As Duana wrote in her post yesterday about Rihanna and A$AP Rocky at the Met Gala, they were pretty cute together when they arrived.

There was that video of him admiring her, as he always does, when she was posing for solo photos…

…and then this shot of her playfully holding him from behind – which Duana texted me about when we were writing overnight, “Whatever, these two are full-time f-cking”. And always up for the after-party. Which RiRi was already thinking about while she was heading into the event.

Yesterday, though, TMZ posted a video of Rihanna and Rocky that went viral because… well… the Video Assumption read of their body language is that the mood had changed. Video Assumption, of course, is the gossip’s favourite game of baseless conclusions and this one was narrated in real time by the people who were watching RiRi and Rocky in their car, assessing that the two were “not happy”.

Is there a difference between “not happy” and “not pretending to be happy”? Because here’s the thing about real relationships: not every moment of every day that you spend with a person is euphoric. Some of those moments are just… medium. And it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong, it just means that love and marriage aren’t movie montages. But more and more, on social media, with what people choose to present and perform online, we forget the medium range of life. Which, frankly, is a LOT of life, even for celebrities.

But, yes, it is possible that Rihanna and Rocky were “not happy” with each other in this moment. A disagreement, a difference of opinion, or even a difference in energy. And this too is a relationship reality. We can be irritated with our partners, we find them annoying from time to time, even minute to minute. We aren’t always on the same energy level. There’s another video from that night that might add more context to how Rihanna and Rocky were vibing, or not vibing, as the evening got longer.

I think the OP here and some of the comments are suggesting that RiRi was pissy because Rocky was talking to other women, too flirty with them. That’s not my read of the situation. My read is that our girl was ready to go! And Rihanna’s the kind of person, we’ve seen this, that when she makes up her mind that she wants to bounce, it’s a straight line between her and the exit. I’m seeing it that way because that’s how I am – I don’t slowly make my way to the door, I’m booking it with my head down, no eye contact, efficiently onto the next.

Unless I’m with … well… so many of my closest friends who are more like Rocky. Eyes up and eye contact, always, and at least 18 stops to chat before we can even get within the vicinity of the elevator. Anyone who knows Tyrone Edwards, my friend and colleague and ETALK anchor, is familiar with this routine. Tyrone’s nickname is 1LoveTO, everyone in Toronto knows him, it is impossible to go anywhere and leave anywhere without him being spoken to, and he thrives in that setting because he’s so charismatic and personable.

This is what is happening here, in my opinion, with Rihanna and Rocky. She’s like, we were supposed to be in the car going back to the hotel to change 20 minutes ago, this f-cking dress is so heavy I can’t wait to get out of it, and my man is out here like he’s the mayor of fashiontown. Look at him when he’s finally done talking to EJAE and Audrey Nuna and makes his way over to Rihanna and the big smile on his face when some man off-camera starts greeting him. He’s ready to shake hands and kiss babies all over again and RiRi’s face is all … oh god, no, this is going to hold us up even more.

But here’s the takeaway that I think has been overlooked because people are so fixated on whether or not RiRi and Rocky were fighting – how polite she’s being to the rando who’s talking to her even though she’s clearly losing patience with how slowly Rocky is moving. There are very few stars at her level, and those who are would not have engaged. Their security would have made a human wall to block that guy out. But she is, and she is RIHANNA, so chill in such close proximity to a regular degular with his phone up in her face filming her in bad lighting while she’s twiddling her thumbs waiting on Rocky…

To me, that’s not really the energy of someone who would sweat the small stuff.

Photo credits: TheStewartOfNY/INSTARimages

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