Lipstick before bad news.
Some women put on lipstick before bad news.
Not to look good. To feel held.
It's an old trick. Nobody teaches it; you just find yourself doing it. In the car before the meeting. In the bathroom before the conversation. In the mirror before you open the letter.
A small ritual of control in a moment you don't control.
You can't decide what happens next.
You can decide how you meet it.
Hair back.
Shoulders down.
One colour, applied slowly.
Then you walk in.
And whatever it is, you'll take it standing, looking like someone who was ready.
~TCOTBH
Heartbreak Looks Different On Us.