celeste xx
Hearing the surprise he had for their daughter, the anger that the woman was feeling in regard to Nacho’s current relationship deliquesced into a smaller, weaker version of itself. Her expression softened, and she smiled with a heartfelt sentiment in her eyes. Her vulnerability, however, had slowed to a point where she feared it may have been all too genuine, and surely that was bad press considering her marriage, so she created a facade of hyper excitement in her reply.
“Did you reaaally?” She beamed, because although she was trying not to be so sincere, her joy was difficult to mask. “Ignacio she’s going to love that.” And her reply was meant to sound easy and natural, but she realized it was so much so that she had not used his stage name. At this, her reflex was to widen her eyes a bit, and then quickly control herself, biting down on anything she could say to make the situation worse. Isaac was going to be livid, and she had enough tantrums to deal with at home already. Sometimes three kids felt like four when Isaac was upset.
For a moment she thought about how Nacho would not be like that in the same situation, it was the only thing she could focus on when he replied to her statement that everything was going well. She did not know if she believed him on his contentment with Sunny, in fact she knew that she did not believe him, and she sensed that he did not believe her, but they could not say it, because it was no longer appropriate for them to point out such things. The only things that they could express were their genuine regards for each other. It was often the only part of these red carpet conversations that felt real, and if she had chosen any part of their interactions to be sincere, then it would have been these kind parts.
It was that stupid feeling of a love affair that had dissolved like sugar in lemonade. The drink could be mixed, stirring your straw until you cannot see the pit of white at the bottom of your cup… but the little pieces do not cease to exist. They only blend in. Their love too, swirled lost in citric waters.
He said that Isaac was a lucky man, and she smiled back, tasting the bitterness of wedding bands in her slow-drying mouth. She needed sweetness but even then he could not give her what she needed.
“He is a lucky man…” she joked weakly, overcompensating for the empty space she felt within herself.
He commended Sunny for her strength, and she nodded, listening to him thank her for her assumed concern. Without a word, she nodded, understanding that as much as she pried he would not tell her. Even though Celeste felt like she needed the bit information, she still nodded. It may have seemed courteous that she decided not to push him for more, but the truth was that she backed down because of her lamb-like tendencies. She must not have had the strength that sunny did.
“Of course,” she replied to his thank you. “She’s strong for dealing with you, too,” Celeste half-joked. It was the closest she could get to a rebuttal so she took it, swallowing her resentment and shallowly enjoying their humor. Her staged laugh was a bit dramatic, so it likely appeared like flirting when Isaac stormed over to them, swooping her closer by her waist, cocking her head to the side when her hair hit his shoulders in a way that was less than gentle.
She laughed because she could not scream. She wanted to shout at him badly, but she supposed they would have to save it for later.
“Babyyyy!” She scrunched her nose, hoping that the vein in her forehead would not pop out. “I missed you too!” She explained falsely, and then let Nacho greet him stumped. He was embarassing her by trying to argue here. She would be embarrassing herself if she let it continue.
Proudly he announced that she was speaking to her ex-husband, as if narrating a penalty to a stadium and her cheeks flushed, feeling even worse. His grip on her waist had been tight and quick, and she was beginning to feel the slight twist that he had made to her shapewear, that her stylist forced on her although she did not need it. Ignacio replied, and she gave him a polite smile, the best she could do for an apology for their interruption.
“We were talking about Lila,” she told him in her civil voice, trying her best to mediate his intolerably raving beams of whatever emotion he was feeling, and the quiet discomfort that Nacho was expressing. “I was asking about a gift he had gotten her, and about how his De La Cruz girlfriend was doing?” She feigned a chuckle, gesturing at how obvious it should have been that she did not approach her ex-husband to seduce him, and how ridiculous the idea was.