milliways_bar | (no subject)

Yoga pants and t-shirts have never really been Celine's style, but she doesn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter lately.

It's been a while since she's been in the bar, but apparently something has changed again. For about three seconds, Celine convinces herself that she can climb up onto a barstool, but that is so not happening. So she gives up and orders a Shirley Temple to take somewhere else.

Her first glass of wine is going to be pure bliss and she cannot wait.

Too bad Celine's so close to bursting; Tess could have given her some pregnancy fashion tips.

She notices the woman in her struggle to get on a stool and remembers seeing her before.

"Hi, Celine? I'm Tess, a friend of Wilford's."

Edited 2020-11-13 20:22 (UTC)

Celine jumps a little bit, surprised to be recognised somewhere she hardly ever visits.

"Oh. Hi," she says, settling again. She doesn't recognise Tess, but Will has a lot of friends. And 'friends. "I don't think we've met."

"No, we haven't, but I've seen a picture of you."

Which sounds a little stalky, but it wasn't like that at all. She reaches out a hand to shake.

"Are you comfortable enough? I can get you another pillow if you'd like."

Both of Celine's husbands have been very high profile. She knew what she was getting into (this time, at least).

"I think so, thank you."

She hastily orders a plate of nachos to go with her drink, and takes both to a nearby table.

"How do you know Will?" she asks.

Tess quickly blows out her candles and follows Celine, cupcakes in hand.

"Oh, from here. I think I slapped him the first time we met,"

Well. Celine isn't going to laugh at that, however much she may want to.

She's happy today at least, which seems to be rare.

"I might have shouted in his face the first time we met." Though it probably wasn't his fault. Celine tries to remember as she takes a drink. "I might have also kidnapped him," she realises.

Whoops.

"We all have our faults."

She sits on one of the chairs, putting the cupcakes on the table.

"I think he's used to it by now."

Celine laughs, but holds her tongue. Just. She looks at the cupcakes as she tries to eat a cheesy, loaded tortilla chip without looking ridiculous. She points at them as she eats, though it's hard to be curious and polite right now.

"Is it your birthday?" she asks after a moment.

"Yes. Apparently it's still a big one."

She smiles slightly.

"Didn't think I'd make it this far."

"I think I'm going to skip my next one," Celine says. "These two will be a couple months old, and I'll be lucky if I get a dinner that doesn't come out of the microwave."

She nods down at her stomach, acknowledging the reason she feels like she's in danger of rolling away.

"Tell Wilford to hire a chef."

Removing the candles, she smiles again.

"He tells me you're almost there."

Celine shakes her head. "We have a nanny, and that's more people than he wants in the house. He's a very private man."

She eats more chips, and washes them down with a drink that is seriously not hitting the spot.

"My mom moved in downstairs yesterday and I thought he was going to collapse on the floor."

"Right."

She tends to forget this since he's fairly open with her.

"Hey, if you need to collapse, collapse. I have an eight month old and I still feel that way sometimes."

Tess doesn't live in his house and put his pots and pans in the wrong order.

"I'll probably have to," Celine admits. "We have a condo in town, so we don't have seven people in one house all the time."

Yeah, there'd be issues with that.

"Seven people is a lot. I can barely stand the nanny most days."

Tess is known for her curiosity.

"Michael seems very taken with you."

"That little boy was so starved for a mother, he was probably ready to enlist the dog for the role." She shakes her head. "His grandmother won't even acknowledge him. Won't even send him a birthday card."

"How cruel. He's a great kid."

She sighs.

"But I know some parents just don't care."

"She had him for a month before she put him on a plane and sent him out here," Celine says. "Before then, his... 'real' dad had him most of the time."

She doesn't like the term, but can't figure out another way to phrase it.

"When I met Michael, he was three years old and didn't know a single word."

For Tess it depends. When talking about them collectively they're her biological and adoptive father. When they're individual, Lionel is her father, Gerrard is her dad.

She laughs.

"He certainly knows words now, but I remember those days. Poor little guy.

"Oh my god, you can't shut him up!" Celine laughs. "But it's better than letting him get self-conscious."

She worries it'll cause problems when he starts school, but that's a problem for the future at this point.

"I keep trying to convince myself that the twins will be quiet, but I already know better."

"Yes, I hear they're a bit of a handful. Just the one's been more than enough for me."

But Celine has seven people to help her!

"You said eight months?" Celine asks. "What's that like?"

This drink is just really not cutting it at all. It's not fair.

"She's calmer, sleeps a lot more and eats a lot more. Chatty but not with words. Still can't decide if she wants soft food or the breast."

She smiles and pulls out a picture to show Celine.

"I still don't know what I'm going to do with that," Celine says. The whole situation is going to be chaos. Planning almost feels moot at this point.

She leans forward to look at the picture. "Well, she is adorable. I'm sure she'll learn how to cause all kinds of hell later."

"Oh no doubt."

She pushes a cupcake toward Celine.

"Breast feeding was my choice, but there are many places you can go for alternate options"

For a moment, Celine considers declining, but she takes it with a small "thanks" instead. It is, after all, another one of those things that isn't often allowed in the house, and she is indulging all she can, while she can.

"I've had so many options thrown at me, my head's spinning. Honestly, I can't wait to spend a few nights by myself."

"I'd do that soon before you can't."

Tess offers a sympathetic smile.

"I know, it's such a difficult time. I mean, I have staff, but mostly it's just me and Lettie. I couldn't imagine what having that many people around is like."

Celine almost laughs. "Oh, believe me. There's no being alone right now, even when Will doesn't come to bed." She wants to be alone alone.

"And the only help we really have is Mom and Andy. Michael's going to stay with a friend for the first few weeks. Mom and I are going to the condo, and Will and Andy are staying at the house."

"That's what he said the plan was."

She's quiet a moment.

"It's good your mom came."

Celine takes a moment to respond. "She worries," she says, though her emotions might betray her just a little bit. She knows why her mother worries, and it worries her too.

"She went through the same thing, so she knows what it's like."

"Really? Do twins run in your family?"

Celine nods. "They do. She's an expath too."

She briefly wonders about Damien, and where he is, but forces it out before she can get too emotional over it.

"Are you close?"

Whether she means Celine's mother or sibling she isn't sure.

"We try to be," Celine says. "She's a little better at controlling herself, but it can still get rough when there's a lot of people in the room."

And poor Damien, caught in the middle.

"I never knew my mother. Mothers, actually. I'm adopted."

And don't get her started on her brother.

"That's what my mom worries about," Celine says. She sighs. "They divorced before our first birthday."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Tess wishes her parents had only been about divorce.

"I never really knew my adoptive mother. My dad raised me."

Celine takes a drink from her glass, giving herself a moment to compartmentalise. She focuses on the cloying sweetness of her drink, and wonders how she ever enjoyed them when she was younger.

"It was hard for him," Celine says finally. "I didn't learn how to use my abilities. I had to learn how to not use them. It must have been like teaching an infant not to breathe."

She frowns slightly.

"Was he part of your life at all?"

Celine nods. "He is. He came back when we were older. He knows what's happening, and has boundaries. He won't be around for a while again."

Celine knows exactly what her abilities can do to people. She's lived with the consequences of it.

"Well, that's something."

She nods.

"It seems many men think a divorce means they no longer have children."

"It's tough," Celine says. "I married my first husband when I was nineteen. If I'd got pregnant then, we probably wouldn't have spent so long hating one another."

She still doesn't know what she'd have done if she'd got pregnant with Mark. It's a miracle it didn't happen.

"God, if I'd married my boyfriend at nineteen things would have been a disaster."

If not only because she and Oliver didn't really love each other.

Celine holds her head up with grace and poise that feels completely fake in her current condition.

"He was an actor, and he called me beautiful, and I was an idiot and didn't care that he was thirty."

It was such a disaster.

"Mine was a billionaire playboy who had just saved my life. We were together a year before he left me."

And if he hadn't, she would have spent the most miserable life being Mrs. Queen.

"That sounds exciting!" Celine says.

"But at least I'm learning. Will's only eight years older than me."

She is aware it's not much better.

"It was. Booze, parties and sex until one morning I woke up and he was gone."

Which was really for the best for both of them.

"Nothing wrong with an older man. Just so long as you know what you're getting into."

Celine sighs, a little over-dramatic. "Here's hoping," she says.

She does not feel like she knows what she's getting into. She feels like she is in over her head again. It scares her, more than she can really clamp down on. She tries to pull it back, and then drown it in nachos.