Tessa ReneeThere’s a particular smile I wear and if you know me well enough, you recognize it instantly. It’s not the soft smile of affection. Not the playful smirk. Not even the laugh-lined grin I give when I’m genuinely happy. No, this smile is sharper. It comes with warning bells, though most people are too distracted to hear them.
It’s the smile that slips out right before I dismantle someone. Before I say the one sentence they won’t recover from. Before I decide that patience has run out and it’s time for consequences. People mistake it for calm, but really, it’s calculation. That smile means I’ve already made up my mind and your fate is sealed.
Don’t mistake it for cruelty. I don’t take pleasure in tearing people down. But when someone pushes me too far, when they mistake my softness for weakness, that smile is my last act of kindness. A small, polite curve of the lips before I unleash the truth you weren’t ready to hear.
It’s scary, I know. Because the smile is soft. But what follows? That’s the storm. And by the time you realize what it meant, you’re already standing in the wreckage.
Final Word: If I’m smiling when I shouldn’t be, you should start worrying.
Disclaimer: This is metaphor, not menace. Don’t romanticize destruction, recognize boundaries.
Tessa Renee
