July 6, 2018

The Taste of Her Cherry Chapstick

On Lydia Sánchez and Julio Videras’s Cornelia


Yes! As you may have guessed, here in spanishgayfiction.blogspot.com we could not help recalling Katy Perry’s Sapphic hit when approaching this comic book published in 2008: a dazzling story around the whimsical, mysterious pathways to Happiness.

Our friendly protagonist is Cornelia, a 22-year-old student of Fine Arts. She has two jobs, thus she can’t hardly attend in classroom: in the mornings, as a shop assistant in the comic store Friky Planet; by night, as a waitress in a club.

Cornelia lives in an apartment in Barcelona with two girls and a boy. The girls are:
·Laura, a somehow dull and daffy blonde living in Barcelona for 10 years, trying to make her way in the world of acting though she is not lucky enough in auditions;
·and Rocío, a girl-crazy, passionate brunette, who successfully works in a publicity agency. Cornelia’s colleague in the night club, Pablito Danger, a hornball who jumps into each and every single woman, feels a special (and male-chauvinist) morbid fascination for her. His attitude extremely irritates Cornelia.

Cornelia is kind to the others: Luigi, the Italian restaurant owner; the alley cats she feeds up; the weirdo who is always watching through the other side of the store window; Antonio, the deliveryman; the boy intimidated by his mother. . .but particularly to Salva. He is the owner of Friky Planet (Salva calls freaks to the comic nerds); he is also Cornelia’s Prince Charming. She calls him Culito Perfecto—“Perfect Little Ass.” Salva is a 30-year-old scatterbrain, huge fan of comics, roleplaying, horror movies and Italian food. He is continuously asking Cornelia to do extra hours, since Salva is really busy with his other job in a business consultancy.

Today Cornelia takes advantage from her favor in order to get an invitation for lunch in a wok, as well as a stolen kiss. Eventually, Salva stands her up in the restaurant. Nevertheless, in the afternoon she must go back to the store to do her promised duty.

Later in the club, her girlfriends go to see her at the other side of the bar. There, Cornelia recounts her situation with Salva. Rocío suggests that she ignores men and goes lesbian. To brighten up her day, Rocío tells a funny anecdote about how she flirted with a shop-assistant in a lingerie store. Rocío is always sweet and thoughtful to her. To Rocío, Cornelia is nice, pretty and funny, though just a little bit neurotic. She recommends Cornelia to kiss Prince Charming off and try to find the person she can connect with and feel happy and complete. Cornelia admits that Rocío cares about her more than Salva.

Speak of the devil, Salva makes an attentive appearance, with an apology in his lips and a rose in his hand, guaranteeing a rewarding dinner to Cornelia. Rocío is not at all happy with him.

A week later, Cornelia seems to have forgotten the incident. By taking things slow, Cornelia hopes that Salva takes seriously the chance of a relationship: They together walk out, have lunch, go to the movies, do some shopping—Salva also picks Cornelia up in the club after working all night. He finally passes care inspection, so they arrange a celebration date. Besides, Cornelia has asked her roommates to leave the apartment that night for more intimacy.

The door bell is ringing. Rocío warns Salva not to blow it again, otherwise he would be in serious trouble. Salva gives Cornelia a beautiful butterfly barrette that she immediately puts on her hair to add a sparkling touch to her stunning look tonight.

During the dinner the romantic couple makes a toast with water—tough luck!: It starts raining before entering the hot spot where Salva brings Cornelia after. There, Cornelia will find out Salva’s unexpected skills as a lively dancer. When Cornelia goes to the restroom, Salva’s ex-fiancée Lidia suddenly pops up. Lidia had gone off with an American man, leaving Salva practically standing at the altar. But things did not go well, and now Lidia seems ready to get Salva back at any costs.

Lidia does not accept Salva’s refusal, so she decides to come to the fore and kiss him. Salva acts reluctant at first, but later he lets her take control. To top it all, Cornelia comes back and has a major setback to the delight of Lidia. Our unfortunate heroine rushes out of the club, and walks back home in the rain.

Rocío recognizes her from the taxi. She gets off and shelters Cornelia under her umbrella; she also takes off her coat to cover her soaking humbled friend. Once Cornelia has told the story, Rocío advises her to ignore Salva for good. Cornelia starts saying that she and Rocío—the two of them—in others circumstances—But Rocío does not let her finish: she claims that the world would be a much more beautiful place if people worried about searching for love only, no matter the significant other’s gender. Rocío confesses that she has wanted to kiss Cornelia for too long, and she does it. The passionate brunette has dropped the umbrella: neither of them seems to feel the rain. Cornelia finally kissed a girl—and she definitely liked it!!!

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