Make Him Laugh

“Finally! Auguste Hervé Brizuela Ortega hanging out with a girl!” Geoffroy exclaimed as he and Auguste continued talking about the post on Tarlac Elite. “Everyone is talking about your Cinderella, Brother.”

Auguste frowned. “Cinderella?”

“Well, she’s not a member of the group, so they assumed she’s from the middle or lower class.”

Auguste read the comments, and since no one knew who the mystery girl is, they just called her ‘Cinderella.’

“So, you did have a good time last night, huh?”

Auguste looked at Geoffroy who has that teasing smile on his face.

“It seems you enjoyed your time with that girl,” Geoffroy said.

“Were you the one who shared this photo?” Auguste asked instead.

“No way!” Geoffroy answered, and Auguste gave him that suspicious look. “Brother, I don’t even know who that Admin is. See? It says Admin shared it.”

The account who shared it on the group is named Admin. It was a dummy account, of course, and no one actually knows who that is.

“So, who is Cinderella?”

“I don’t know.” Auguste once again focused on his laptop.

“You’re laughing with her and you don’t even know her name?”

“Geoff, I have a lot of things to do. Let’s stop talking about that because it just happened that I met this girl last night and talked to her. Unlike you, it’s not my habit to go to the bar and meet a random girl whom I will sleep with for the night. Oh, by the way, where did you sleep last night?”

“Brother, don’t try to divert the conversation to me. And, you can’t just ignore this because even Mom and Dad have seen the post already.”

“What?” Now, that is alarming.

“They’re also a member of the group, remember?”

How could he remember? Auguste doesn’t even know his parents are active on Facebook. Yes, he’s aware that they have an account – a joint account, that is – but all he knows is that they just keep that to stay up to date with their friends and families.

Well, apparently, most of their acquaintances are members of the Elite.

Geoffroy came out of the library, shouting, “Mom! Dad!”

Auguste followed his brother without even knowing why. They ended up on the patio where their parents are having their breakfast.

“Bonjour, mon cher!” Céline Brizuela-Ortega said to her sons with a smile. She extended her arms as she waits for the boys to hug or kiss her.

Geoffroy was the one who did the ordeal as he hugged and kissed his mother on the cheeks.

“Mom, you saw the post on Tarlac Elite, right?” he asked after the kiss.

“Oui, je l'ai fait!” Céline looked at Auguste, suddenly looking very excited. “Mon amour, who is the mystery girl?” she asked with her heavy French accent.

Auguste looked at his mother. She is looking hopefully at him, waiting for him to answer her question. His father also has the same look on his face. He stopped eating his toasted baguette with scrambled egg and just stared at him. Auguste suddenly felt agitated. When it’s his parents who are asking, he just can’t avoid answering.

“I don’t know, Mom. She’s just a random stranger I met at the bar.”

“You didn’t even ask her name?” Céline asked, slightly amused but obviously a little bit disappointed.

Auguste looked at his mother’s hopeful gaze. He wanted to tell them the truth, but he doesn’t want to give them false hopes.

“No, Mom.” He looked at his father, and Juan Miguel shared the disappointment that Céline felt.

“Well, it has been so long since we last saw you smile like this,” Céline said. “Or laugh.”

Auguste realized that that is the real reason why they looked so hopeful. But this is also the reason why he doesn’t want to tell them the truth. Marga is just a one-time thing.

“I’ll go back to work now.”

He went to hug and kiss his mother, then nod at his father before leaving. He went back to the library and tried to go back to work again. But he suddenly cannot concentrate, so he just decided to look at the post at Tarlac Elite again.

He remembered what Marga said about the person who will make you lose focus. Now, he’s out of focus but he knows it’s entirely different from what she meant.

Still, her memory managed to distract him a little. And he knows it’s not right to sensationalize this one-time thing they had because, that’s just what it is. A one-time thing that will never happen again.

He took his phone, then called his assistant Robert. It didn’t take long before the latter answered the call.

“Sir?” Robert asked.

“Robert, I need you to do something for me.” He looked at the Facebook post as he told his assistant his orders.

*********************************************************************

And so, the post about Auguste Ortega at the Tarlac Elite became a viral story among the members of the group. Everyone is curious about the identity of the mystery girl they named ‘Cinderella.’ Most of them speculated that she came from middle to lower class, because the rich people of the province are all members of the group.

Fatima is one of those who is very curious about Auguste’s mystery girl. She can’t stop looking at the picture, trying to figure out who the girl might be. Her frown deepened as she felt something odd about the girl, like she knows her or something.

She is now having breakfast with her husband, Stan Fontanilla. But instead on concentrating on the food, her mind is focused on the photo flashed on the screen of her cellphone.

“You seem to be so invested on your phone this morning,” Stan said before swallowing a piece of the omelet on his plate.

“Have you seen this?” Fatima showed him her cellphone.

Stan looked at the screen of his wife’s cellphone. There he saw a man and a woman who seem to laugh with each other. The photo is quite blurry, probably because the lighting was dim and the one who took the shot was far from the two subjects. The man is the one whose face is clearly seen in the camera, while the woman is angled in a way that only the side of her face is seen.

Stan recognized the man in the picture, but not the woman. He looked at the account who posted it, and saw that it was from Tarlac Elite.

“You know I’m not active on that group,” Stan said to Fatima, discretely saying he haven’t seen that photo yet.

Fatima looked at the photo again.

“That’s Auguste Ortega, right?” Stan said, referring to the man in the picture.

“Yes, but the girl is not identifiable,” Fatima answered. “Not only because the angle and the lighting make it quite difficult to identify her. No one seems to know who she is.”

“It seems like Auguste does. I’ve never seen him laugh like that before,” Stan said. “I don’t even know he could laugh like that.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t laughed like this for a while,” Fatima said. “Ever since he lost Astrid, he has never laughed.”

“Wait, Astrid?” Stan asked. “That classmate of yours who just gave you an invitation for her engagement party?”

“Hmm,” Fatima nodded. “The one who’s marrying a North American prince.”

“Oh…”

“They really loved each other, Auguste and Astrid. But the latter went abroad, and suddenly, we just heard she’s in a relationship with someone else. Auguste really took that badly. It's like he changed so much after that. For one, he never laughed like this anymore since then.” Fatima looked at the photo again.

“Well, it’s good that he’s able to laugh like that now,” Stan said. “Maybe that woman is the one who can make him laugh, or happy again.”

“I hope so...” Fatima looked carefully at the picture. “There’s something oddly familiar with this woman. I just can’t figure out what that is.”

“She’s probably someone you already met before,” Stan said. “You meet a lot of people, remember?”

Fatima just nodded. Her focus is still on that photo as she tried to decipher who Auguste’s mystery girl might be.