Day 90: Tales Of Bottles Of Dom And Surprise Appearances
Day 90: Tales Of Bottles Of Dom And Surprise Appearances
Day 90 Of How To Move On From A Man — 1LD
If you’re new here to 1 Lovelock Drive, welcome! Let me fill you in on what you’ve missed.
I’m Andie and my ex, Douglas, dumped me. This is my break-up, so to speak. Douglas is a power player in Melbourne, worth more than I could ever comprehend.
I have no idea why we broke up.
I work and live at 1 Lovelock Drive. There, my best friend James and I are building Highway, our unisex clothing line. Our two other best friends, GG and Sophia, are investors.
GG is dating Douglas’ brother. Awkward.
My friends have been acting strange since the breakup. Since things have changed, I’ve found papers in James’ briefcase outlining plans for an expensive office space for our business.
I opened the wine fridge to pull out something special to take to over to Sophia. She didn’t know I was coming, but with liquid lubrication, she might forgive me for ambushing her Saturday.
Opening the weight wine fridge door, I stared at it in disappointment.
Like I didn’t know why it was empty.
It wasn’t like the fridge was full.
When I got it, I had only put a couple of bottles in there. It was all I could afford. But looking at it now, empty and useless, I didn’t see the point of keeping it switched on.
There was nothing in the house I could bring. I searched the pantry and thought about cutting flowers from the garden.
All I could find was a half-drunk bottle of red on the counter. When trying to butter up a person with their face on a billboard on Chapel Street, you can’t bring four-dollar Aldi wine.
It just doesn’t cut it.
There wasn’t anything I could do to match the gravitas of the situation, or to soften her to give me the information I needed. Realistically, though, no matter how much I bribe her, she might not tell me anyway.
Arriving at Sophia’s apartment building I held my breath as I pressed the buzzer.
A male voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Malcolm? It’s Andie.”
“Oh hey, come on in.”
The door released and I ascended the four stories in the lift. Walking up to her door, I kept rehearsing what I would say. I couldn’t get the words right in my mind, I held out little hope the words would make sense. Malcolm opened the door.
“Andie, so good to see you.”
The last time I saw him wasn’t too dissimilar to this moment.
(⬇️ This moment, by the way ⬇️)
Confrontational.
Awkward.
But I didn’t care this time.
Sophia had shown her hand, and I was taking it.
“You too. I hope I’m not interrupting.”
I heard Sophia call out from the balcony. “No babe, you’re not. Come out here.”
I found Sophia sitting at her little four-seater table with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. I observed the set-up and felt a pit in my stomach.
“Gees, I’m interrupting.”
Sophia shook her head. “Please sit down. Have a glass with me.” She pushed a flute in my direction. “I’ve only opened this bottle because of you. Fitting that I drink it with you.”
I hesitated. But Sophia picked up the glass, handed it to me and filled it. I noticed the label, Dom Perignon.
“What are you celebrating?”
“A bittersweet achievement. In a few weeks, Highway is going live, with a deal already in place to stock in David Jones.”
Dj’s? As in the biggest and most prestigious department store in Australia? What?!
Of all the questions I had, still, the biggest one was, why was she telling me this?
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
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