So there was someone who had an accurate description of ageing like fine wine.
Even in her old age and twenty years of not showing up in public, Scarlet's beauty had never faded. She became more beautiful, mature, stunning and sexy. Her hair was all grey, but she didn't appear old. Perhaps there was a decline in the skin, but the perfect hourglass body shape and the intuitive mind hadn't changed.
The younger actress turned to the elder and looked straight at her. Even a person like Eirene, who didn't have an interest in the entertainment industry although she was an actress, more than knew about the woman in front of her.
Scarlet laughed when all she got was a hole-punching stare. "Sorry to scare you out of the blue but I thought you wouldn't feel comfortable if I spoke to you openly. May I have some words with you?"
Eirene nodded and fully faced the retired actress as she nervously crossed her hands in front of her.
Scarlet, seeing the tiny defensive action made by the younger, waved her hand. "No need to be afraid. I'm not here to confront you or anything. I just want to talk."
"About what?" That was the first time the actress responded. Her voice sounded a little hoarse.
"If I bring it straight up, where is the fun?" The older tilted her head playfully and looked at herself in the mirror.
Eirene asked after witnessing Scarlet's relaxed actions. "Do you not need to go back?"
Scarlet chuckled. "I'm just an old grandma. Nobody needs me there."
The actress kept quiet and tightened the knotting of her fingers. She didn't know what was the right thing to say or continue with the conversation.
"Eirene..." The younger frighteningly turned to the older but soon composed herself.
"Yes?"
"Can I call you Eirene? Or do you prefer Ms Queen?"
"Whatever you wish."
"Then I'm going with Eirene." Scarlet applied red lipstick on her lips and made a popping sound afterwards. She then turned to the actress with a kind smile. "The reason why I'm here with you is because you remind me of my younger days."
Eirene squinted her piercing eyes slightly. That was unexpected. She thought Scarlet was going to talk about... she had no idea what she expected, but it wasn't that.
"Is that so?"
"Mmm hm." The older nodded and leaned on the white sink. The posture was exactly from a movie she acted in in the past. Even in that scene, she was wearing a red dress with freshly coloured lips. "And I wanted to warn you ever since I laid my eyes on you."
Even when Eirene didn't show her emotions, Scarlet was a master at reading eyes and minds, so she had no problem figuring out what the other was thinking.
"Yes, I've known you for quite a long time now," The older woman answered the question the actress held in her mind. "One-sidedly, though. I don't expect you to know me or anything, so you do not need to try to flatter me."
"I..." Eirene looked for a word but couldn't come up with it.
"I see you and my grandson has interest in each other."
----
"Oh, hey. Heir."
"..."
"Ares?"
"You are talking to me?"
"Yes," Jaxon answered playfully and motioned for the now-official heir to sit next to him. He was tired of standing and eventually found seats that were in the other corner. "Were you looking for someone?"
"Yes," Ares answered and stretched from the seat to see through the crowd. "My grandmother."
"Maybe she is using the bathroom?"
"Maybe, but it has been a while. She promised
to dance with my father and I after two songs." The boy had a frown on his face. It didn't suit him.
Being reminded about time, Jaxon glanced at his watch and realised it had almost been four minutes since Eirene left to use the washroom. But he didn't leave to get her yet, thinking she was fixing her hair or makeup.
He'd wait for another one and a half minutes before he raised his rooted butt from the chair and get the queen.
----
The way, the usually composed and calm actress raised her head rapidly was more than enough proof for Scarlet to know what she had been feeling was right.
"I have only been here for about two hours, I know. And yet how did I figure it out?" Once again, Scarlet voiced the younger's exact thoughts with a smile. "I have my own ways."
When Eirene didn't give her any reaction, she laughed. "It wasn't that hard to figure it, to tell you the truth." She then sighed and spoke more to herself than to the actress. "Young ones nowadays can't hide anything, huh..."
"I... we... there is nothing. Between him... and I."
"Oh please. I raised him. I know him more than he or his parents ever know." Scarlet laughed again but ended quickly. "But I'm not here to talk about that. Experience love as much as you need, I will support you in both ways."
Soon after that sentence, the former actress turned serious. "I know why you are like this, Eirene Queen."
Eirene raised the corner of her lips coldly. "Do you?"
The elder nodded confidently. "Well, almost everything." She then casted her eyes down. Her sharp silver eyes lost the light and became like tobacco smoke. "I've been in the industry and seen the dark side that the public could never ever imagine. I've also been to the much darker side of this world." Scarlet raised her head back up. "Your eyes... they have the touch of that world."
A long silence followed after that. Neither spoke and just stared into each other. They were holding a conversation through their eyes.
The elder looked away first and took a deep breath to sigh. As if to lighten up the mood, she faced the actress with different emotions. "I heard you have been through and are going through a lot of unpleasant things."
"...I am." Without thinking about it, Eirene blurted out and instantly widened her eyes in shock.
Even to her closest people for a decade, she didn't really speak her opinion. There was always something that suppressed her from giving opinions. It was half physical and half emotional. When she tried to say what she had in mind out loud, for some reason, her throat would start to ache along with her head and her chest.
Sometimes when she tried too hard or thought about them deeply, the ache in her heart becomes too much that she starts having panic attacks, or momentarily fainting from the head spinning and pain.
Eirene placed a hand over her heart and crutched the piece of clothing hardly. She didn't know why the symptoms weren't occurring, but she was glad that it didn't happen in front of anyone, especially in front of her eternal idol, Scarlet Queen.
----
"Sorry, kid. Gotta go and find my ice queen." Jaxon parted from his chair sadly and tapped Ares's shoulder exactly after one and a half minutes.
"I'll also look for my grandma." The boy sprang up to his feet, unlike the man in front of him, and hurriedly left the spot after a little bow Jaxon returned awkwardly.
The manager watched the boy swiftly move through the crowd while greeting whoever called out to him. He was like an old hunter, watching his dog run off after their prey with thin eyes.
"I must be ageing. He's like a pup. Tsk. Man, I need to find a wife." The man stretched unnoticeably and paddled down the hall like the middle-aged man he was.
----
Scarlet walked a step closer to the actress. "Meeting you in person, only makes what I believe in, stronger." The woman then stared at the younger sternly. "Can you do me a favour?"
Eirene thought for a moment, before she asked back, "What is it?"
"It is your choice to do it or not. I'm not forcing you." Scarlet then engulfed the delicate, slim fingers of Eirene in her hand. "I don't want you to make the same mistakes I made."
The two closed their eyes as if it was a natural thing to do. When they opened them again, Scarlet tightened her grip, and Eirene closed her eyes again.
"It's okay to f*ck up sometimes and live the moment. If you don't allow yourself to let go every now and then, one day, all the feelings and thoughts you compressed over the years, are going to erupt, and there will be nothing to stop that. Once they are out, they will consume you and change you, permanently. When that happens, it's scary...
"Try not to be afraid of what you truly feel and think because they are part of the real you. Repelling won't do any good. Let them flow through you and accept them, bit by bit. Let your mind recognise it's okay to feel that way."
Eirene felt a soft finger brush over her cheek. She opened her eyes to realise her sight was blurry and that she was crying. Other than crying as a character, she hadn't cried for a very long time.
Scarlet softly wiped the younger's tears and cupped the cheeks. "Don't be like me."
----
"Hi. Have you perhaps seen a woman in a long blue dress passing by any chance?" Jaxon asked one of the guards standing in the corridor. The guard inspected the manager up and down before returning his gaze to nothingness. "Guys, she's an actress, and I'm her manager."
"Everybody says that, and the actress gets drugged and abused in the end." The guard replied coldly.
Jaxon placed a hand over his heart. "Do I look like I'd do that?"
The guard's answer was simple. "Yes."
Jaxon was about to raise his voice when Ares showed up. "Mr Easmon?"
"Jaxon is fine."
Ares looked up at the guard, who must be around two metres. "What is going on in here?"
The guard immediately recognised his boss and replied politely. "This man is claiming to be the manager of an actress and demanding where she went. He may be a trafficker."
The young heir shook his head. "Mr Easmon-"
"Jaxon." Jaxon interrupted for correction.
Ares continued. "He is not claiming. It's a fact. Now answer this man, please."
Without wasting a second, the guard turned to answer, but the man had already disappeared from the spot.
"Eirene!" Jaxon ran to the actress, lightly supported by the person the boy was looking for.
"Grandma!" Once he spotted Scarlet and Eirene getting off the lift, he rushed to them. "I was looking everywhere for you."
"The bathroom on this floor is congested, so I went to use the one on the floor below."
"Ahh..." The boy then awkwardly turned to his crush just to realise something was off. "What happened?"
His grandmother answered, "Nothing too serious. We just had a chat." Eirene nodded with her head down.
Before he could dig for more, the actress breathed, "Excuse me." and walked right passed him.
There was no way he could let her go looking and acting like that.
Ares instinctively grabbed her wrist. Her movements halted.
His grip wasn't strong. She could have easily snapped it off if she wanted to, but she didn't.
Ares was about to pull her close to examine her face when she turned to him first. "May I have this dance?"