myself to work every day at 7am. When she had no appointments at night, we would eat dinner quietly in our condo apartment. I would then play video games while she preferred reading books.

Jane was one who didn't really care where she placed her handphone, and her going around the house searching for it was a common sight. I did not know when this behaviour changed, but when I finally noticed, her phone was by her side all the times, even going into the washroom. The only times when her phone was not with her was when she came back from work and her handphone was occasionally in her laptop bag.

Gradually, she began spending more time on her phone then with her books. From side glances, I could see she was texting on WeChat. I thought hard, trying to recall that point in time when her behaviour changed. This could have gone on for 4 or 5 months before I took notice. When I stood up from my seat or went near her, she would quickly close the WeChat application and browse some other apps. My interest and curiosity piqued.

Further changes occurred. Jane would usually hit the gym once a month, but the frequency increased to once each weekend. She used to wear normal tees and bermudas to the gym. After a couple of months or so, she started wearing shorts. That changed to fitting gym pants which showed off her smooth legs and shapely butt. The gym pants looked great on her, they rode up her ass and defined the shape of her camel toe so nicely. When coupled with her new range of sport bras, she looked hot, not going to lie. I could almost imagine the men in the gym staring at her firm ass, shapely camel toe and legs, getting distracted during their workout. Boy, what did I even know...

Her texting on WeChat continued and occasionally on WhatsApp too. This behavior had went on for about 4 - 5 months now. I talked to her about it, and she just brushed me off, saying she was texting friends or colleagues. Probably, but sometimes at 2 to 3am into the night? I needed to sleep early for work, and could only see the light from her mobile phone illuminating her face in our dark bedroom. I could not keep up and usually dozed off before her.

My curiosity was on the verge of bursting. I needed to know who and what she was texting. Her behaviour had changed too. She was visibly more feminine and incredibly sexy with her latest wardrobe. She had a new, sexy black dress, which she never wore for me, writing it off as being too tight and an impulse purchase. A few new fitting dresses, tops, lace lingerie and hot sports wear completed the collection.

A few months down the road, the day came. She reached home at about 9pm, threw her laptop bag onto the living room couch beside me and rushed to our bedroom washroom. She was having day one of her menses. I knew she would take longer than usual to bath and wash up. I put down the PSP I was playing and peeped into her bag. Lo and behold, her handphone was there. My heart started to pound furiously. Should I take a peep, I thought to myself. I knew I had a good 20 minutes or so before she was done, and I could hear the sound of the toilet flushes and bathing water from where I sat. I could pull this off without a problem. What would I see? It could be nothing at all, or it could reveal months of mystery that was kept away from me. With my heart literally at my throat, I pulled out her handphone, taking care to remember the position it was placed so as to place it back exactly the way it was. I opened the case flap and was greeted with the homepage. No pin, as expected, as she wouldn't be able to remember her own passwords and hence, didn't set one. I pressed on Wechat and the globe screen loaded up...