Red roses sit upon Valentina’s night stand. Her bedroom is a boudoir of passions. Valentina lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment that sits above the bookshop she runs. It’s small with the usual creaky floors and looks out onto the main high street. Everybody is always popping around to see her. Valentina’s room is a parlor of bohemian splendour with an elaborate dusky white dressing table and mirror. She has pretty jewellery holders that looks like sculptural works of art. She loves getting glammed up and originally worked as a make-up artist. The girls learned about makeup from her as well as naughty things that men like. She’s very much a doyenne of beauty and fanciful things. Always marked with cat eyeliner and red lips. Her hair is dark and wavy down to her collarbone she also resembles a certain beauty of Italian Cinema. A truly enviable beauty one to rival Olivia’s looks. She’s very much a retro babe adorning her plus size curves in 1950s dresses. Some dresses are made by herself or naturally found in vintage stores of which there are many where she lives. Her nails always immaculate (usually red) and she love getting gel nails with Livy.
One wall of her bedroom is painted burgundy the rest left off-white because that was from the weekend when Mr Lothario (Felipe) got into a jealous rage and the two argued all weekend instead of decorating. The wall still has the unfinished streaks a third of the way up. Felipe and Val argue more than most. She gets fussy if he gets her a latte and not a flat white. She demands Goddess treatment and likes her lover to do lots of things for her. Felipe is all too aware that many of the bookstore visitors are pretty much men that pop in just to catch a glimpse of her. He often gets possessive because Val is so womanly and he knows lots men fantasise about her. As much as he prides himself on having such a beautiful woman he does get jealous because Valentina is so rare and attracts so much attention that it ignites a little insecurity in him. Being so warm and kind he hates seeing men interpreting her personality as flirtation. It angers him that they think they could even deserve her. Though Val gets just as jealous. When his former bandmates visited she was so upset that he was spending too much time with them. The only way to resolve her imagined hurt was new lingerie. After all she was convinced him being apart for so long was akin to a two-timing betrayal.
Her rooms are scented with reed diffusers that spout the exotic sweetness of a Moroccan palace. In the kitchen a faint aroma of Indian spices linger despite her cooking a plethora of cuisine’s her favourite being Moroccan. She’s very proud of her Tagine.
Upon her ivory dressing table sit bottles of perfumes one of many gifts from Felipe. A Chanel compact mirror, fountain pen and pearl necklace draped on it. On the table perches mascara and cat eyeliner along with her collection of red lipsticks. Dead flowers preserved from Valentine’s entwine around the rim of the oval mirror. The sumptuous cushion sewn into the seat holds the weight of Valentina’s curves as well as her hours of crying over Felipe and journaling the woes of her heart.
Her diary sits in the draw. It has a metal heart lock and is filled with thoughts and dreams about Felipe. (He may have already had a peek one too many times.) Her bookshelves have witnessed many private dances for Felipe. The intimacy of rest, carnality of sin and decadence of dining suffuses her room. A retro mini fridge also resides in her room filled with all the comforts she craves. She also naughtily keeps her favourite drinks in the corner of her room. The only other space in her apartment is the kitchen which is a hips width apart from wall to stove’s end. There’s also a small spare room which acts as space for her beautiful clothes as well as all her laundry and cleaning products which she revels in as she loves cooking and cleaning like a perfect housewife. It really turns Felipe on when she does housework so you know a lot goes on in that tiny room. Val knows she’s living in sin and her mother is pretty distraught about it warning her she may not get to live out her Mediterranean housewife dreams if things continue as they are.
