Yes, again.
I heard Luci speaking in Italian and I twisted my head in surprise to see her approaching, a cell to her ear, and I was surprised because she’d walked away not a minute ago.
And she didn’t have her laptop with her.
She stopped by my side, said something, then said, “Ciao,” then took the phone from her ear, extended it to me, I noticed she had the same phone as me right before she said, “I heard it ringing as I was walking by, cara, your bag is in the other room. I answered it. It’s a lady called Celeste?”
Suddenly, my cell phone morphed into the head of ferocious, snapping wolf with rabies though I didn’t know if wolves could get rabies but my phone wolf had them.
Definitely.
“Kia?” Luci prompted on a shake of my phone.
Oh man. Here we go. Celeste was probably curious about how my date went.
Now it was nine thirty in the morning after I slept in my fabulous gown and my fabulous shoes with a man I had practically just met, something Celeste was way too cool, chic and sophisticated to ever, ever do.
I reached out, took the phone, whispered, “Thanks, Luci,” then hesitantly put it to my ear and said softly, “Hey, Celeste.”
“Well?” was her reply.
I blinked at my knees.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Well? The woman I just spoke to told me she was Luciana Gordon. The Luciana, I assume, whose party you told me you were going to last night?”
Oh man.
“Celeste, um… well…” God! “Honey, last night, I had a bit too much to drink.”
“Excellent.”
I blinked again.
Then I repeated, “Sorry?”
“Ma chérie, you were tense, champagne is excellent at relieving stress. This is good.”
“Okay, well…” Shit! “Maybe I should have said I had way too much to drink.”
Silence then, “And how is that, Kia?”
I sucked in breath.
I didn’t want to tell her this and I really didn’t want to tell her this with a Luci who had not gone back to get her computer but instead settled herself in the chair by me at the table and was currently pouring herself a cup of coffee and therefore also was going to stay awhile. I couldn’t get up and wander away because I figured that would be rude, maybe not as rude as Luci’s obvious eavesdropping, but still rude.
So I had no choice.
And that was why I glued my eyes to my knees and whispered, “I… something happened and, I couldn’t help it. See, um…” I rushed the rest out. “I didn’t tell you this but I’m a widow and my husband was abusive and last night, like, ten minutes after we got here, something happened and then Sam wanted my attention so he got it and he was kind of physical doing it and I, well… I freaked out, exposed my secrets because I kind of couldn’t, um… not react. And he, well, then he freaked out in his, uh… Sam way because he freaked me out. He was really upset and then he promised me he’d never hurt me and shared about his life and when I told him I couldn’t trust him not to hurt me that was when he promised me he’d make me believe he’d never hurt me then he spent the rest of the night being really nice and he was all, well… Sam being a gentleman and making sure I wasn’t left out of conversations and stuff like that so, I, well, I kind of haven’t told you this but I’m wealthy but, I’m, you know, new to being wealthy and I was just a normal person before and will eventually not be on vacation, I’ll go home and be normal again and I got kind of drunk and felt Sam needed to know I was not, you know, like him and so I told him I wasn’t and he told me he didn’t care but it was more than him not caring, he told me he was like me and told me I was not the fraud I was trying to convince him I was and I was just me then we spent the night talking about family and friends while lying in bed, I fell asleep in his arms and today he’s taking me out on a boat and showing me Lake Como.”
I finally shut up then I sucked in breath, continued to ignore the completely unmoving Luci and I waited.
Celeste didn’t speak.
Shit.
“Celeste?” I called softly.
Nothing.
I kept trying. “Are you disappointed in me that I… well, didn’t take your advice, especially when you were so kind, and that I, you know, kept from you I’m normal?”
That was when she spoke.
And this was what she said.
“Ma chérie, you are many things and one of them is not normal.”
I blinked at my knees again, not sure if this was good or bad.
She kept talking.
And she was doing it quietly.
“Thomas and I, we had a daughter.”
She said “had”.
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
“Celeste,” I whispered.
“We lost her when she was twelve. She had leukemia. That was four years ago.”
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit!
“Honey.” I was still whispering.
“She was blonde with green eyes.”
I closed my eyes which were green but still felt them fill with tears.
“Her name was Clémence.”
OhGodohnoohshit!