2014-2015: Raiden Aspen is 33, Celia Garnet is 31

Oh well, on the bright side of things, I did get some shopping done at the new clothing store, Velvet. I should try to coax some of the more… interesting looking inhabitants of Harrington down there.

I did however get on the phone with Poppy to tell her about the store, and the apartment, especially seeing how her wardrobe needs a bit of a makeover as she’ll be around kids for the most part. I’ve suggested, twice that Pomona try something other than pigtails, but no go so far. Perhaps when Regina starts wearing pigtails too she’ll change her mind, I hope so! I can think of so many other looks that’d suit her so much better!

Raiden… Well, obviously, he’s the first person I’m dragging with me the minute work lighten up and Raiden stops acting like a reclusive hermit, honestly! Would you wear that? Even if you lived alone in a windowless box? Didn’t think so!

Still, Raiden does act like a reclusive hermit, and it’s starting to worry me. Now, he was never a big ladies man, not like Arthur Mungo seems to be at any rate, and though Raiden has made some questionable choices regarding the females he’s gone out with, he hasn’t left a string of broken hearts behind him. The deal with him and Clary – really changed him, he’s mostly quiet and contemplative and winces whenever Clary or her family is brought up. He hasn’t even visited his son yet, but since neither Baptista nor Clary seem to enthused about having him over, he doesn’t really have an opportunity to either. And he can’t very well call him without Clary or Baptista overhearing. I think I heard him mumbling about going to court over custody once he’s a bit older, so he can have him over with him and get to spend some time with him. It’s true that Raiden wasn’t the best of men when he first found out, but he does pay his child support and he does set aside some money for Jaden now that he knows. Still, he doesn’t really speak to anyone about it, Arthur, Socrates and Geraint are more or less either Clary’s or Baptista’s friends (I’m so glad I don’t really know them! The general atmosphere over at Poppy’s was weird enough when I was there!).

I found Raiden painting the other day, it was a rather odd experience seeing that he really doesn’t strike me as an artistic kind of guy. He said it was relaxing, I said there was no chance we were putting any of his works up in the apartment, he grinned and asked if we couldn’t hang it up in the bathroom or outside near the gates to scare thieves away. It seems to be a routine these days, go to work, paint, watch TV, talk to me, paint, go to bed and repeat. I really need to get him out, which means I’ll have to start looking through the phone book for any suitable place to go, why is it that Harrington doesn’t have club venue yet?

What about me? Well, I’ve been working, the world of business and entrepreneurship is a challenging one and I have to keep up with it if I want to stay in the game. Still, it’s a rather interesting form of work, if a bit hectic, Raiden tells me that’s why he quit working in Politics and took up Oceanography, I think it’s because he wants an excuse to go to the beach and watch ladies in bikinis! (Okay, so that’s completely out of character, but I can’t help it if the thought of studying plankton and fish make me yawn!)

Poppy calls me often, and I call her just as often, I really feel bad about the triangle (or whatever it is, it looks more like a really confusing drawing that toddlers make!) she’s gotten herself into, but she seems to have figured something out, a plan of action. I told her she should put it to life and get herself some new shoes, buying shoes always helps when it comes to lightening the mood. She asked if I wanted to go with, I wonder if I should drag Raiden with me?

Speaking of Raiden, he seems to have somehow (how I can’t imagine, true our neighbours are somewhat weird, but none of them have gotten to the point of wearing that just yet) come across this rather… interesting female. I nearly fell over when I saw her hair. One is fine, but two…? Is this some horrible trend that I’ve completely missed out on? If so, I think I’ll pretend I don’t know what it is, much like shoulder-pads and poodle-hair, I just know it’ll look horrible when looking at pictures 10 years from now!

2014: Baptista is 33, Clary is 32, Jared is 7 and Jaden is 4.

It all felt very stupid, irrelevant, somehow. She wasn’t sure how she liked Baptista’s reaction in the first place and she wasn’t sure how he felt about it either. She felt like her life was on hold until they came to dome sort of decision, she couldn’t leave, couldn’t go back to their bed, couldn’t do anything really until they let it out. Until they did she’d continue to walk around, trying to look put-together even if she felt fairly shattered.

For Jared, things seemed to continue on as usual, he’d play with the cat, do his homework and go to school, where Poppy, their headmistresses would often be seen walking around the school yard looking worried and tired, coming home almost felt like going back to school. Neither one of his parents (he had little contact with his father and had come to the conclusion that he might as well call Baptista his dad, after all, they’d done all the dad/son stuff together) ever said anything about anything being wrong. But he just knew, they didn’t really look at each other and rarely spoke. It was oddly quiet (despite the stereo blasting and the cat mewling, his brother singing or crying in his bedroom) in the house these days and so Jared felt less and less like spending much time at home.

Jaden only really noticed that his daddy and mummy never came in to say goodnight together anymore, and they never teased and joked with him when he was sitting in his chair and they were eating their dinner, nor did they play with him together. Mummy would play a little, daddy would play a little, Jared would steal his toy cars, but it was never the two of them at once. He didn’t really know what to make of it, and so, played with his toys and hugged the cat, occasionally looking at his brother curiously when his mummy and daddy simply walked past each other without saying hello.

Baptista on the other hand felt utterly miserable and utterly unsure of what he could do to fix it. He didn’t even know why he’d reacted like he did, it wasn’t like Clary to break a promise, especially not one meant to last for life, and he knew that. Still, it had upset him, much like it had upset him when he found out that she would be having Raiden’s kid, sure, he loved Jaden, but even so he couldn’t help but feel jealous that two men who had no great part in her life had become the fathers of her children, instead of him. They hadn’t wanted kids, he had, and it wasn’t looking much like he’d be getting any for awhile. Not that he could blame her, he knew he should apologise, but he had no idea how, he also knew that he’d thought he’d be a father before he turned 35. But then, Clary was more important and her wishes trumped his, they always had.

Although things seemed to even out a bit, settle into a bit of a rythm, Clary still slept on the couch and they still had difficulty talking without there being an odd barrier between them. Mostly they avoided one another and though Clary knew she should go and face Baptista, something in his eyes made her stop and wait, still, the couch wasn’t exactly comfortable and she wasn’t really certain how much longer she could wait for.

As Baptista put Jaden to sleep that night, he seemed to make up his mind, though when he entered the living room to talk to Clary, he saw her fast asleep and decided it’d be better to wait until she’d gotten some rest. Retreating to their bedroom he tried to shove off the guilt of not asking her to join him, it ended up being a very lonely and cold night, and he didn’t get a wink of rest.