One Size Does Not Fit All

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She thought of Andrei's question as she walked back to the kitchen to get the wine she had chilled in the fridge.

'How much money do you have in the bank?'

She couldn't help but snicker. Money was never an issue for her. And that's not because of her father, or her family. She learned to earn her own money; the hard way.

Not a lot of people knew that when her father died, she got nothing. Her brothers and her mother were set up for life. But she got nothing but a simple note and a zero balance on her bank account.

She has to work her ass off. She saved her own money and learned how to make it grow without killing herself at work.

Well, she worked like a slave in the corporate world for about eight years! However, it was not because of money. It was to forget the pain of her father's death and all the regrets that come because of it.

And yet, people think she got it all easy. She won't be surprised if Andrei has the same idea about it. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that she had her own money and she owned companies.

The difference between her and the others with it comes to business was; she doesn't care about the accolade, the title, or the fame. She likes working behind the scenes.

When it comes to business, as long as she got her share in her bank accounts, she doesn't care if no one knows that it was her money that made things happen.

Just like her investment in Mei Mei's older brother, Ryu. Mei Mei knew that she had invested in Ryu's business but she didn't know that throughout the years, her shares of that company grew.

She wondered if Mei Mei had an idea that in papers, she owned forty percent of Ryu's company.

She has tons of investments that only her lawyers and accountants knew. And she wanted to keep it that way. Because she also learned the hard way that people treat you differently when you have the money.

Hence, it pissed her off that Hideaki was acting as if she needed him. She doesn't need any man in her life. She can take care of herself.

She took out the other bottle of Pinot Noir from the fridge and went to the living room instead of returning to the garden.

"Hey, Andrei, let's drink here."

She sat down on the couch, brought her legs up, and waited for Andrei. She was expecting him to come inside but she already finished a glass, yet Andrei hasn't shown himself.

She was about to get up from the couch when she heard Andrei, shouting at the garden.

A lot of curse words flew out of his mouth that she could clearly hear due to the fact that the building they were living in wasn't in a residential area.

It's a commercial area, consisting of small businesses and some small private companies. She asked to live in this place because she knew from experience that living in a residential building is stressful.

You can hear your neighbors through the thin walls. She used to live in an apartment where she felt like she wasn't living alone because she could hear every movement of her neighbors. She knew what they were doing, talking about, and even when they were having sex.

And those weren't fun.

Now Andrei was being noisy in the middle of the night. Maybe this building is not a residential building but it doesn't mean that he wasn't disturbing anyone.

She was about to go out to tell him to get inside because she doesn't want someone to complain about them being noisy, but Andrei came on his own.

His eyes were red. Clearly, he had cried.

She didn't ask what happened because she basically heard everything that happened in his phone conversation.

She poured his glass some wine when he sat down on the sofa next to her.

"Laurie, did you regret not accepting Hideaki's marriage proposal?"

"No. I didn't regret saying 'no' to him. And could you please stop, projecting your personal issues with me? If you are regretting some decision in your life, don't ask me if I regretted some of mine."

"It's not that I'm regretting them. I just hope that he could understand that we were from a different family and situation, I can't do what he did."

"You should tell that to yourself too."

"Why?" He gave her an annoyed look as he picked up his glass of wine.

"Because you kept on doing the same thing to me. We just lied together to our mothers but you kept on acting like I made the same decision as you did, or I should be in the same situation with you...I'm not and I will never be.

And the problem you have at the moment has nothing to do with our stupidity in the past," she raised her glass to her mouth, gulping down her wine in one go."

"I know. I just want someone to share the blame. And it's not you that I want to share the blame with. I want to share the blame with Eric but -- he made it clear that I was the one who made the decision and not him."

"I will not call him an asshole, in the same way, that I won't call you stupid, but you know you are, so there was that."

"Thank you for being such a bitch!"

"You are welcome!" She raised her glass in a mock salute. "To the reason why you came to me every time your life spiraled into a shithole."

"And what is it that made me come to you?"

"My bitchy attitude, of course! Do you know anyone who can tell you you're stupid in front of your face?" she scoffed. "Yes, that's right. No one! You know why? Because you are Andrei Mark Fucking Tan! Deal with it!"