Celeste. Matteo, Marie, and Trina’s places she soon figured out as Trina walked up to her aunt and sat down.
“Good to see you again,” Celeste started right away, and Marie turned to her with a frozen smile.
“Hello. Thank you for having us over for this special occasion.” Marie had practiced that in her head a hundred times, changed the words, tried to perfect the sentence until that was what she came up with.
“It’s my pleasure. It’s not every day a woman gets to have her husband’s illegitimate child at her table, after all. It’s a… special treat, isn’t it?” Celeste pursed her lips and looked down her nose at Marie with nothing but pure hatred.
“I can go if you prefer?” Marie met that glacial stare head-on without a flinch. “I was under the impression you invited me here, but if not, I can leave with my deepest apologies.”
“No, of course not. You’re right. My apologies.” From the way her jaw worked and her eyes closed, Marie knew Celeste wasn’t really sorry at all. It was more like she was trying to control her disgust. Marie couldn’t blame her, but then, Celeste did invite her here. It was her own fault she had to eat with her dead husband’s bastard, wasn’t it?
“Thank you.” Marie turned away to look at Matteo, sat across from her on Celeste’s right.
“Stab that old biddy with your butter knife, Marie,” Trina whispered once Celeste’s attention had turned to someone two seats down from Matteo.
“What?” Marie gasped softly and turned to stare at Trina with horror.
“I’m joking, just joking. Calm down.” Her hand came down over Marie’s wrist and she gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Although, she would deserve it after what she just said.”
“I couldn’t.” Marie paused, saw the hopeful, playful look in Trina’s eyes, and decided that the woman really was only messing around with her. “The knife is too dull.”
Trina laughed that sweet tinkle of a laugh again and winked at Marie. She did a lot of winking this woman, Marie decided. “We’re going to get along fine.”
“Matteo said we would,” Marie responded and pulled back as a woman in a black maid’s uniform came up to fill her glass with red wine. Marie pulled up the glass and tilted it at her new friend. She hoped. “To new friends.”
“To new lives,” Trina added and they both took a sip of their wine before a man in a black suit came out and started to spread food along the table.
Marie ate a few slices of turkey, some cranberry sauce, and a few bites of mashed potatoes before her stomach started to rebel. It wasn’t happy about eating right now, not under this much stress, and she looked over at Matteo. He smiled a smile that was only for her across the black marble table.
Marie didn’t notice the tableware, it might have been white or black, or it could have been solid gold. All she noticed was how the moments ticked by, and how the urge to run away only increased. Matteo noticed she’d stopped eating and stood up.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Aunt Celeste, but I fear my wife may be a little under the weather. Perhaps it’s the same bug my mother has.” The twist of his lips told her it wasn’t the same “bug”, but she wouldn’t pry. She’d already heard one couple whispering about his mother’s fondness for gin. This was just a dig at Celeste then, the cause of the woman’s drinking, or so the whispers had said. “In any case, thank you for the food and your company. I hope to see you again soon. Good night all, merry Christmas.”
Before anyone could say anything else, before Celeste could protest at all, Matteo had swooped Marie up and led her out to the foyer to collect their coats. Matteo was all but running by the time they got there, and Marie giggled. They snatched their coats and ran out of the door to the car without even putting the coats on first.
Matteo hit the button to unlock the doors of the car and they hopped in and sped away. “I’ll pay for that later, one way or another. But you know what? I don’t really give a fuck. I’ve got you all to myself again.”
He kissed her hand in his, then let it go to change gears.
“I hope it was worth it. I could have laughed my heart out at the shock on her face, but I wanted out so