Jadore

IX.V

Setting: Demi and Cristo's House, Hidden Hills, CA

Cristo Ghesquiere did not grow up in a loving, family home. Were both of his parents there? Yes. But his father was more of a shadowy figure who floated in and out of the house whenever he pleased, and his mother spent most of her days either shopping around Paris or lounging around the house with a glass of wine in her hands. Or that's how he remembered her. Maybe he was remembering her incorrectly because when he turned 13 he was shipped off to boarding school in England, and even on his summers home, he never saw her again. And his father never said a word about it either. She was just gone without a trace and everyone was supposed to move on. So, he did.

But that was his mother. And even though she was quickly replaced by Clara, and Cristo loved Clara, he never forgot his mother. But he didn't talk about it often, and he definitely had never mentioned it to his wife. That's what therapy was for. So, when someone at the Farmer's Market took those pictures, Cristo knew exactly what he would be coming home to. He had lied to his wife and now he had to face the consequences. He knew that Demi was already suspicious and everything coming together had just heightened that. He had felt her side eyeing him for weeks. The explanation was simple but Cristo knew this wasn't about to be a simple argument. So, he had already prepared himself for at least two weeks in one of the guest rooms.

Cristo knocked twice on the glass sliding doors that opened to their backyard from the kitchen. Demi didn't look up. She was passing a skimmer through the pool, trying to get all of the leaves out of it because everyone was coming over this weekend to hang out. She caught a few, dumped them in the little trash can next to her, and then dipped the skimmer back into the water.

"Hey," Cristo said, stepping further out into the backyard. "Can we talk?"

"Now you want to talk?" Demi said, still not turning around. She walked to the other side of the pool, distancing herself from him. Now they were face to face but they were further apart.

"Yes...but we don't have to if you don't want to," Cristo offered, because he wasn't about to force a conversation on her.

"I've been here," Demi stated, still not looking up from her current task. "I've been here waiting for you to come and talk to me. Waiting for you to be honest with me, waiting for you to communicate with me like we promised we would do with each other."

Now she looked up.

"Our marriage was almost destroyed because we didn't communicate, because you wanted to handle shit on your own. Did you not learn from last time? And I fought so fucking hard to keep our marriage together, I did everything right, and I supported you and now look where we are. It's the same shit again and you know what, I don't have to put up with this," Demi ranted, dropping the skimmer to the ground so that she could fold her arms over her chest.

The wind was blowing her silky black hair away from her face and causing tears to fall down her freckled cheeks. Demi looked heartbroken and Cristo knew that a simple explanation wouldn't fix everything, and he knew why. Hiding this stuff from her, not telling the truth, slithering around town with women that she didn't know all unlocked a fear that she still had. And even if Cristo would never cheat on her, and she knew that, that insecurity was still there and he had awakened that part of her.