Andrew

"It has been too long," Yoko says as she hugs her old friend.

"I know, I'm sorry." Sam gives her an apologetical smile. "Please, come in ."

After weeks of talking about hanging out, they finally have the time to meet. It made sense to meet at Sam's house after the fiasco with Kei last week.

"By the way, I love the place." Yoko looks around the apartment.

"Thanks, I'm still missing some furniture but it already looks like home." Sam guides her friend to the living room. "Or at least for the next year." She laughs.

Yoko sits on the oversize gray couch, she immediately lies back. It is comfortable and the velvet material is soft. "God, where did you get this?"

"You'll have to ask Ed, I only took care of small decorations."

"Ah, I might have to borrow your assistant one of these days. We need more comfortable furniture in that house."

Sam chuckles. "I'll be right back, I made some desserts." She walks to the kitchen but can still see Yoko over the island.

"Desserts? Plural?"

Sam laughs again. "Yes, plural."

"Oh my, I think the baby is excited."

"Don't blame it on the baby," Sam jokes, making Yoko burst into laughter.

"I have been doing that since my second month of pregnancy. Jiro doesn't even try to argue with me anymore," she adds between laughs.

"You're a menace, Yoko."

The afternoon is spent making jokes and talking about plans and the baby, they even talked about fashion trends. But neither of them ventured to talk about Kei.

"Stay for dinner," Sam says when Yoko is about to leave. "We can order delivery, or I can make something."

"Hmm, then can we order fried chicken. I have been craving it so much lately."

"Of course. Any particular place?"

"Yes, oh my God, they have the best chicken in town." Yoko looks through her phone until she finds the restaurant's contact.

Sam orders the food and sits back next to her friend, a comfortable silence envelops the room.

Yoko bites her lips as she stares at Sam. She has promised herself not to bring up the subject unless she did first, but it looks like Sam doesn't plan on talking about it.

She clears her throat. "Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?"

"The elephant in the room?" Sam raises a brow.

"Your little adventure with Kei."

"Ah, that's what you meant." Sam chuckles. "This must be a record for you, Yoko. You held it in for hours.

Yoko shrugs with a smile. "I did my best, but it didn't look like you were going to initiate the talk."

Sam shakes her head. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Everything. Like how did you end up having lunch with him. Yeah, start from there."

"I was possessed by an evil spirit for a moment." Sam shrugs.

"What?"

"That's the only explanation I can think of." Sam laughs. "I was not even a guest, I was just volunteering to help with the event at my uni. Next thing you know, I bid $500K to have lunch with Kei."

Yoko holds her eight-month-big stomach as she laughs. "Yes, that is the only explanation."

Sam shakes her head. "I'm glad this is amusing to you."

"So…so, how was…the $500K lunch?" Yoko says between laughs. "What did you talk about?"

"It was good, the food was amazing. We didn't talk about anything serious, just general stuff."

"I see." Yoko sounds disappointed.

"He's married, you know." Sam frowns.

"Of course, I know. But it is a miserable marriage."

"That's what everyone keeps saying, and yet he is still married." Sam is starting to get mad. "I have been cheated on, Yoko. I do not wish that upon anyone."

They are both silent for a moment.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Yoko finally says with a soft voice.

Sam is silent for a long time. She takes a deep breath, thinking about where she should begin. 'How do you summarize a relationship that lasted for years in a couple of sentences?'

"We used to be happy," she starts. "Or at least I think we were."

"How did you meet…Andrew, right?"

"Yeah, Andrew." The name that made her heart skip a beat for years now left a bitter taste in her mouth. "We met seven years ago in one of the campus bars in New York. He went to a different school, but was visiting a friend from our department. I didn't like him at first, I thought he looked arrogant." She smiles. "But somehow, he got my number and asked me out on a date. He was so persistent that I found myself accepting.

"We went on a few dates, then we started dating. I was accepted to Sorbonne University in Paris to do my graduate degree. He insisted that we can have a long-distance relationship, and he ended up being right." She pauses. "I am not even sure if he was faithful back then, or if it had already started.

"After I graduated, he proposed, and I said yes." Sam shrugs. "We bought a house together, we traveled, we did everything together–you know, married couple stuff." Sam takes another deep breath. "He was hired by a big architecture firm in New York City, and I started working on my exhibits. We were busy building our careers but we always made sure to make time for each other.

"I think it was about three years into our marriage when it all started. When I had my first miscarriage."