A/N: My dear readers, a new chapter…
I want to thank diffiCULTURE for bringing in some great ideas for this chapter!
A big thanks goes to my betas Smile Life Away and tubazrcool :)
9.
On the way back into her hotel, Celeste was deep in thoughts. Clark Kent touched her heart in ways she had never felt before and this confused her greatly. They had agreed to continue the interview the next afternoon, as it had been too loud in the bar to talk.
Alexander, who was accompanying her in the cab smiled at her. "I think we really shocked the two reporters," he said in his gorgeous Swedish accent.
"We are in the United States, sweetheart," she replied.
"Do you think you can handle the interview tomorrow without me?"
Celeste turned around and looked directly into Alexander's eyes. "What? Where are you going?"
"I have to go to the airport. My girlfriend is arriving at the time we have the interview."
Now the ballet dancer smiled. "Your girlfriend, huh?" She teased him.
"Yes, and guess what? Tomorrow I will propose to her."
"Wow. You are excused. I can handle the reporters on my own. No worries."
Alexander took her hand and kissed it. "This is why I'm so impressed with you. And I haven't even known you for that long. You are very special, Celeste McPherson."
She placed a hand on his cheek. "I'll cover for you. Have all the fun you can have." The cab stopped in front of the hotel and both dancers got out. Inside the lobby, Celeste hugged her dancing partner. "Good night and good luck for tomorrow!"
Then she walked up to the reception. The receptionist gave her the key to her room, and a package addressed to her personally. When she arrived in her suite, she put down her keys and her backpack, and looked curiously at the package in her hands. There was no sender's name and it was addressed to her dancing agency.
Celeste tried to find out what was in it, by feeling through the padded paper. She bit her lower lip. It was obviously a CD or DVD. She shook her head. All this was very mysterious.
Curiously, she opened the envelope and fished a DVD out of it. She held it over her head to find out if there was anything written on it. But she had no such luck. Then she looked into the envelope - hoping there was a clue about whom had sent it. No such luck there, either.
Celeste pursed her lips and thought about what to do - even though it was obvious.
After a couple of minutes, she walked to the DVD-player and fed it with the digital disk and pressed the play button on the remote control.
What's that all about?, she thought, when the first pictures showed up on the television screen.
Firstly, the camera was shaking dangerously. Then a woman stepped into the picture. She was very slim and tall. Her clothing was extremely unusual. It reminded Celeste of the Venetian robes, people used to wear at the Venetian Carnival. Her white mask was decorated with big black feathers and shining rhinestones.
The room where the recording had been made was huge. In the middle of the room, almost placed like an altar, was a canopy bed, covered in black and white chiffon. The linen in the bed was made from silk, beautifully shining in the light reflecting from hundreds of candles placed around the bed.
The woman walked out of sight and Celeste could only hear some people whispering. Then a man appeared. He was dressed similarly to the woman, but his mask was black, and decorated with long white feathers.
The mystic atmosphere was almost palpable, and strange melancholy music emphasised the unusual ambiance.
The woman on the recording indicated the man to sit down, where the camera could catch precisely everything they did. Somehow, Celeste had the suspicion that the man had no idea about the camera directed at him.
Meanwhile, the woman climbed into the man's lap and started to uncover his immaculate body while he grabbed her at her hips and pulled her closer, their lips joining. Celeste watched with eyes wide open how they played with their dancing tongues.
Both started to pant while the woman pulled off her coat, revealing her bare body underneath. Celeste's eyes widened even more, when she realised that both of them started to make love.
The movements became faster, harder and more intense until they reached their climaxes, and finally the sex sounds started to vanish, leaving them just looking at each other, panting, with their chests rising up and down in order to catch their breaths.
After they had calmed down, the man removed his mask, but Celeste could not recognise him. The woman stood up from the bed. While she was walking towards the camera, she too removed her mask and left Celeste looking astonished on the screen.
It was Tania, her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.
When the man called out the woman's name, she turned around, facing him. He walked up to her, now revealing his face to the camera.
Mathieu!
He swept Tania into his arms and kissed her passionately.
Meanwhile, Celeste desperately tried to catch her breath.
Absentmindedly, she stared at the screen. The time stamp indicated that the video was made the night she had flown out to the United States. A sharp pain went through her chest.
Why had her boyfriend done this to her?
Clark heard his home phone ringing, the moment he walked up the steps to his apartment. He turned the key, opened the door and picked up the phone in super-speed.
"Yes?"
"Clark. How are you?" A very smooth voice at the other side of the line asked.
He removed his glasses and put them together with the keys on the coffee table.
"Mom, what's up? Aren't you asleep? It's almost 1 am here in Metropolis."
"We wanted to know how you are," his dad explained.
"We haven't heard from you since we've been back in Smallville," his mother added reproachful.
Clark rubbed weary his eyes. "I know. Sorry about that, but life is pretty busy at the moment." He fished the premiere cards for Romeo and Juliet out of his jacket.
"But I wanted to call you anyway," he said. "It's this new assignment Perry gave us. Jimmy and I went to interview the two main casts of an Australian ballet production." His heartbeat increased at the thought of Celeste. "We got four tickets for the premiere and Jimmy gave me his second card for one of you as he knows how much you both love ballet. It's really good. We had the honour to watch a scene this evening. Actually, we watched two scenes," he added with a wide grin.
"Really?" Martha said in anticipation.
"When is this event?" Jonathan asked.
"In two weeks."
"We'll think about it. How are things otherwise?"
Clark sat down on the dining table and rubbed his eyes again. He was tired and confused. "Jason ran away from home. And Lois is pregnant."
"What?" Both parents managed to say in unison.
"Don't worry; everything is fine with Jason. He had some problems with his ears, nothing serious." He never talked about anything related to superpowers over the phone, just in case somebody would listen, but his parents knew exactly what he meant.
"Is he okay?" His father asked.
"Yes, we got it sorted out - his parents and I."
"And what about the other thing?" His mother asked very concerned.
"It's okay, mom; they are married. Married people will eventually start a family at some point of their marriage." Clark was trying to convince more himself than his parents. "I mean, that is what a marriage is for, right?" He continued to rumble and the train of thoughts hit him like a truck.
Back in Kansas, Martha looked at Jonathan. Her husband instantly knew what she was thinking about.
"Son, we will come to the premier of Romeo and Juliet," Jonathan said.
"You don't have to come to hold my hands to get over the fact that I have really lost Lois to Richard." Clark snapped at his parents, at the same moment regretting what he had said.
"We will book a flight tomorrow morning," his dad decided. Clark knew that there was no way to object his parents.
"Bye sweetheart." Martha said. "And take care."
"I promise, bye." Clark said, hung up and smiled. He really adored his earth parents.
After he had taken a shower, he changed into his Superman outfit and sped up above the earth's atmosphere. There he hovered, listening to the distance noises with his eyes closed. This was the only place where he was able to cope with his life at the moment. When he heard a cry for help, he opened his eyes and shot back to earth in lighting speed.
Celeste could not manage to do anything the day after she had seen the DVD recording. She called her choreographer early in the morning and told him that she wouldn't be available for rehearsals for the next couple of days.
Then she called the room service and ordered the largest amount of ice cream she could get. While she was scooping big spoons of Cookies and Cream ice cream into her mouth, she re-watched the DVD, almost the whole morning, wondering if Tania had been the one who had sent it to her.
At some point she stopped the DVD, where Mathieu had revealed his identity, and picked up the phone to dial his cell number. She needed to talk to him, to scream at him, to ask him if he truly and seriously had cheated on her with Tania. Anything. And most of all to get an answer to the most important question she had: Why?
The phone went straight to the message bank after a couple of minutes. Too busy fucking Tania?, Celeste thought very angrily, while she tossed the cell phone on the coffee table, and pressed the play button of the DVD player again.
After another hour of watching the DVD, the very upset ballet dancer eventually felt asleep out of exhaustion in the afternoon.
A knocking sound ripped Celeste out of her nightmares of Mathieu making dirty love to his ex-girlfriend. When she finally managed to stand up from the couch, and opened the door, she suddenly realised that she had forgotten the interview with Clark Kent!