Huanying! Welcome to Shanghai, China. The place of all the peculiarities. Where everyone have their own stories about the families living there, especially the Xu's. Their ancestral house that they own for many generations have an infamous garden w...
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Kelly walked into the living room that afternoon after unsuccessfully trying to make herself better by shopping. She had just bumped into Alex Xu downtown and Alex said he's been looking for her all day because he needed to give her some coins.
And as proof of how bad her day was, taking money from an old man had actually been the bright spot.
Her big mistake had been in meeting with her mother for lunch to show her what she's brought. Her mother scolded her for not buying enough lingerie and immediately sent her off to get something sexy for Dominic. Not that it would work. She and Dominic hadn't had sex in more than a week.
She dropped the bags suddenly when she saw Dominic sitting on the couch, flipping through a large book on the coffee table. He'd taken off the jacket and tie he'd worn to work that morning and his shirtsleeves were rolled up.
"Why, Dominic?" she smiled brightly but at the same time an uneasiness settled in the pit of her stomach. "What are you doing here at this time of the day?"
"I took the afternoon off. I was waiting for you."
"Where are the boys?" she asked, hoping to take this to the bedroom. She glanced down, ready to grab the pink bag, the one that contained the sheer black bra and the thong with the tiny red bows.
"The nanny took them to the movies, then out to eat. I thought we needed to talk."
"Oh," she said, fisting her hands at her sides anxiously. Talk. Discuss. Dissolve. No. She pointed at the books in front of Dominic to distract him. "What are you looking at?"
"Our senior-high yearbook," he replied and her heart sank. Whatcouldhavebeen. She had his office at home decorated with his old basketball photos and trophies. She even had his old jersey framed. It was a time he could be proud of, when anything was possible.
A time she took away from him.
The bags and packages left on the floor, she walked to the couch and sat beside him, gently, cautiously, afraid that if she moved too fast he would bolt. The yearbook was a two page layout of candid photos. Mei, Kelly and Dominic were in nearly all of them. There they were in the Gym, the covered picnic area outside the cafeteria where they would sometimes sneak puffs of cigarettes. There they were on the senior bench, an exclusive seating area claimed by the most popular in school. Hamming it up in front of the camera at their lockers. Celebrating at the homecoming game that year when Dominic shoot the winning ball.
"I was in love with Mei," Dominic said, and Kelly felt strangely satisfied. Or maybe justified. Dominic was admitting it. He was admitting that she was the problem. But then he continued, "As much as a teenager can feel love. It felt real to me at the time. I look at these photos and in every single one of them, I am staring at him. But then I see you, and in every single one, you're staring at him too. I forgot about him a long time ago, Kelly. But you didn't forget, did you? Has Mei-Ren been in this marriage for ten years without me knowing it?"
Kelly stared at the images, trying not to cry. She was ugly when she cried. Her nose swelled and her mascara ran like river water. "I don't know. I just know that I've always wondered, if you had to do it all over again, would you still do it? Would you still choose me?"
"Is that what this is all about? You've been trying so hard because you thought I didn't want to he here?" Dominic replied.
"I've tried so hard because I love you!" she replied desperately. "But I took away all your choices! I made you stay home instead of going off to college. You had children instead of spending time doing the things you loved the most. There's always been a part of me that thought I ruined everything for you because I hated Mei so much, because I hated that you loved him and not me. I hated it so much I had to go and seduce you. And I ruined all your plans. I've been trying to make it up to you every day since!"
"Good Lord, Kelly! You didn't take away my choices. I chose you."
"When you saw Mei again, didn't you think about what could have been? Didn't you compare him to me? Didn't you think for just a moment what your life would have been like without me?"
"No. I didn't." he replied, sounding honestly confused. "I haven't spared him more than a moment's thought in ten years. And barely that since he's been back. But you keep bringing him up. You think that him being back has changed things. But it hasn't changed anything for me."
"Oh," she said, turning her face away to wipe her eyes, where tears were pooling, threatening to fall.
Dominic hooked a finger under her chin and made her look at him. "I wouldn't change a thing, Kelly. I have a great life with you. You are a joy and a wonder to me, every single day. You make me laugh, you make me think, you make me hot. There are times when you confuse the hell out of me but it's a pleasure to wake up to you in the mornings, to come home to you and the boys in the evening. I am the luckiest man in the world. I love you so much, more than I thought it was possible to love another human being."
"Mei-Ren.."
"No." Dominic cuts her off, harshly. "No. Don't start that again. What have I ever done to make you think I regretted my choice? I've spent days trying to figure out how could I have prevented this from happening, but you know what I realized? This isn't between me and you. This is between you and Mei. I also suspect this might be between you and your mother. I love you. I don't love Mei. I want a life with you. I don't want a life with Mei. We're not those people anymore." Dominic closed the yearbook in front of him, closing the book on childhood dreams of basketball stardom and backpacking through the country. "At least I'm not that person anymore."
Kelly put her hands on his leg, high on his leg because that was who she was and she couldn't help herself. "I don't want to be that person, Dominic. I really don't."
Dominic's eyes searched her face. "I think he's here to stay, Kelly."
"I think so too,"
"I mean in town," he replied, "not in our lives."
"Oh,"
Dominic shook his head. "Try, Kelly. That's all I'm asking."
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A filler. The next chapter's a filler too, but the story needed it so yeah. (Kindly bear with my unusual slow updates. A lot of activities are happening and sometimes I wish I could just split myself like Naruto, 😆)
The next one is all about Alex Xu, and his backstory, alongside his new found friend.
