"Can I get a martini here for me and my friend?" The bartender nods his head at Liu and takes out two wine glasses to pour. "So guess what? Shu's not going to break up with me! Isn't that amazing?" Liu grins at me while I stare down reading a newspaper. "Uh huh." "Hey, don't you have something to say?" The bartender pours each of us a martini and moves on to serve another drinker. "I'm trying to see if the newspaper covered anything about me and Jack's break up.." Liu leans in closer to where I'm sitting on a stool. Her eyes scan down every paragraph on the newspaper page I was on. "Probably not today, Abelle. All celebrity gossip will now be focused on the upcoming wedding of James Chand and his bride-to-be, Chelsie Fu. Oops! I didn't mean to blurt it out like that, I'm sorry--" "It's alright." I turn to the next page of the newspaper and started to read an article about the stock market that involved Chan Enterprises. "You gonna drink that expensive martini or not?" Liu points out to me. I take a long sip of my drink and then set the glass down back on the counter.
"I got into a heated argument with my mother a night ago," I tell Liu. Liu looks at me with a strange look on her face. "What did you two argue about? I'm guessing it has to do with Jack...." Good for Liu, always right on the spot. "Yeah," I say glumly and take another sip of my drink. "Is your mother forcing you to marry him?" "It's not like she has a weapon to my head, but she's more demanding that I do what she says. If I don't comply to what she says, she might take me out of the family's will." Liu chokes on her drink, I then rush her to the ladies' room on the other side of the bar. "What?!? That's so unfair!" Liu exclaims after taking a gulp of water from the fountain. I look at myself sheepishly in the mirror. "She didn't say it out loud, but I'm hinting that it was on her mind then. I don't even have to marry Jack, she'll just set me up with some other guy." Liu frowns at me in the mirror and says, "You should have your own say in this, Abelle...but I think your mother is just trying to help you." I glared at Liu in the mirror. "Who's side are you on?"
Liu makes a face at me and answers back to question. "Obviously yours, of course. I'm just trying to give you some good advice." We both exit the restroom and head back to the bar to finish our drinks. Liu and I both left the bartender a tip before leaving our seats. We hail a taxi to go back to Liu's place. As a cab stops along the curb for us, I think back to the night with my mother half crying and half arguing with me. I know she's doing her best for me, but I don't need her to find me a man....I already have one that I'm searching for.
Just as Liu and I get out from our cab ride, I hear someone call my name. I turn around and feel the blood inside me turn cold. It's a journalist with some of his camera crew behind him. WHAT WERE THEY DOING HERE? HOW DID THEY FIND US? I slam the door shut to the cab and watched as the journalist ran toward us with a notebook and pen in hand. A story was what he wanted. Liu hands the cab driver some dollar bills and then we ran inside the apartment building. We both cram ourselves in the elevator, feeling secured as the doors closed the space between us and the journalist. Before the elevator doors closed, I heard the journalist shout, "Li Abelle! A quick interview on your relationship with Jack Ting?" I look at Liu who takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Running in heels is no fun. "They'll probably take the stairs," I tell her. Liu shoots me an annoyed look and asks me, "How do they even know I live here?" I don't reply to her question right away. The elevator doors opened and we quickly got inside Liu's apartment, slamming the door shut and locking it.
I walk over to the living room and collapsed on Liu's sofa. A few minutes later, we here three knocks and tons of shouting from the people behind the door. "Should we call the cops?" I whisper to Liu who shakes her head and says, "They'll probably leave if we don't answer." It was hard to have a normal conversation with Liu when shouts of questions are being directed towards us. "Li Abelle, is it true that you were the one who broke Jack's heart?" "Any comments or opinions on your ex-fiancee?" "Witnesses say that Jack may still have a thing for Chelsie Fu, do you believe them?" "Has Fang Liu been giving you advice on love recently?" I watched as Liu's calm face turn into total anger. "I'm calling the building security!" As Liu stomps off to her bedroom I continue to hear more shouts of plea from the journalist and his crew. Did word get out already about my broken relationship with Jack? If so, who told? Liu then comes back into the room with a smug look on her face. "I called security, they'll be right up on our floor in a jiffy." I don't say anything and listen as the noises outside died down.
"Turn on the TV." Liu clicks the remote and we find a channel that has Jack speaking into a reporter's microphone as he jogs in the parking lot; the company building was behind them in the background. "Can you explain to me why you broke your engagement with Li Abelle?" the reporter asks Jack. "It didn't work out," Jack says in the mic and again as the reporter repeats the question. Paparazzi these days..... I look away from the TV screen and Liu notices my reaction. "Are you upset?" I stand up from the sofa and Liu turns off the TV. "I'm TIRED of random people getting in the way of my life! It was fine 10 years ago...why am I getting so UPSET NOW?!" Liu comes over and gives me a hug. I don't cry a tear as anger boils inside my heart. No family to talk to, no fiancee anymore either...only a friend. Liu pats my head and repeats in my ear, "It's okay, Abelle. The press do some nasty stories and twists to all types of celebs. You're not the only one being targeted in the world." I scoffed at her, "I can't wait till this news stops spreading. James and Chelsie will get married soon, the spotlight will be focused on them."
Liu blinks and looks at me seriously in the eye. "Do you even know what you're saying?" I step away from Liu to keep space and nodded my head. "It's going to happen Liu, I just feel it in my veins. While I still love James, I know that he will never be able to love me back. What is done is done." Liu doesn't say anything for a while, our silence together is quite odd in her friendship. "I think you just need to rest, Abelle. You've been working hard lately with all the things happening in your career and family. How about a trip to a nice, serene spot?" I look into Liu's eager face expression. "Okay...like where?" "They opened up a new place in Shanghai, called Hengshan Moller Villa Hotel. It's a really serene place, my other friends tell me! We should go!" I don't if a trip is going to help me get through my life right now.....but a trip is a trip. I can't resist...
I'm finishing dinner alone in my kitchen when I hear my phone ring. "Hello?" I say cautiously. "Abelle? Hey it's Shu here. How are you?" I'm surprised to hear Shu speak to me. "I'm alright, eating my dinner now. What's going on for you?" Shu laughs and goes, "I'm glad you asked! Nothing much in my life, really..... I had a date with Liu, did she tell you that?" "Yeah she did. How'd it go?" Shu chuckles and then answers, "It went really well. Everything I ordered for her, she practically ate all of it right off the plate. It was as if this was the last meal we would ever have together, oh my Liu!" Oh if only Shu knew how worried Liu was when he asked her out for lunch, guys like him have no idea. I wonder if James is clueless as.....never mind. "Magazines lately have been publishing gossip about your break up with Jack Ting. I was just curious to know how you felt....the way the magazines covered the story for you," Shu does a low whistle, "it's a hot mess. I don't know if you're angry, sad, depressed, or suicidal."
"Suicidal? That's totally wrong, I would never do such a thing!" I yell into the phone. "Yeah that's how one editor wrote about you...." Ugh I've had enough with all the social media, who cares if I'm with Jack right now or not? Oh wait, the world does. "I guess you can say it's officially over for you and him, huh?" I pause for a minute, the gears turning inside my head. "Abelle? Hello?" I do a casual laugh and tell Shu, "You bet! So when are you going to propose to Liu? I'm dying to know!" Shu snickers. "Like we promised." "Well I don't have much time left to make James Chan mine anymore, Shu. We're ruined." Shu laughs at me and calls me an idiot. "You've still got time at least. I don't think you're ruined, Abelle...just confused. Well it was nice talking to you, have a good evening." I become the first one in our conversation to hang up. I've still got time.......what time? I come back into the kitchen and start washing my dirty plate.
I hum a nice tune playing in my head. Where have I heard this song before? I scrub my plate with a sponge and continue singing inside my head. Wait...I don't think this is a song with a singer. It's more like music that's being played from an instrument, an instrument from an orchestra. My fingers tense up on the sponge as I realize what I had been humming all along..... This song was played from a piano, the same instrument that James plays. OH GREAT I remembered a song that James played on his piano! My mind wanders off back to my childhood with James getting music lessons on the piano and violin from his mother and teacher. He was a talented kid, still is now.
Maybe I'm just thinking too hard on some things....I'm still confident but I'm a disbeliever in what I want to believe in. I sigh and wipe my plate with a dry cloth. At least my life is not officially over yet....maybe Jack will find another girl; it doesn't have to be Chelsie. Soon I'll be attending their wedding, sending them gifts and crying my eyes out. He use to be mine I would tell myself over and over again. I have no regrets now, absolutely none. The reason why Jack left my love life is for a good reason....it's so someone else can come aboard onto my rocking boat of life. I wonder if it's who I want it to be.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* A small part here in the story, for what's coming up ahead is even longer! Keep reading to see what Li Abelle does next!