Free Web NovelChapter 37: Swollen Lips?
A few moments later, the chaos had settled into something almost peaceful. Keres sat on the edge of the leather sofa in her office with her head tilted back slightly and her expression caught somewhere between embarrassment and reluctant acceptance.
A small piece of tissue was gently shoved into her left nostril, a makeshift solution to a problem that had no business happening in the first place.
Asteria was the one who had put it there. She stood in front of Keres with her brow furrowed in concentration and her fingers surprisingly steady as she adjusted the tissue.
Her lavender dress swayed slightly as she moved, and the soft fabric brushed against Keres’ knee with every small adjustment.
"There," Asteria said, stepping back to admire her work. A smile spread across her face, bright, satisfied and completely genuine. "All better."
Keres made a sound that might have been acknowledgment or might have been a grumble. It was hard to tell.
The office had transformed from a war zone into something resembling a family gathering. Everyone was seated now, with Faye on the opposite sofa and her posture relax, while Alfonso sat beside her with his long legs crossed at the ankle.
Dina perched on a small ottoman near the door and tried very hard to look like she was not watching every single interaction with barely concealed delight. The tension from earlier had dissolved and was replaced by something warmer. Even the afternoon light seemed softer as it streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows and cast everything in a golden glow.
Faye broke the comfortable silence first. "I’m so glad you finally decided to come in here, Asteria," she said, her voice was warm, motherly, and carrying none of the sharp edge she had used on Keres earlier.
"And good thing you brought Dina with you. At least someone in this family knows how to be thoughtful."
Asteria nodded with a smile that was polite but genuine. "Hm, yes, Mama. I am very glad Dina is with me, hehe." She glanced at Dina, who ducked her head with her cheeks flushing with pleasure at the acknowledgment.
Keres shifted on the sofa with her discomfort palpable. She was still processing the nosebleed and still processing the fact that her wife had given her a nosebleed by touching her forehead like some kind of lovestruck teenager in a bad romance novel.
It was humiliating and infuriating and she did not know what to do with any of it. "Hey," she said, her voice flat and carrying a hint of irritation. "Why did you come in here anyway?"
The question hung in the air a little sharper than she had intended. She had not meant for it to come out that way, or maybe she had. She was still figuring out how to be around Asteria without her body betraying her in increasingly embarrassing ways.
Faye shot her a glare, the kind of glare that mothers had done over centuries. It was silently deadly and capable of reducing even the most powerful CEO to a chastened child. Keres felt her shoulders hunch instinctively as her earlier bravado evaporated like mist in sunlight.
She looked down at her hands and behaved like a small puppy who had been caught chewing on something it should not have.
Asteria did not seem to notice the tension, or maybe she did and was choosing to ignore it. She reached into the paper bag she had been clutching and pulled out two bento boxes that were neat, carefully wrapped, and tied with a simple ribbon that Dina had found in the kitchen.
"Nothing much," Asteria said softly, with her eyes fixed on the bento boxes rather than on Keres. "I noticed you barely rested last night, and I was worried you did not eat your breakfast. So I made your breakfast and lunch."
She held up the bento boxes and showed them to Keres like a child presenting a drawing to a parent. The boxes were simple and plain white with no markings, but they were clearly packed with care. Asteria had arranged the food thoughtfully and made sure everything fit perfectly before closing the lids.
Keres stared at the boxes as a strange warmth spread through her chest. She made me breakfast and lunch, Keres thought. She noticed I was not resting. She was worried about me. The words echoed in her mind and refused to settle.
Asteria put the lunch box back in the paper bag to save it for later and held out the breakfast box instead. Her hands were slightly unsteady, but her smile remained bright.
Faye’s expression had softened into something almost dreamy. She watched the interaction like she was watching her favorite romantic drama unfold in real time, with her hands clasped together and her eyes shining.
Dina was practically vibrating with suppressed excitement. She had her hand pressed over her mouth and tried to hide what was clearly a massive grin, but her eyes gave her away.
They were wide and bright and full of barely contained joy. Even Alfonso, who had maintained his neutral expression throughout most of the morning, allowed a small smile to creep at the corners of his lips. He did not say anything, but his eyes followed the interaction with silent interest.
Asteria handed Keres a spoon, a real spoon not a disposable one, because she had raided the kitchen drawers before leaving the mansion, and then opened the bento box for her.
The lid came off with a soft pop and released a cloud of steam along with the warm and comforting aroma of sesame oil and soy sauce and carefully seasoned rice. Faye leaned forward and inhaled deeply.
"Wow, that smells good, Asteria," she said. "Really good. Where did you learn to cook like that?"
Asteria’s smile widened so much that her eyes crinkled at the corners. The praise washed over her like sunlight and warmed her from the inside out. "Thank you, Mama," she said.
"I learned it when I was little because I have to. Papa said I should know how to cook so I would be useful." Asteria,
Faye sat back with a shock face. "Well," she said, "your father is an absolute bullshit." Alfonso glared at her wife and pleaded for her not to talk further about Asteria’s father.
Keres looked down at the open bento box. Inside and nestled in neat compartments were rice balls shaped like little triangles, with each one dusted with sesame seeds and wrapped with a thin strip of nori.
Alongside them were small portions of pickled vegetables and a folded omelet cut into precise rectangles and a tiny container of soy sauce for dipping.
It was simple food and nothing fancy that would impress the kind of high-end chefs the Eisenthurn family usually employed, but Keres found herself unable to look away.
She made this for me, Keres thought again. With her own hands. For me.
She picked up the spoon, though rice balls were meant to be eaten with fingers, she was not about to correct Asteria’s thoughtful gesture, and scooped up one of the triangles.
The rice was still warm, still slightly sticky and still perfect. She took a bite and the flavor exploded across her taste buds. The rice was seasoned perfectly, not too salty and not too bland, with a hint of something sweet underneath.
The sesame seeds added a nutty crunch and the nori provided a subtle brininess that tied everything together. It was simple but it was also good, better than good. It was the kind of food that made you close your eyes and just feel for a moment.
"Shit," Keres muttered under her breath.
Asteria’s head snapped toward her so fast that her hair whipped across her face. "Yes, Keres?" she asked quickly. "Is something wrong?"
Her voice was tight, her eyes were wide, and her entire body tensed as if preparing for bad news. She was nervous, and of course she was nervous. She had put herself out there, cooked a meal, brought it to Keres’ office, and presented it in front of her in-laws, and now she was waiting for judgment.
Keres looked at her, really looked at her. At the lavender dress that brought out the warmth in her skin. At the slight tremble in her hands. The way she was biting her lower lip, the same lower lip that had been swollen this morning, the same lower lip that Keres remembered kissing.
"This is just so good!" Keres said, the words bursting out of her before she could stop them. She sounded loud, enthusiastic, and completely unlike her usual controlled demeanor.
She sounded almost excited, like a child who had just discovered their favorite food.
Asteria blinked. "What?"
"This is really good!" Keres repeated as she scooped up another rice ball and shoved it into her mouth with uncharacteristic haste. Her usual elegance was forgotten in the face of genuinely good food. "Like, really good. Like, where has this been all my life?"
Asteria’s face transformed. The nervous tension melted away and was replaced by something pleased and almost shy. She ducked her head with her cheeks flushing pink and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You really think so?" She asked like a high school girl having butterflies after giving their crush food they love.
"I don’t say things I don’t mean," Keres said. This was not entirely true because she said things she did not mean all the time and usually to get rid of people, but in this moment it felt true.
The rice balls were excellent and she would die on this hill. She continued eating faster now and almost frantically, as if the food might disappear if she did not consume it quickly enough.
Her usual composure had completely deserted her. She was hunched over the bento box and shoveling rice into her mouth and making small sounds of approval with every bite.
"Keres," Asteria said with a voice that was gentle but amused. "Slow down. The food is not going to run away." Keres made a sound that was not a word and kept eating.
Asteria reached out and gently wiped Keres’ mouth with her thumb and brushed away a stray grain of rice that had escaped.
Keres froze. Everything stopped again. The spoon hovered mid-air and her breath caught in her throat, her heart began pounding so hard she was sure everyone in the room could hear it.
Asteria’s thumb was warm against her skin, soft and gentle, and the touch lasted only a second but it felt like an eternity. Keres averted her gaze immediately with her face burning and her eyes fixed on a point on the far wall that had suddenly become incredibly interesting. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
She could not look at Asteria or at her mother who was definitely smiling, or at her father who was definitely pretending not to notice, or even at Dina who was losing her mind with excitement in the corner.
Asteria pulled her hand back as if she had been burned, with her own cheeks flushing a deep vivid red. She tucked both hands into her lap and intertwined her fingers and stared down at them like they had betrayed her.
Why did I do that? she thought frantically. Why did I just wipe her mouth like that? That is such an intimate thing to do. We are not like that, are we? I do not know what we are. Oh no, oh no, oh no.
The silence stretched, thick, and awkward. Charged with something neither of them was ready to name. Faye’s eyes narrowed. She had been watching the entire exchange with the keen attention of someone who had spent decades navigating social situations.
She noticed everything, the way Keres had frozen and the way Asteria had blushed, the way both of them were now refusing to look at each other. And then she noticed something else.
"Asteria," Faye said with a voice that was casual but her eyes were sharp.
Asteria looked up and was grateful for the distraction. "Yes, Mama?"
"Why do your lips look a bit swollen?" Faye asked as she tilted her head and studied her daughter-in-law’s face. "And also Keres? I noticed it earlier but I did not say anything. Now I am saying something. Both of you have swollen lips, the same swelling, and it is very suspicious."
Asteria’s hand flew to her mouth. Keres’ hand flew to her mouth at the exact same moment. They moved in perfect unison as if they had rehearsed it, with their hands slapping over their lips, their eyes widening and their cheeks flushing an even deeper shade of red.
It was almost performative, the kind of synchronized reaction that belonged in a comedy sketch rather than real life, but neither of them was performing.
Both of them were genuinely and utterly panicked.
"Nothing happened!" they said in unison, and then immediately looked at each other, then immediately looked away too.
Faye’s eyes narrowed further. "Mmhmm."
"Really, Mama," Asteria said with her voice slightly muffled by her hand. "Nothing happened. I accidentally bit my lip while sleeping. I do that sometimes. It is a condition."
"A condition?" Faye repeated flatly.
"Yes. A lip-biting condition. It is very rare." She was digging herself deeper and she knew it, but she could not stop.
Keres made a strangled sound that might have been a cough or might have been a laugh and quickly turned it into a fake sneeze.
"And you, Keres?" Faye said as she turned her attention to her daughter. "Do you also have this rare lip-biting condition?"
Keres opened her mouth and closed it and opened it again. "I bit it," she said finally. "Accidentally. On purpose. I mean—" She groaned and dropped her head into her hands. "I do not know. Can we talk about something else?"
"Like what?" Faye asked with her voice dripping with false innocence. "The weather? The stock market? The fact that my daughter and her wife both have swollen lips and neither of them can explain why?"
Alfonso let out a low chuckle and shook his head. "Sounds suspicious to me," he said with his voice warm with amusement. "Very suspicious indeed."
"See?" Faye said as she gestured toward her husband. "Even Alfonso agrees. And he never agrees with me about anything."
"That is not true," Alfonso protested. "I agreed with you about the curtains."
"After I showed you seventeen different options and you cried about it."
"I did not cry. I had something in my eye."
"For three days?"
"It was a very persistent something."
The tension in the room eased slightly as the focus shifted away from Keres and Asteria. Faye and Alfonso continued their playful bickering with the comfort of couples who had been together long enough to know exactly which buttons to push.
"Hahaha, you both are so cute," Faye said finally as she looked back at Keres and Asteria with a knowing smile. "Whatever you did or did not do, it is part of you both being a married couple. So do not worry about it. I am not going to interrogate you."
Keres let out a breath she did not know she had been holding and Asteria’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Dina, who had been silently watching the entire exchange with the expression of someone watching a tennis match, finally allowed herself to breathe.
Faye reached for her phone and glanced at the screen with her eyes widening slightly. "Eh," she said. "I forgot I have a spa appointment." She stood up, smoothed down her dress and gestured to Alfonso. "I should go. We should go, Alfonso."
Alfonso rose as well and stretched slightly. "Alright, honey," he said. "Let us go."
They moved toward the door, but Faye paused at the threshold. She turned back and fixed Keres with a glare that could melt steel. "Be good to your employees," she said with her voice sharp. "I swear to God, Keres. If I hear one more story about you terrorizing the staff—"
"I am not terrorizing anyone," Keres muttered. "I am motivating them."
"You are terrifying them!"
"Same thing."
Faye looked like she wanted to come back and pinch Keres’ ear again, but she restrained herself. "We will talk about this later," Faye uttered.
She swept out of the office with Alfonso following behind her with a small wave.
Dina stood up from her ottoman and brushed off her uniform. "Madam Faye," she called out as she hurried toward the door. "Can I go with you? I still have more chores to finish back at Madam Asteria’s house."
Faye paused and looked back at Asteria. "Are you sure?" She asked. "What about Asteria? She might need help getting home."
Asteria shook her head quickly. "It is okay, Mama," she said. "I can manage. Besides, Keres is here." She glanced at Keres, who was still sitting on the sofa, still clutching the bento box and still looking slightly dazed.
Faye’s gaze lingered on the two of them for a moment, on the way Asteria had said Keres is here like that meant something, on the way Keres had not objected or rolled her eyes or made some sarcastic comment.
"Okay, okay," Faye said finally with a small smile playing at her lips. "We will go now. Do not do anything I would not do."
And then they were gone, with Dina trailing behind them after one last excited glance over her shoulder at Asteria.
The door clicked shut and the room fell silent. Keres and Asteria were alone.
