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Post by Jenny on Sept 7, 2007 15:08:20 GMT -5
[Yes, Nero and Carmy. Ok....]
Carmelita spent about five minutes by herself in he living room of the apartment, sitting on an old armchair and wondering what to do. She didn't want to lose touch with Esmé and Jerome when she married Nero because they didn't get along together.She certainly didn't want to not marry Nero because of their arguing. The only thing to do was help them get used to each other.
....And cheer Nero up. He was bound to be very upset now. He wasn't that great a violin player, but he practiced hard and had improved recently. This was definitely a knockback. She sighed, standing. She would have to sort this out. The first step was Nero.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 7, 2007 18:50:19 GMT -5
Carmelita rapped her fist lightly against the door. When no answer came, she pushed the door forwards and peeked inside. There was Nero, sitting at the edge of the bed with his back to her. He appeared to be sulking. At this point, he reminded her a little of Esmé, and Carmelita would have laughed had the circumstances been any different. It really was a shame that Esmé and Nero didn’t get along better, for they were so much alike in certain ways: Esmé, with her obsession on what was in and what was out, and Nero, who was so fixated on his violin.
“Hi,” Carmelita said as she stepped into the room.
Nero didn’t turn around, but mumbled something that sounded like a hello.
“I’d like to apologize again for my parents,” Carmelita said, taking a seat beside her sullen fiancée and taking his arm in her hands. “Well, for Esmé, anyway.”
Nero still didn’t say a word and instead chose to focus sharply on his feet.
Carmelita tried again. “Do you remember where you GOT that violin?”
Nero turned to her, a look of curiosity in his eyes. “Why, of course,” he said. “It was custom-made by an expert violin manufacturer in Italy.”
Carmelita shook her head. “Yes, but do you remember who GAVE it to you?”
“Ah, yes.” Nero smiled as he began to recall more details. “It was right before Christmas, several months after the fire. You came into my office and handed me an oddly shaped box wrapped in shiny red paper tied with a gold ribbon.”
“I’ll never forget that day,” Carmelita said, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Or the look on your face.”
“It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me,” Nero replied, and kissed her on top of her soft red head.
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Post by Jenny on Sept 8, 2007 16:32:11 GMT -5
[No, great idea! I love that. Aww....]
She sat down beside him and curled her arms around his neck.
'I'm going to call Esme and Jerome tomorrow,' she said softly. He didn't look too keen to do that. 'I promise you'll get to like each other. You and Esmé, I mean.'
'I don't hate her,' he muttered. 'She hates me, though....'
Carmelita couldn't argue. '...It'll be fine.She'll get over it.'
He hummed in hopeful agreement. 'Anyway,' he said quietly. 'It's late, and I'm sure you must be as tired as I am.'
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 8, 2007 19:08:23 GMT -5
“Yes,” Carmelita agreed. “I am. Let’s turn in.”
They undressed silently and got into their pajamas. Nothing more was said about the tense evening as they crawled into bed and snuggled down into the warm embrace of one another.
The next morning, after Nero had gone to work, Carmelita picked up the telephone and dialed Esmé’s number. To Carmelita’s surprise, Jerome answered.
“Hello,” he said cheerfully, “Squalor residence.”
“Jerome?” Carmelita asked.
“Hi, Carmy.”
“So I guess my intuition was right… you DID stay the night with Esmé.”
“She needed me. I couldn’t just leave her alone.”
“Has she left for work yet?” Carmelita asked. “I kind of needed to talk to her about things.” She paused. “And Nero.”
“Yes, she’s here,” Jerome replied. “Hold on.”
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Post by Jenny on Sept 9, 2007 15:42:44 GMT -5
She heard footsteps and a brief conversation before finally Esmé answered her call.
'Carmelita,' she said. It wasn't a question. She knew her adoptive daughter would be on the other end, even without asking.
'Yes,' Carmelita said softly. 'It's me. I want to talk.'
Esmé coughed, and smiled lightly at Jerome. She wanted to blame him for putting her on the phone, but couldn't seem to. It wasn't his fault, not really.
She sat down at the kitchen table. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I'm sorry about last night. Apologise to your...fiancé for me.'
'Apologise yourself,' Carmelita said firmly. 'I won't have you two arguing all the time.'
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 9, 2007 18:08:53 GMT -5
“Is he… there with you?” Esmé asked, secretly hoping it wasn’t true.
“No,” Carmelita replied. “He left for work about an hour ago. But he’ll be home at three-thirty.” She paused. “That is, unless he has to oversee another detention. Why don’t you call back then?”
“You mean to speak to Nero?”
“Well, of course. You don’t expect me to have you and Jerome over to the apartment so soon after what happened last night, do you?”
“No,” Esmé replied. “I suppose not.”
“I know this is difficult for you to understand,” Carmelita said. “But I honestly LOVE Nero. I refuse to choose between my family and my fiancée. I want you at my wedding, Esmé, but I don’t want it to be ruined just because you don’t get along with Nero.”
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Post by Jenny on Sept 12, 2007 15:21:03 GMT -5
Esmé bit her lip angrily. She couldn't say she often tolerated being spoken to in such a manner, but for Carmelita perhaps she would keep her head.
'I understand,' she said quietly, and nothing else.
Carmelita paused. 'Alright,' she said, not having expected it to be so easy. 'And you will call back, won't you?'
'Of course,' Esmé said, smiling through clenched teeth. 'I'll call back and have a...CHAT with Nero.'
Carmelita either didn't detct the venom, or pretended not to. 'Good,' she said, relieved. 'Have a nice day at work.'
'Yes, you too.'
And so their conversation ended. Jerome took the phone from her and put it down.
'How did it go?' he asked kindly.
'Fine.' she answered briskly. Jerome detected the first sign of irritation.
'You're sure?'
'Yes!' she cried. 'I'm fine! How many times, Jerome?'
It hurt him, visibly. Suddenly she was her old self again.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 12, 2007 15:54:09 GMT -5
Carmelita found concentration to be a difficult task throughout the day. At work she had set the oven one degrees too high and nearly burned an entire batch of scones. After that she had been polishing the countertop when her elbow accidentally knocked over an expensive bottle of wine, spilling most of the contents out onto the floor.
The workday ended none too soon, and Carmelita was both relieved and hesitant when she returned to her apartment.
She was happy to see Nero sitting on their battered up old sofa, and she fell gracefully into his arms. “Hi,” she said. “How was YOUR day?”
“The usual,” he replied, twirling the end of her curly ponytail around his finger. “I ordered three students to buy me one large bag of candy each, and took the silverware away from two others.”
“Sounds exciting.” Carmelita gave him a sarcastic smile.
“It was.” Nero leaned down and kissed her scarlet lips.
Just then, the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Carmelita said, pulling herself out of her fiancée’s arms and running over to retrieve the phone. She knew it HAD to be Esmé, and was afraid if Nero answered first he would hang up on her. Carmelita figured if she got to the phone first, she would be able to convince Nero to speak to her adoptive mother.
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Post by Jenny on Sept 13, 2007 14:46:10 GMT -5
She picked up the phone and waited. Suddenly a quiet reply came from the other end.
'It's me,' the small voice said.
'You called back,' Carmelita said softly. 'Well done. How brave.'
She could just hear Esmé straighten her back angrily over the phone. Carmelita smiled over at Nero in the silence, keeping him from rushing away to avoid any conversation.
'Nero,' she sing-songed. 'There's someone on the phone for you.'
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 13, 2007 16:20:06 GMT -5
He looked doubtful, but got up and took the phone from her anyway. “Hello?” he said.
Carmelita returned to the couch and observed the conversation from there. She wanted to be a good distance away if Nero started shouting— for when he got started, it was hard for him to stop.
“Hello,” came the voice of Esmé Squalor on the other end. “Nero?”
“Speaking.”
Carmelita felt her stomach tense up.
“I wanted to say…” There was hesitation in Esmé’s voice. “I wanted to say I’m… I’m…”
“You’re what, woman? Speak up!”
Carmelita pressed her hand against her forehead and fell across the couch. This was it. If this attempt at getting Esmé and Nero to get along failed, Carmelita had no idea what she would do.
“I’m sorry!” Esmé said in a voice so loud that Nero had to hold the phone away from his ear to keep from going deaf.
Carmelita heard it and groaned.
Reason for Editing: had to fix a sentence
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Post by Jenny on Sept 14, 2007 16:39:40 GMT -5
'For Goodness' Sake, Nero! How many times need I tell you? must you hear it so many times over?' Esmé snapped down the phone, irritated after his unpleasantness.
'I don't believe you've ever said it before!' Nero cried.
Esmé chose not to directly answer him. 'Well, I'm not the only one who should be apologising! Do you have anything to say to me, Nero?'
'No!' he shouted. Carmelita was almost angry-almost very angry--he dared speak to her adoptive mother in that way at all. 'I have nothing to say to you, Mrs Squalor, otherwise, surely, wouldn't I be the one who called you?'
Mrs Squalor? Carmelita nearly exploded on the spot. What was he DOING? It had been years since she had been referred to as Mrs Squalor, if ever she had allowed it.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 14, 2007 18:29:09 GMT -5
Carmelita crawled madly over the coffee table and seized the phone out of Nero’s hand. After throwing him a furious glance, she pressed the phone to her ear and said softly, “Esmé?”
A quivering breath resonated on the other line, followed by a small voice: “Yes?”
“I must apologize for Nero. He didn’t know. He SHOULD have… but he didn’t.”
Carmelita glared at him again, then waved her hand and signaled for him to leave the room. Once he had gone, she continued.
“I’ve already told him that you’ve been going by your maiden name for several years now,” Carmelita said, moving along as gently as possible in order to keep old wounds from being opened up any further. “I’m sure he just forgot.”
Carmelita was treading in deep waters now. She felt terribly ashamed of both herself and her fiancée, and waited for Esmé to say something.
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Post by Jenny on Sept 15, 2007 12:05:21 GMT -5
There was a short and uncomfortable silence, and then a sigh from the other end.
'Carmelita,' said Esmé softly. 'Tell your charming fiancé that if he has anything to say to me, he'd better not call tomorrow. Jerome and I will be away briefly.'
'Away?' Carmelita repeated. 'To where? When had you decided?'
From the hesitance, it was revealed Esmé had decided on this just at that moment. 'To an Auction,' she replied softly. 'And perhaps next time when you force me into an apology you should first check the state of your future spouse's mental health.'
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 15, 2007 14:51:09 GMT -5
Carmelita didn’t know what to say. “I’m very sorry you feel that way,” she said. “Perhaps I should let you go.”
“Yes,” Esmé agreed flatly. “Perhaps you should.”
Neither of them said anything about calling the other in a few days, and instead hung up the phones without so much as a goodbye.
Carmelita’s stomach hurt and her head was throbbing. Tears stung the backs of her eyes, and by the time she had made her way over to the couch her cheeks were streaked with them. Sitting down, she covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
She could hear Nero in the back bedroom practicing his violin, so even if she let her sobs get beyond a normal pitch it was doubtful he would notice.
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Post by Jenny on Sept 16, 2007 13:01:04 GMT -5
Jerome had this over excited look on his face, as if everything ought to have been resolved by that one phone call. The look on Esmé's fae as she handed the phone back and strode off away from him told another story entirely.
'What happened?' he asked, eager to know before she rushed away to work and away from any questions, like she always had done.
She grabbed her briefcase, full of files and important papers. He never had truly understood what she actually did with all the numbers printed on the paper.
'As I suspected, Nero is a most volatile man.' she said simply. Jerome resisted the urge to remind her of just how volatile she herself was.
'I see.' Jerome said soflty. He waited until Esmé was safely out of the door before ringing Carmelita back, worry in his voice as she answered.
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