THE PRINCESS CIRCLE - When Love Becomes Performance
The Illusion of Effort: A Story of Expectations and Loss
Story: S A Spencer
Author of Popular Fictions: The Pink Mutiny, The Black Waters, Dream In Shackles
I. The
Glow
Nina’s phone
lit up with messages before she’d even finished her morning chai.
“Girls, look
what Aarav did today 😍” “Breakfast in bed again!” “Spa
voucher from my man — I’m screaming.”
The group
chat — The Queens — was a constant stream of curated perfection.
Filtered photos. Staged surprises. Exaggerated stories.
Nina
scrolled through them with a tightness in her chest she didn’t want to name.
Her
boyfriend, Joseph, was steady, gentle, and practical. But he wasn’t… this.
That night,
as she lay in bed, the glow of her phone reflecting in her eyes, she felt
something shift inside her — small, sharp, and persistent.
The next
morning, she looked at Joseph differently.
II. The
Shift
It began
with a question.
“Why don’t
you ever surprise me?”
Joseph
blinked, confused. “Surprise you how?”
“You know…
like other boyfriends do.”
He didn’t
understand what she meant, but he understood the fear behind her tone — the
fear of being left behind, of not being enough.
So he tried.
He brought
her flowers. He cooked dinner. He wrote her notes in awkward handwriting. He
took photos of her even though he hated cameras.
Nina posted
everything.
Her friends
flooded the chat with heart emojis. “OMG Nina, he’s perfect!” “You manifested
this!”
The
validation was addictive.
One evening,
she snapped a photo of Joseph washing dishes and posted it with the caption:
“Find
yourself a man who treats you like a queen.”
The likes
poured in.
Joseph
didn’t say anything. But he dried his hands slower than usual.
III. The
Strain
They married
the following year.
The wedding
photos were flawless — colour‑coordinated, edited, and curated for maximum
impact. Nina’s friends declared her the luckiest among them.
Joseph kept
up the effort.
He woke
early to make her breakfast. He handled all the chores. He complimented her
every morning. He managed the bills, the errands, the invisible labour.
Nina
expected it now. It wasn’t special anymore — it was normal.
If he forgot
something — even something tiny — she reacted sharply.
“You don’t
care about me.” “You’ve changed.” “You used to try harder.”
Joseph
apologised every time.
But
something inside him was thinning, like fabric worn down by too many washes.
One evening,
after a long day, he forgot to compliment her new dress. Nina’s face tightened.
“You didn’t
even notice.”
Joseph
opened his mouth to respond — then closed it again.
IV. The
Silence
Their home
became a stage.
Nina curated
every moment for social media. Joseph played the role she needed him to play.
But behind
the scenes, resentment grew quietly.
He felt
invisible unless he was performing. She felt unloved unless he was performing.
Her friends
continued posting their perfect lives — but slowly, Nina began noticing the
cracks.
One friend
stopped posting entirely. Another quietly deleted all couple photos. A third
admitted she’d exaggerated everything.
But Nina
didn’t slow down. She pushed harder.
One night,
after a tense argument, Joseph sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the
floor.
“I don’t
know who I am anymore,” he said softly.
Nina felt a
flicker of fear — but she swallowed it.
“You’re my
husband,” she said. “You’re supposed to make me feel special.”
He looked up
at her, eyes tired in a way she’d never seen.
“And who
makes me feel special, Nina?”
The question
hung in the air, heavy and unanswered.
V. The
Fourth Anniversary
Nina had
planned an elaborate anniversary setup — fairy lights, candles, matching
outfits. She expected Joseph to match her enthusiasm.
But he came
home late, drained from a brutal day at work. He apologised, but it wasn’t
enough.
“You ruined
everything,” she snapped. “You don’t care about this marriage.” “You don’t care
about me.”
Joseph stood
still, letting the words settle.
Then, in a
voice that was almost too calm, he said:
“I can’t do
this anymore.”
Nina froze.
“Do what?”
“This
performance. This version of love. I’m tired, Nina.”
She opened
her mouth to argue — but the emptiness in his eyes stopped her.
He packed a
small bag. No shouting. No drama. Just a quiet exit from a life that had
drained him dry.
Nina watched
him leave, her breath caught somewhere between anger and grief.
VI.
Afterwards
The marriage
ended a few months later.
Her friends’
relationships also began to unravel — one by one, the truth surfaced. The
princess treatment had been curated, exaggerated, or entirely fabricated.
Nina stopped
posting for a while. She stopped comparing. She stopped demanding.
She started
thinking.
She realised
she had built her marriage on borrowed fantasies — expectations shaped by
filtered photos and half‑truths.
Joseph
wasn’t perfect. But he had loved her sincerely. And she had turned that love
into labour.
One evening,
she stood by her window, watching the city lights flicker across Vadodara’s
skyline. She felt a quiet ache — not for the marriage, but for the version of
herself who believed love needed to be performed to be real.
She didn’t
rush into a new relationship. She didn’t chase grand gestures.
She learned
to sit with herself. To appreciate small, genuine moments. To understand that
love is partnership, not performance.
Some
relationships don’t fail because of lack of love. They fail because love
becomes a show.
And Nina
finally understood that she didn’t need to be treated like a queen. She just
needed to be treated like a person.
🔔
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
This story explores how social comparison can distort our understanding of love. In a world where relationships are curated for likes and validation, it’s easy to forget that real partnership is built on honesty, not performance. If this story resonates with you, I hope it encourages you to look beyond the filters — and value the quiet, genuine moments that never make it to social media.
S A Spencer- I will bring more stories for your entertainment. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter so that you know when a new story comes.
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