#Colette

[viillette]

Must I, in short, struggle – ah, how could I forget it? – against solitude itself? And to achieve what? What? What? When I was small they said to me: 'Effort brings its own reward', and so, whenever I had tried specially hard, I used to expect a mysterious, overwhelming recompense, a sort of grace to which I should have surrendered myself. I am still expecting it.

Colette, The Vagabond (1910)

[pixeldistractions]

Colette had never properly met her friend’s daughter until now. Gabby arrived to the house ten minutes late, looking just like her mother except bored out of her mind already. But money was money and sixteen year-olds needed it, so here she was regardless.

Colette handed her two twenties for the pizza delivery and began to lay out the rules. “No videos after nine. Teeth brushed and in bed. They can read a little later, because it’s a weekend. If they close their door, that means they’re back on the video games. Take the remotes if you need to, they can be relentless. No candy, no junk food after dinner. Lights out by ten. I will certainly be back before midnight.” 

“Whoa,” the girl muttered and scowled at her like she’d rather be at home doing her calculus homework.

Her boys were equally amused and disturbed at this odd occurrence. It had been too long since Colette had even taken a night out with her girlfriends, and she and Jordan hadn’t gone out together on anything like a date since before the boys were conceived.

“I’m going out with a friend,” she had told them, but it was possible they knew it was a date. It was possible they even knew who the date was with, since the children had all bore witness to the asking. Should she have asked them what they thought about it?

Did Jordan ask them what they thought before he started banging the camper tramp?

Colette assumed not, so she would do as she pleased.

“Good night, be good,” she ordered the boys. Then she left the babysitter to it. 

She and Darwin had agreed to drive separately. Colette was an independent woman and she loathed to leave herself vulnerable by not controlling her own transportation. There had been some discrepancy about where they would spend their evening tonight. She scoffed at his first and only idea—bowling. As if. Having no better ideas, they agreed to meet at a popular nightclub at the waterfront in nearby Copper Harbor. 

“So you’re not into bowling?”

“Absolutely fucking not,” she laughed. “Have you seen my nails?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Looks like you could do some damage with those.”

She flashed him a sly smile. “Only if you’re into that.”

A nervous look washed over his face. He didn’t seem to get it. Or else he was just that pure. Or else maybe Colette didn’t remember how to flirt. She and Jordan never flirted. They fought and they had angry makeup sex, and that was about the extent of their entire ten years together. And she was sorely out of practice at this. 

They weren’t able to linger outside talking for long, or failing to flirt as it was, because the late November night had dumped a layer of flurries on the ground and it was barely above freezing outside. So they went inside.

The nightclub was noisy and bright, and all of the college kids were home for fall break. If she was too old for this, so was he. 

They got a couple of drinks first and some snacks to nibble on, while he dug up some memes to share with her on his phone. Maybe he was nervous.

They didn’t pay much attention to anyone around them, failing to notice Bianca’s mom was here and she was judging the fuck out of them. That would be a problem for another day, since it looked like she planned to tell the whole Lake District Middle School PTA about their date, and of course Colette would plan to tell her, Mind your own business, you nosy cow!

Colette sipped a potent long island iced tea that threatened to make her head pound. Or maybe that was the pounding music. She couldn’t hear anything, and if they were interested in conversation, then this choice of venue was a terrible one. “Do you wanna just dance?” 

Dancing was a blast from the past, a memory from another life. Colette used to love getting lost in a sea of bodies, strange bodies, warm bodies, soft and hard and sweaty bodies. It was almost erotic, almost taboo, how intimate strangers could be on the dance floor. It was a club just like this where she had met Jordan ten years ago, his back pressed up against the wall like a sullen bean pole until she dragged him out to dance. And then, well, you know the rest.

Fuck, get out of my head. Just get out of my head already!

Darwin.

Darwin was handsome, mature, and very well-mannered. He danced close enough that she could feel the warmth of him, the way his fingertips almost grazed her bare midriff and she wanted to beg him, please, just touch me. He smelled good, of cologne and clean laundry. He smelled decidedly not of weed or nicotine, like half the people in this club did. Colette hated smokers. However, while perfectly clean, the shirt and vest combo was terrible and she wanted it off of him. 

And he was talking about things she couldn’t quite listen to in this noise. His work, maybe, did he just say blood splatters in a nightclub? His family, his mom—so, okay, his mom is home with Amaya tonight. Colette didn’t care who was watching dear Amaya tonight.

She grinned up at him. “Take me somewhere else.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll pull my car around. I can drive. You’ve had three drinks.”

She felt instantly offended. “You were keeping track of my drinks?”

“I’m an officer of the law, Colette. I can’t let you drive after three long island ice teas.”

“Oh, that’s fair, I guess.”

— boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch, part 3/9

next -> // 5.3 start // index

100% Bianca’s mom showed up there at the bar looking at Colette like she was, being who she is, and I couldn’t have even posed it better! 😂

link: Pandora Nightclub by schnuck01 is such a cool build! It looks great in Windenburg, by the way!

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

Quand on est aimé, on ne doute de rien. Quand on aime, on doute de tout.

Colette

[annakwashere]

Col e t t e

[catsofyore]

Colette, writing in 1934. Source.

[redemptioninchaos]

"Could Miss Neverwinter or whoever be an old friend? Colleague? Past lover? I'm thinking something like this doesn't happen without someone knowing the ins and outs of your family and business..."

"Let's talk about your father. How long ago did your family start its business? Or rather, at what point did they strike it rich?"

[mournfulroses]

Colette, from a letter to Lucie Saglio, written in June 1921, featured in Selected Letters

[ladysparrow01]

“It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer… and everything collapses.” - Colette

[wat--son]

« On n’aime point à la fois les bêtes et les hommes. Je deviens de jour en jour suspecte à mes semblables. Mais s’ils étaient mes semblables, je ne leur serais pas suspecte. »

Colette, La Naissance du jour

[bob-belcher]

Colette (2018) dir. Wash Westmoreland

[toiich]

Colette, Letter to Madame léopold Marchand

[shisasan]

Colette Gauthier-Villars, The Collected Stories of Colette

[bilshmu]

small brawl stars artdump :3

they're so silly

[kittarts]

Weeee, I got to launch some apparel with Ad artem & Kirumade.

Check out the shop if you’re interested!

[vitecetf]

Grandfathers drink tea and discuss children:⁠-⁠D

I was playing brawl and accidentally realized that Byron looks very similar to the humanized Megs. I guess it's fate.

[gilfhunter069]

A Fawn Beside a Wooden Deer Used for Target Practice