Abelle- A Chinese Romance

What The Heart Wants (Part 11)

"Well what did she say?" Jack and I sit together on a sofa, drinking from wine glasses that were being served around the room we were in. Not far away, sits my mother and Ting Buo who eagerly watch us across the room chatting. I try not to look at Jack in the eye as I spoke, "She remembers you.....from those days when you two were together. She still admires you Jack.....she still likes you." Jack gulps down his first glass of wine and coughs at me. "Excuse me. Did she really say that, or are you lying?" "Why would I lie?" Jack holds my stare for a minute longer before I turn away to stare at a servant halfway across the room. I feel really dizzy now, must be the third glass of wine I'm drinking tonight. I set my glass of wine on the table beside me. "Hey Abelle...are you okay?" Jack asks me with concern on his face. No, I'm not okay. Alot of things are going through my mind right now, with what Chelsie said about Jack, James avoiding me, and my mother keeping a watchful eye on me right now. "Must be the wine, and the heat warmth of all these people," I say casually. "So back to where we were....you said that Chelsie liked me. How can that be true? She's still clinging to James and we haven't spoken to each other since..." I slowly stand up, wobbling a little. Gosh, my head hurts so much. "I need to take a break...some fresh air." Jack sighs and gives me an annoyed look. "But we just started Abelle. Are you hiding something from me?"

I walk away from Jack and make my way to where the doors were. "Abelle where are you going?" I turn around to see my mother making her way over to me. "I uh...need to go to the bathroom," I tell my mother with a small smile. Li Hua nods her head and I make my way out of the room. Are you hiding something from me? I frown hearing Jack's comments inside my head. Sure, I wanted to tell him everything that Chelsie said! But with him not believing in any of it, what's the point? I stumble a little on the red carpet that's laid out across the hall. After my small stumble I look up to see Chan Teng with Jina and Jingpin. They were talking to each other with laughs, and smiles not noticing me just 10 feet away. "It's almost midnight in 15 more minutes, let's hurry to the dining room down stairs," Chan Teng says to her daughter and they all leave together. Hearing their voices die away, I decided that it's time for me to go back....but I didn't want to go back to the room where Jack was. I went a few flights of stairs and found two open double doors out into the night, where a beautiful garden enchanted me.

"Oh wow!" I whisper out loud in amazement. This place was really beautiful with the trimmed rose bushes, cut to- the- same length green grass, and a large stone fountain in the middle. I take a few steps forward to get a closer look at the fountain. Then I hear a stone drop from above me. I stop walking and looked up to see a balcony above my head, forty feet. "James, come over here." I almost yelped out when I heard who called James....it was Chelsie! I quickly run to the cover of some shrubs as I watch and listened quietly to what James and Chelsie were talking about. "Isn't that your second glass of wine?" I hear James ask Chelsie. I move to the other side of the shrubs to get a better look of the balcony scene that played above me; I feel just like Romeo sneaking in to see Juliet! "Yeah it is. How many have you drunk?" Chelsie asks in a bored tone. James takes a bite out something in his hand and shrugs. "Like maybe one...and a half. I don't really like the cherry wine they're serving here." Chelsie laughs and takes a sip from her glass. "What did you want to talk about?" Chelsie looks down at the garden for a minute, hearing nothing but frogs croaking and bugs buzzing, she goes, "I'm a little worry about Chan Teng. She's been acting very strange around me lately.....does she hate me?"

James chuckles and leans against the balcony. "My mother would never hate you, she talks about you all the time when I'm alone with her. Are the wedding preparations stressing you?" Chelsie doesn't look at James as she nods her head. "We could stall them for a while longer....." Chelsie snaps her head up in alarm. "No! Then they'll think we're up to something....oh James! I didn't want this to happen for both of us, I'm sorry." James takes Chelsie's face in his hands and whispers quietly. I can't hear what they're saying and it's making me really jealous! The way his hands touched her soft cheeks! James lets his hands sink back to his side as someone above calls for them. "It's going to be a new year in one minute!" James and Chelsie immediately abandon the balcony, leaving their wine glasses on top of the balcony bar. I come out of my hiding place feeling morose. James might actually like Chelsie deep inside.....oh I wonder if what Chelsie told me an hour ago was true?!? I sit on the side of the fountain, listening to people counting down to the new year. "10...9...8...7.." Here I am all alone with no one to comfort me. I wish Liu was here. "6...5...4...3.." My head doesn't hurt anymore, must've stopped hurting after I saw James touch Chelsie with my own eyes! "2...1..." I close my eyes shut and prepared myself to hear the loud screams and shouts of a new year.