Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

YuZhi stumbled against the wall, tripping over nothing, putting his hands out to stop the fall he knew was coming and staggered onwards with intent. The world swaying back and forth, and his sense of realism was greatly skewed. It was late, past midnight and he had slipped out of Cheng’s bar while ZhengLi was in the bathroom. Needing air, to be alone and to clear his head now his drunkenness levels were extreme. He could barley see straight and had that surreal dopey mind of a badly intoxicated person.

Booze hadn’t stopped the internal agony and splicing pain of discovering TangShi with that scumbag Rong Cai this morning, in the Ritz Carlton looking very much like the aftermath of a one-night stand. Instead it felt like it had taken away his ability to put it out of his head and focus on other things. Now it was torturing him alive and he gone looking for solace. The memory of it turned his stomach again, his head a blurry mess of chaos and confused thoughts as he hammered on the door of the location he was aiming for.

He could barely hold himself upright, but a deep ingrained habit had brought him traipsing across the city at this hour to find some sense of relief to his heartbreak. He banged again with a closed fist, hauling himself against the wooden surface and knocking his head against it in frustration as he turned and used it as a resting post for his uncoordinated body.

“Come on, open up…. You have a guest!! Don’t be rude!” He slurred, practically incoherent and used the back of his foot to heel tap too. Incessant and louder than he realized.

“What the hell are you doing?” the door was ripped open at speed, the angry voice falling over the top of him as he caved in backwards and flopped into an ungraceful heap on the floor with a thud. Dazed and blinking up at the familiar face that was towering over him angrily, not feeling any pain because his body was numb.

“Hi, Rhea….. hi buddy. Did you miss me?” YuZhi waved in a childish manner, pleased to see his friend who always knew how to make things less painful and then rolled on his side in an attempt to get up.

“You’re drunk as hell. What are you doing here, it’s almost one and you’ll wake my neighbors?” Rhea, leaned down, almost gaging on the stench of whisky and helped haul him up to his feet again. Annoyed that after everything lately, he would show up here unannounced and wasted like this.

“I came to see you, my bestie…. Because….” YuZhi wandered past her, tugging out of the loose grip she had on his jacket and zigzagged into the lounge. “You redecorated, it’s nice. I like the pink.” He waved his arms around at the modern apartment, not even finishing his sentence, doing a half turn before flopping over against a nearby wall and sliding down to his ass. Laughing at his own inability to stand anymore.

“Come in why don’t you?” Rhea snapped in sarcasm, not too sure why his intoxicated ass was grazing her doorstep and slammed her door shut. When they dated he was under strict orders to never come here like this. She couldn’t deal with drunk men, and she didn’t want to do it now he wasn’t her problem anymore. Not that she had seen him like this in many years.

“You know…. We’re friends …. You would have never done anything to really mess me up. I liked that about you.” YuZhi let the words roll out unfiltered as his thoughts rambled. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk…I mean, karma though. You’ll be the last one laughing. Rhea, you really are a gem of a girl, I never said that before.” YuZhi pulled himself to his side and crawled towards the walnut unit that used to house Rhea’s home bar in the search for another drink. Afraid of losing his foggy head and having to face the reality of his fucked up life.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“What are you talking about? Shouldn’t you be going home about now? Won’t TangShi be worried?” Rhea followed him knowing he wasn’t going to find anything much over there as she had poured most of it down the sink when she came home from London. She was taking a long break from booze for her own sanity and didn’t have a drop left in here.

“Tang, Tang, Tang…….. she won’t be home anymore. I threw her out. We broke up.” YuZhi sighed, hating the feel of her name on his tongue, rubbing his eyes to extract her picture from his mind and screwing up his face in distaste. A surge of agony coursing through his chest and stomach. He pulled out his cell in an attempt to focus on other things and forget the one name he couldn’t handle. “I’ll call for takeout. Go find me a drink, please, my dearest compadre. I’ll buy you Da Zha Xie.” He commanded pointing at her cabinet with an air prodding finger.

“I have nothing here except coffee, fruit juice, or water. That’s your choice. I don’t want steamed crab. I want you to tell me what’s going on. What do you mean you broke up?” Rhea’s heart started thumping hard, so that it felt like her chest might explode with the pounding, confused with his behavior and yet shocked at this revelation. She had seen them together and knew they loved each other, more than he ever did her so she couldn’t understand a breakup. She was kind of annoyed that after ruining her relationship with him, he would go and toss his new one aside.

“TangShi cheated on me… with the fucker from school. That’s what I get for us, right? What comes around….. and all that.” His words were slow and drawn out and Rhea frowned at him, trying to grasp the situation before walking to perch on the edge of the couch and sitting down to look at him. Saddened and filled with genuine hurt and care for him as he looked so lost, even through his alcohol haze. Genuinely torn about how to comfort him.

“Are you serious? TangShi? There’s no way, she’s not like that. Isn’t it just a fight and some kind of misunderstanding?” Rhea maybe wasn’t all that enamored with their relationship, but she had gotten to know the girl enough these past months and this didn’t seem true at all.

Despite her behavior towards TangShi, and all the lies and backstabbing she had done to make Aunt hate her, she had always resented how sweet and pure TangShi was. Her innocence and naivety and that honest heart. She couldn’t imagine her being a girl to sleep with some other man.

“Shhhhh…. I need to make a call. Look, I have like twenty missed calls and a dozen texts from that cheating faker.” YuZhi held up a finger to his mouth, a mischievous yet bitter expression on his face that made Rhea groan that he was about to be an idiot. His phone had been silent all day and he had been ignoring it for fear he would cave if he saw TangShi’s name.

“Who you calling?” She probed, getting up to walk to him as he finger punched the screen in a bid to pull up a name and then stuck his phone to his ear. Hushing her with a childlike gesture and missing his mouth when he shooshed her again.

“My ex-girlfriend. She’s not a nice girl… I should probably return a call or two and see what she so desperately wants.”

“Hang up. You’re drunk and mad and you’ll regret it.” Rhea reached for the phone, her gut swirling with anxiety at being caught in this and yet YuZhi only batted her away.

“Answer phone, beeeep……. Guess she doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, huh?…… shhhh.” He smiled, waving his hand around to thwart all her attempts to get his phone from him, even when she stood up and made a grab for it, placing one hand on his head to hold him still.

“Or maybe it’s because it’s one am, and she might be asleep? You know, like I was until you banged down my door. Give me the cell, YuZhi. Stop being stupid.” Rhea clenched her fists, frustrated at his dodging her and glared at him with an urge to kick him in the stomach. He was behaving like an imbecile.

“Tang… Sheeeeee…….. where are you, huh? Are you at Rong Cai’s house? That fucker. IS that what you’re doing right now and why you won’t answer my call?” YuZhi fell over sideways, his words incoherent but Rhea knew TangShi would probably understand it when she played it back and tried one more time to get it. She knew this was an awful idea on his part and tried not to pay too much attention to his nonsense chatter.

“Give.” She whispered so as not to be heard on the recording. Aware how much it would hurt her if the role was reversed.

“Tang, because you fucked someone else I’m staying with Rhea tonight, and we’re going to have a party. Don’t wait up, kiddo, I think I might just even the scales. It’s not like you can say anything about it.” YuZhi’s voice broke, his emotions betraying him as his huskiness came out and his eyes misted up. “Maybe fucking her will make me forget you. What do you reckon, Rhea? You in?” he reached out to her, as if genuinely expecting a response and Rhea cursed at him under her breath and motioned a neck slicing gesture his way.