one night // andre burakovsky ✓

CHAPTER 28

The next day at the apartment, Tom made it his goal to try discussing The Bella Situation with Andre. The two of them were eating pizza and watching a rerun of a hockey game.

Tom didn't know why he was so quick to help Bella. He kept on trying to remember how she hurt Andre, but still, she brought up a good point. Andre had seemed so happy all those times he would text her, and even just by being around her. Although Andre wasn't overly depressed now, Tom could still see that there was something different about him.

Tom wouldn't try to force them together, of course not. He would just do his best to get them at least in the same room, talking. And then it'd be up to Andre of where he'd want to go from there.

"Has Bella texted you at all again?" Tom brought up to Andre. Andre's eyes immediately perked up at his friend's words, then trying to cover it by taking a bite of his pizza.

"No," he starts. "And I don't expect her to, I kinda left it on a bad note."

"Why, what'd you say?" Tom asks, thinking this might be harder than he thought.

"She asked if we could meet up to talk. She would discuss everything that happened, but I told her I didn't really want to meet up. I'm trying to move on, y'know." Andre said. Tom noticed that Andre had never met his eye once, instead just stared at the TV. There was obviously something up.

"Are you sure? Don't you want to hear what she has to say? Isn't that why you were mad in the first place, because she never explained?" Tom asked. "Because now you're just turning down her explanation."

Andre looked up at Tom, looking confused. "I thought I was trying to move on from her. If I listen to what she's saying, I'm just moving backwards, aren't I?"

Tom shrugs. "Maybe you should give it a chance. I told you that if you love someone that much, you can't let them go that easily. And if Bella really means a lot to you, maybe you shouldn't let her go."

Andre sighed, feeling so confused. He was getting such mixed thoughts from himself and from Tom. "Tom, weren't you just against Bella? Like, really against her?" Andre brought up, remembering how mad Tom seemed at Bella during their trip west.

"Yeah..." Tom started. "But I want you to be happy, man. At the end of the day, it's your decision."

Andre groaned, running his hand through his hair. "I'm so confused, Tom. Tell me what to do," he begged of his friend.

"Okay." Tom chuckled. "Would you say you love her?"

Andre hesitated before answering. "Yes."

"Then it shouldn't even be a question, bud." Tom pointed out.

"I know, but..." Andre paused, turning the volume lower on the TV. "I'm supposed to be mad at her. She kinda broke it off with me for no reason."

"I think if you give her a chance to talk, she'll give you a reason." Tom said. "And then you two can either sort it out from there, or maybe you'll decide you aren't right for each other. But I think a chance is necessary."

Andre held silent, letting his best friend's words and his own thoughts sink in. He was definitely still confused. But perhaps a chance was necessary. He didn't want to let Bella go too easily.

"Okay, I'll give her a chance." Andre decided. "But what should I do? Text her?"

Tom nodded. "Sure."

"Okay. What should I say?"

Tom chuckled. "Just start off simple." he said, smiling at his friend's nerves. "Say hi. Then work from there."

"Okay." Andre smiled, grabbing his phone. He typed Bella's number, leaving her a simple message.

Andre: hi

But Bella never answered.

——

A few days later, Tom came up with a plan to get Bella and Andre speaking. He thought that his ability to get Andre to text Bella was brilliant, and was confident that this plan would work as well.

He didn't know if Andre and Bella were texting a lot or even if at all, since Andre had never updated Tom. But it would all be good anyway. And after what Tom was about to do now, Bella owed him. Big time.

Tom parked his car, walking into The Captain's Grill. "Hi," he said to the hostess, giving her a smile.

"Hi, would you like me to start you with a table?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, no, I actually had a question for you." he said, trying to milk this as much as possible with his charm. "Okay, this is gonna sound weird, but just hear me out." he chuckles.

The hostess chuckles as well, nodding. "Sure," she says.

"So my girlfriend works here, Bella, do you know her?" he starts, following the plan.

"Of course." she smiled. "I didn't know Bella had a boyfriend."

"Yeah, that's me." Tom said. "So I was planning on throwing her a surprise party, you know her birthday's coming up-" here Tom paused, he didn't actually know if her birthday was coming up or not- "and I have to pick a date for it. Now I can't just come out and ask her what days she's working, that'd sound too obvious. I was wondering if you could possibly show me the schedule, and then I'll just copy down what days she's working, so I know when not to have the party."

The girl pauses slightly, and Tom's left wondering if his plan worked or not. It was risky, he didn't actually know if stores were allowed to share their schedules, especially because he hadn't shown ID and had no proof that he was "Bella's boyfriend".

The girl then spoke. "Yeah, for sure. It's so nice that you're throwing her a party." she compliments, reaching down to get a binder and placing it on the podium in front of her. She opens it up to a schedule, pointing to Bella's name.

"Great, thanks." Tom says, copying the dates and times for the week into his phone. He'd need to coordinate this perfectly so that Bella would be here on a day that they didn't have a game.

"Thank you so much for your help." Tom said to the girl once he was done.

"Yeah, no problem! Tell Bella I say hi." she waves.

"Of course. I'll see you around." he says, then walking out. He smiled to himself as the second stage of his master plan had gone successfully. See, Bella isn't the only one who can devise great plans.

Hopefully, though, this would work. "God, Bella, you owe me big time." Tom groaned to himself as he got into his car and left.

——

hehehehe i mean you might not understand this now but it'll make sense next chapter i promiseeee :) tom's hella sneaky (ps next chapter's gonna be good)

leave a vote if you'd like and a comment :) thanks for reading!!