“I don’t know why, but I cannot stand that woman. She makes me feel irrationally violent when I encounter her at work. I don’t know what he sees in her.” Ling screwed up her face in distaste and banged a couple more keypad keys. Agitation grew because, normally, work was a pleasure, but today, the page was a blur of boring.
“That’s you with everyone outside of our family.” Meilei brought the humor back, lightening a little and trying to relax and not obsessively phone check. They had only been gone an hour, yet she was still tense and fidgety. Hoping he continued to update her frequently without prompting to help settle her anxiety.
Her phone beeped, and Ling raised a brow, leaning up to see if Kai was once again texting – a smirk appearing at spotting his name. Meilei swiped it up, opened it pronto, and sighed with relief at the selfie they had sent.
It was a picture of Tian, Kai, and Yuelin at the park. Kai’s arm was obviously coming at the camera, indicating he had taken it, and there was no sign of anyone around them. They were a trio and not a foursome, which she guessed saved her from asking. Yue looked happy, and her cheeks were rosy, mixed with being outside and running around. The sun was out, but today was a cooler day, and she was wedged between the two men holding her up with an arm each. She had hers around both their necks and was smiling brightly. The grin of a little kid having the time of her life and no worries clouding her little head.
It was bittersweet for the two women to see their angel shining and having fun while they sat here moping around at the lack of her presence. Ling was instantly jealous that Tian, who was not even blood, was getting to grow a bond like this and spend Auntie Ling days with her. That man was insufferable.
“Why is my kid such a disloyal little turncoat? I thought I raised her better than that.” Ling huffed, prodding at Meilei’s phone to get Tian right in the face, then eye-rolled at the cheesiness of his goofy smile. He was annoyingly fatherlike in the picture in his denim jacket and khaki tee. Looking like a guy who should be married with kids and not the icy CEO bachelor who was still having one-night stands.
“It seems she isn’t the man-hater we thought she was.” Meilei brought back a topic they had not joked about since before Kai appeared in their lives. That seemed like forever ago now.
“And she definitely has terrible taste in them too.” Ling was getting huffier by the second as Meilei stared at the open picture.
Ling narrowed her eyes knowing that despite Kai’s almost constant texts, Meilei rarely responded to any unless she had to. She would read them and do nothing. Ling knew she was afraid of building any kind of relationship with Kai in any way. She couldn’t blame her. Burned once, twice shy.
Only quiet acceptance even when Kai presented her with his legal papers renouncing his parental rights.
“Why? Can’t I just carry on, get used to the new dynamic, and ensure he stays at arm’s length.” Meilei sounded exhausted. In many ways, she was. Emotionally and mentally and instead of respite with how this had changed, she found it overwhelming to the point that she had closed down and only wanted to focus on Yue.
Ling gazed at her and, for once, remained silent despite the knee-jerk responses on the tip of her tongue. Meilei’s evasive attitude towards processing all this worried her, and she didn’t want to argue. She made a mental note to arrange a therapy session, knowing she was out of her depth with this, and nodded with a smile instead. She didn’t know if this was a healthy response, as she had nothing to measure it against. It certainly wasn’t the Meilei response they had expected.
Meilei sighed, brightening, knowing she was bringing down their day by acting like a wet rag and moping around. She had chosen to trust him, and he was doing a decent job keeping her in the loop without nagging him. She had no reason to sit here on guard and worry obsessively. She had to relax a little.
“Hmmmm. I don’t know. What if they call because Yue wants to come home early?” She was making excuses to imprison herself at home, and Ling eye-rolled.
Kids!!
What if she wanted overnights, too?
Her expression fell as the reality sunk in that maybe Yuelin herself would want half a week with him one day. How would she cope?
“I don’t want to share her that much?” She wailed in genuine despair as the thoughts trundled through her head like a hurricane, and Ling frowned, her brows almost touching her lashes as she pondered it, too.
“Ling!!” Meilei squealed as she was dragged upright in the most ungracious way and almost fell over.
“Get up, get glammed up, for we are going out. I have a serious craving for Sushi and am in no mood to sit here hating Tian dickhead Wang for spending my day with my girl. Let’s go do normal stuff and see this as an opportunity to do girly things for eighteen plussers only.”
Meilei narrowed her eyes, knitting her brows in the center, a refusal forming on her lips, and then she squealed as she was yanked towards the bedroom to change clothes.
“Are you feeling okay?” Tian watched Kai with interested amusement as he scoured all his kitchen cupboards, pulled out every alcohol bottle he had stashed in his apartment, poured them down the sink, and dropped them into a trash bag before turning to the fridge and doing the same. An array of brands and quantities. Some were full, some half, and some were almost empty, and this was evidence of how often he had reached for a drink since he had moved here and taken over OTS.
He was focused, steel determination oozing from him as he pushed past his friend to deposit the bag beside the front door to dispose of when he left. He had woken up today with new vigor. He had his second time with Yue alone tomorrow and had plans to get a designer in to redo this place in a homely manner and turn his guest room into a princess playroom. After two weeks of living in an emotional fog, dealing with the fallout of leaving his company and parents, he came through the other side with more clarity than he had ever felt.
“Best I have felt in a long time.” Kai carried on, without pausing, to check under his sink where Anna had stashed stray beers.
“Then have you joined an AA and not told me about it?” Tian jested, knowing it was not even something Kai needed. He was not a habitual drinker and more of a ‘fuck it, let’s get drunk’ when he was having a hard time. These were not evening tipples but more of an on-hand collection for him to get blown out drunk occasionally. Tian saw no issue with it as it was something he did, too.