The Romantic

When Celeste arrived at the apartment Hadriel once shared with Uncle Mauricio Maravilla-Fuentes, there was sadness in her eyes.

Hadriel sat beside her and listened. Destiny had pulled back the curtain to reveal the disloyalty she did not deserve. He contemplated divulging his role in maintaining that deception. Would she forgive me for enabling Nathan’s behavior?

Truth was Hadriel knew he deserved no absolution for his part in that play, and decided he would not hope for a pardon that he had no right to ask for.

No longer inhibited by some twisted sense of loyalty, he held Celeste when she shared what she had witnessed.

When the moon lingered highest in the sky, Celeste arrived at Nathan’s apartment, and floated through the halls like a ghost. Celeste entered Nathan’s room and stood at the foot of the bed. The light from the lamp revealed her presence to Nathan when he woke and saw her through sleepy eyes. He dismissed her as an apparition of his dreams and turned to a stranger named Abigail, lying beside him, her nakedness exposed to them both.

When Nathan failed to acknowledge her ubiquity—now being privy to not only what she witnessed, but also seemingly having been present during the agonizing copulation that occurred prior to her arrival—her anguished imagination provided her with the heart wrenching details.

Celeste climbed onto the bed and settled herself between them until Nathan woke with a start. The visit had been brief and though Nathan later accused Celeste of indecently prying, searching for an answer to a question she didn’t know she wanted to ask; her fears met her pain when she met Abigail in Nathan’s bed.

Celeste asked Hadriel why Nathan had cheated. She could not believe what her first love had become.