Red Lips; Paulo Dybala

Turin

The night was cool and the stars, god they were beautiful. They decorated the empty canvas, making it seemed lovely and lively. It was the way Paulo and Celine filled each other. Their emptiness, the one that they carried around for so long was slowly being filled. It was so beautiful and astonishing- how one could be miles apart, but their hearts always seemed to come home.

Paulo climbed down the stairs, a fuzzy blanket in his arms. One he would use to cover his daughter with. The one that after eating ice cream after ice cream, had fallen into deep slumber in his couch. He never quite understood how something so precious and beautiful could have been made by him.

Celine stayed upstairs, admiring how the once plain and boring guest room was now turned into something out of a fairytale. The light grey and the blush pink bringing out the gold accents of the accessories. Celine slowly climbed down, stopping when she saw how Paulo was at Salomé's side. His eyes holding pride and astonishment. It was all theirs. They made her. She was a piece Celine inside of Paulo and vice versa.

"I should really get going." Celine spoke, her eyes not daring to meet with his, "I uh- I'll call Serena-"

"You could stay." He added. They both froze in their certain places. Celine licked her lips trying to find something for her eyes to look upon that wasn't him, "I mean, I uh- I was trying to say since you know Salomé is asleep it would be best if you didn't wake her."

Celine frowned looking at their daughter. Salome tugged on the blanket, shifting quietly in her sleep, "I can come get her in the morning-"

"Celine." Paulo paused her, his green eyes pleading her to stay. He knew that it would be the first time in nights his heart would be at rest, at ease knowing that he has his entire world under the roof, "Its late." He instead stated, "I have wine."  And he was gone into the kitchen letting Celine trail her finger tips on the same furniture he had since she met him. No one thing had change and that brought a certain sense of comfort within

Celine sighed. It was all so similar to her. The feeling of the warmth of his body next to hers. How her heart raced and her stomach felt queasy. How she desperately wanted to run into his arms. She didn't. Instead she took another sip of her wine and looked at the stars, she so longed to see.

Paulo didn't say anything, but admired her. How grown and how beautiful she had become. How her eyes had a different sparkle to them. Not the one that he fell in love with. The ones that looked at the world with hope and excitement. But with a sparkle that had now seen the world, and saw the reality in it; but she wanted to see the better days.

He then looked at his daughter, the one that slept on the couch. Her hair sprawled over the seat and her arms clutching tightly the blanket he had covered her with.

"It's strange isn't it?" She asked as Celine turned to look at him. Her brown eyes boring into his.

"What is?"

Celine laughed, almost in a mocking manner, "How you can be so desperately in love with someone even when you haven't spoken to them or seen them in years." Celine looked at her daughter, then at him, "I think it's incredible despite the distance between two people you'll never stop loving them. "

The little girl that was the fruit of the love they had between them. Between a sixteen year old girl. Who desperately wanted to conquer the world with one bite. And a twenty-one year old, who had fallen in love with a child. It was a piece of her and him, and that was enough to had make Celine stay up all those nights while their daughter slept. Looking for similarities between Salome and Paulo. How couldn't she when they were so much a like, it pained Celine.

From the way her eyes narrowed when deep in thought to the way her smile deepen just like her fathers. Her green eyes, deep emerald.

"That's the way love works, I suppose. You either love them forever or you never loved them in the first place. Love doesn't leave, the person does."

Paulo didn't say anything. He just stood their taking her words in. His eyes admiring how beautiful his little girl is. Feeling sorry for himself for missing all these milestones in the six-years old life, "I'm sorry." He muttered.

Celine closed her eyes. A small puff of air leaving her lips, "I know that you are." She whispered, "I know that you're sorry."

Paulo turned to look out at the balcony. Admiring the cool that was now the weather in Turin. Remembering all those nights he had stayed up with her watching the stars. It seemed like such a far memory. But it was the one that he held closer to his heart. The ones where he had her close and he could feel her heart beat, "Do you remember?" He questioned, looking at Celine.

It was the first time in a while he had seen Celine smile. The smile he had longed to see. The smile that he had seen in his daughter at the same supermarket he had met her mother, "How could I forget?"

Celine sighed again. He engaged to hate him. She wanted to be angry at him. She couldn't. She couldn't find her heart to hate him when it still pounded for him, "I never did bring myself to hate you." She shook her head, "After all this time, I never did."

Celine ran a hand through her hair. Looking at him, "Want to know something?" She questioned. Paulo raised his eyebrows looking at her, "I wanted to end my pregnancy. I wanted to abort Salome when I found out. When I found you with her. I didn't want ther."

"I never could bring myself to do it. I could never walk into the clinic and end my daughters life. I always told myself that I would just give her up for adoption."  Celine thought to when she found out and decided to leave Italy behind.

She had begged her family to just let her terminate her pregnancy. There was no way Celine could look at someone that was a piece of the man that ruined her. But she couldn't. She always felt remorse knowing that she wouldn't be able to continue with her life if she did.

"Everything was ready for me to just give her up. They were in need of a baby. The woman couldn't get herself pregnant. But when I held her in my arms. I couldn't give her up. She was this little thing." She felt her tears fall down.

"But she was this huge part of me already. She was you." She looked at him again. Paulo let the tears wet his eyes, "I didn't give her up because giving her up would mean that I would never be able to see what was a piece of me and you. She was the reminder that once we did love each other. "

"And I love her. I love her more than I could ever love you. Because this is little bundle the we made. She's me in you."

"What made you choose Salome?" He questioned

Celine sighed. Looking at Salome who was still asleep, "It means peace." She whispered, "I found my peace in her. She made me grow up and made me stronger. I found peace in myself. One that I never had when I was sixteen."

"What's her middle name?"

"Alba"

Paulo smiled. Salome Alba. It sounded so much like her. So much like Celine. She was so much like Celine, "Why Alba?"

"It means white, purity." She finally sat her wine glass down and ran a hand through her short hair, "She's the only pure and honest thing that even resulted from us."

And Paulo felt his heart bleed from the way her words stung. How could she not speak like that, when he destroyed her purity and her trust.

Are things going into some sort of roller coaster again with these two ???? I think so !!