Queen of Love

“Come on. Be serious.”

“Why? You’re waiting for her to show up here, right? Like she’s gonna come swooping in, make everything better, and you’re off the hook.”

“What hook am I breaking free from, exactly?”

“The one where Lady Liu asserts herself and puts out there exactly what it is she wants. The one who isn’t afraid of heartbreak.”

“Bold words from a woman who dumped me.”

“I didn’t dump you, Gen. We were incompatible, no matter how you attempted to spin it. We were better off with different people. Now you’ve found the person you’re better with. You should go tell her how much she means to you. Go tell her you love her. Then invite me to the wedding in a year. I’m not bartending it, though.”

Genevieve walked to the settee by the window and grabbed the decorative pillow. She sat back down next to Nyla, the pillow protecting her from the words hurling in her direction. “I did what I thought was right. I suppose she didn’t understand my position.”

“It’s not like you’re good at explaining any position you have, Gen.”

“It’s a wonder any of you put up with me.”

“Oh, don’t have a pity party. You’re one of the richest women in Singapore. Singapore! You can have anything you want. How many times have you helped yourself into Japan and Taiwan this spring, even though they’re sooo tightly bordered right now?”

Genevieve didn’t want to admit to that level of privilege. Not even if she had legitimate business-related reasons to country hop like she always did before the pandemic.

“You know I’m telling you all of this because I care about you, right?”

“You sound like my aunt,” Genevieve snapped. “My bossy, boundary-breaking auntie.”

“I don’t have any siblings, so I might as live that experience through you, a woman way older than me.”

“Stop that! By the way, this is all your fault!”

“Eh?”

Genevieve blew the hair out of her face. “You were the one who told me to send nudes!”

“Worked, didn’t it? You got pics of her with freakin’ abs.”

“My repu…”

“To hell with your reputation, Gen! What good does it do you? Doesn’t make your inheritance disappear. All it’s done is trap you in this useless spiral of upholding an image that nobody but you cares about. Your parents aren’t here to be ashamed of you. You’ve been the master of your own destiny since you were a teenager. Sometimes you made mistakes, like when you dated Wendy…”

“That was so long ago.”

”…Like, we all have lapses in judgment. Then you strike gold. But are you going to be like those stories your mom tells you? About the good girl who did everything she was told and lived happily-ever-after with her successful husband who is milquetoast in every other way? Or are you gonna be like the girls we used to read about in our spare time? The one who goes after the woman who makes you feel alive? The one who actually loves you?”

Genevieve squeezed the pillow against her stomach.

“You’re forty.” That was the knife twisting through the pillow and stabbing Genevieve in the gut. “Grow a spine, Gen.”

She really did sound like an auntie when she said that in such spitfire Mandarin.