Spill The Tea

"Who are those children? Did you borrow them?"

He hated the fact that she had something he wanted, and she was so damn proud to rub it into his face.

"Jealousy doesn't look good on you, Andrei. Well to anyone, for that matter."

She carefully put back the photos of the kids she somehow considered as her own even though she does not deserve them. They are the best thing she had ever had in her life.

"I won't tell you about them because I don't want you spreading your negativity to them. I would say, you should continue seeing a counselor, but get a new one. Someone who would actually help you and not just milk you with your money."

Andrei was so pissed off with how Laurie was being so smug. It added to the bruise to his ego that indeed she got a bullseye!

He hated the fact that his brother got all his mother's attention just because his sister-in-law gave his brother children! They have now three adorably annoying rascals and one more on the way.

They were still in the middle of a stare down when Bella entered the room.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. Is this a continuation of - I will claw your eyes out - thingy that you two were having this morning over breakfast? Should I come back later?"

"Get in." she scoffed at Bella being a smart ass. "And no, this is not a continuation of what happened this morning. This is a different one. This is - Andrei should go home and think over what he needs to do with his life - kind of thing."

"We all have that moment. I mean, not the going home part but the thinking over what to do with life." She grabbed the bottle of wine and poured herself a drink.

"Is something the matter? The meeting with your editor?"

"Yeah, he said, the publishing company wanted me to spend time working on my manuscript."

When she saw the confused expression on Laurie's face, she added, "They are saying without actually saying, that they can't publish my story in the near future. It was pushed to the back burner to give way to more promising work." she chugged down her wine in one gulp. "Bullshit," she mumbled under her breath. Totally pissed off.

"That's a bummer," Andrei muttered. He pushed some sushi near her. "Just eat first. Don't just drink on an empty stomach."

"How far are you with your writing?" She asked, pouring her more wine.

"Not even half, but I was already expecting…" she sighed. "Now I don't know —"

"Just continue writing. You can worry about the publishing later on. Besides, they didn't drop you, right?"

Bella looked at Laurie and sighed, "You are too optimistic sometimes. I've been rejected so many times with my writing. This is the first company that trusted me, now I don't know…"

"I'm not being too optimistic. I just believe that as long as you have the time, and you know some good people, you can turn around things."

"You can ask Laurie to just publish your book," Andrei rolled his eyes towards Laurie.

Laurie shook her head to Andrei, warning him not to push his annoyance with her to Bella.

Andrei mouthed "sorry" and then, put more sushi on Bella's plate.

"This is the best sushi I have ever eaten in my life," she mumbled with her mouth full.

When Bella stopped drinking, she turned her attention to food. She shoved sushi on her mouth non-stop. To the point that Laurie slowly pushed the sushi away from her.

"After eating, do you want to hit more stores?" Andrei saw what Laurie did and tried to help her distract a dejected Bella.

"I don't feel like shopping anymore."

"Oh come on! Shopping is always a good idea. Remember, you girls have me as your wallet?"

"Well, speaking of wallet. You are also paying for our bills here at the restaurant." she smirked at him. "And yes, I still want to go shopping."

"I was asking about Bella. I didn't say anything about you."

"Don't be stingy! It's been a while since I asked you to pay for anything."

He scoffed, "You already bought half of the Chanel store. Why more do you need?"

"The only reason I bought half of the store —" she flipped her hair, and then said, "was because you didn't help me choose what I should buy."

"Well, I like shopping if it's for me. But you wanted me to be your audience while you parade your loot! By the way, why do you need those clothes?"

"I need those because I have an important place to be this weekend," she replied with a sigh.

"What's with the long face? Where is this place that you don't want to be?"

"Hideaki's place," Bella answered Andrei's question for her.

"Wow! You just landed in Japan and you already caught yourself being a man."

"I didn't catch myself being a man." she scoffed at Andrei. "And Bella, it's not Hideaki place. Hideaki no longer lives in that house."

"Whose house is it then?" Andrei asked out of curiosity because Laurie was low-key panicking about this going to a man's house thing. He wanted to hear about it. He didn't know Laurie can be anxious about visiting someone's house.

"It's the Nakamura's residence, NOT Hideaki's house. He moved out of his father's house a few years ago."

Mei Mei was even complaining about those girls who seemed to climb to her brothers apartment. As though the two brothers were running an audition because most of the girls who climbed their apartment were women from the entertainment industry.

In the Nakamura's household, it was just Mei Mei and her husband that lived there together with the old Nakamura - san.

"But Hideaki would be there, wouldn't he?" Bella said begrudgingly, "It's a family lunch.".

"Not sure if Hideaki would be there… I hope he will not. To avoid unnecessary drama."

"I'm interested in this drama," Andrei grinned at Laurie. He wiggled his brows, probing her to spill the tea.