Abelle- A Chinese Romance

Officially Over (Part 14)

"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.