Celestine didn’t think about it too hard.
That was the thing about a certain kind of warm the candle kind, the Hennessy kind, the kind that builds slow over the course of a whole day.
She just walked over.
Stood in front of his chair.
Isaiah looked up at her from behind the bunny mask and the look in his eyes was focused directly on her face.
“You good?” she asked. Quiet. Just for him.
“Better now,” he said.
She laughed a little.
Sat on the arm of the chair because the chair was wide enough and she felt like it.
Started talking — nothing heavy, the kind of conversation that’s really confirming they like the sound of each other.
Isaiah looked her in her eyes the whole time like there was nothing else in the room.
Which was the problem.
Because while he was looking at Celestine he had the kind of problem that’s stands at attention has made it’s presence.
She noticed it in her peripheral vision first.
Tried not to.
She kept talking.
Said something about the ham.
Then something about where he stayed.
Normal hostess conversation sitting on the arm of his chair in an open silk top at eleven o’clock at night and Isaiah was looking at her like he found the golden egg.
All that adrenaline flowing downward through him made his solider stand. Without warning.
Celestine was trying to keep a straight face.
Eyes on his mask.
Conversation continuing.
Nothing to see here.
Loretta saw it.
Of course she did.
Loretta had been seeing things she wasn’t supposed to see since the third grade.
It was her “spiritual gift” she says.
She didn’t say anything just changed places on the sectional reaching back and moving her locs from around her neck fanning herself trying to get air with her open hand.
“Is it hot in here to y’all,” “or is it just me?”
Elizabeth looked up. Looked over at Loretta.
Then looked in the direction of the armchair.
“Mm,” Elizabeth said. Just that. Mm.
The candles kept burning. The playlist kept moving. Nobody elaborated.
Isaiah shifted in the chair.
He casually repositioned the pillow with the intent of a man trying very hard to hide a big situation that wasn’t cooperating.
He cleared his throat.
Looked toward the bookshelf. Then the window.
There were three women that looked unbothered.
Loretta with her locs up fanning herself.
Elizabeth across the sectional looking like she was doing math.
Celestine sitting on the arm of his chair talking to him like everything was fine when it wasn’t with things pointing to the sky.
He crossed one leg over the other.
The pillow slipped.
He caught it.
Loretta took a long sip of wine and looked at the ceiling.
Celestine felt the shift before she fully processed it.
The room was getting warm not warm but hot.
The kind of hot that builds when a group of adults all become aware of the same thing and collectively decide not to say it out loud.
She looked at Isaiah.
He was trying so hard.
Sitting up slightly repositioning the pillow.
His mask was still on straight while he was doing his absolute best to be a respectful guest and trying not to ruined the moment.
It was, genuinely, one of the more endearing things she has seen.
She stood up from the arm of the chair.
Reached up.
And slid the silk nightgown off her shoulders.
Let it fall.
She caught it before it hit the floor, folded it once, set it on the side table.
Like it was nothing.
Standing up in just her open silk top which barely covered her upper thighs what it covered and left the rest hoping that pen fall from behind her ear.
With the orange light from the sun glowing through white blinds.
Celestine turned back toward the sectional and sat down on the cushion nearest to Isaiah.
Completely calm.
“There,” she said to nobody specific.
Elizabeth raised her glass.
“Well, join the club, honey.”
She indicated herself and Loretta, both already came to that decision an hour ago.
Loretta nodded sagely. “The club has been open.”
Isaiah stared at Celestine from behind the bunny mask.
The pillow was no longer an option for hiding something that couldn’t be hidden.
He sat there for a minute just to see their faces then put the pillow back on his lap.
Looked at the three women moving like something when you turn the lights on across the sectional and grabbing a chair.
“Y’all do this every Easter?” he asked.
“No,” Celestine said.
She looked at him directly past his mask.
Right into his eyes.
“Just this one.”
To be continued…