The Popstar & Me

Chapter 20 - Love From Another Life

Chapter 20

I can't believe my eyes. I need to get a closer look. Soon, I'm weaving through the mob of tourists to get a better look. Zhang asks me where I'm going. I can't even string together two words to tell Zhang to wait for me before he loses me in the crowd. The only thing I can think about is Calvin and the waitress!

The waitress!

I knew that Calvin was on the fence about me, but I thought he was probably chatting up Jessica late at night. Maybe he didn't have time to ask me out because he was talking to Jessica all night over Gchat, which he can only access using a VPN. 

I thought for sure that a boy like Calvin would sooner or later decide that he would rather have the skinny, pretty (and not to mention eager) girl who is physically here in Shanghai with him. Who cares if he shared a kiss back at home with Jessica? They're not even Facebook official.

As I watch Calvin and the waitress grope each other in the alley beside the bubble tea shop, I saw that I was so right and yet so wrong. Indeed, Calvin had moved on from Jessica. Just as I suspected, he was never that crazy about her. He did want a girl who was skinnier, taller, and prettier than Jessica. He did want to leave high school behind and immerse himself in this adventure halfway across the world. He was open to dating someone who isn't the same type of Asian as himself.

And he found the exact girl he was looking for in the waitress from the bubble tea store!

I know that the respectable thing to do would be to run away, go home, and cry myself to sleep over a pint of Wuliangye ice cream. I contemplate doing just that, and I was going to do it too — but Andrew appears from the nearby alley holding a pair of wooden masks depicting snarling demons and literately bump headfirst into me. I'm so shocked I barely notice how odd he looks wearing a purple silk pajama jacket with swirling clouds on it.

"S-Sara?" Andrew asks before leaving a sweat stain on my shoulder where he caught me to keep me from falling backward into a garbage bin. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing," I frantically try to think up a response that didn't make me sound like a stalker. Before I can reply, Zhang appears by my side and tugs on my arm.

"Lan-Lan is ten minutes away; let's go back to the meeting spot and put our name down."

"Hi," Andrew says sheepishly. He's hunched over now like he's worried I'm going to smack him for Calvin's indiscretions. Poor Andrew, is this how Calvin's relationships always end? "Nice to meet you; I'm Andrew."

Andrew's Mandarin, at least as he introduced himself to Zhang, is better than my Mandarin. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or ashamed that he's observing the tones. Maybe he has a musical background. Yeah, that must be it.

"Zhang Wei," Zhang replies and offers his hand out for Andrew to shake. "Are you the boy Sara told me about?"

"No," I snap and cock my head in Calvin and his scarlet woman's direction. "That's him," I tell Zhang, as Calvin finishes up kissing his waitress and leads her by the hand toward the entrance of the bubble tea store. "I guess you can say he's not my boyfriend anymore."

"Shameless, isn't he?" Zhang asks as Calvin gropes the girl's backside as they search the crowd for Andrew. I guess it's too late to hide now.

The waitress is not dressed in her uniform. She's wearing a crimson sundress with well-worn three-inch wedges. How does anyone walk around in heels that high? Especially here in this alleyway, where the ground is littered in stray lychee pits, discarded meat-on-sticks, and abandoned bubble tea containers.