Wake Up In A Millionaire’s Melbourne Penthouse; It’s The Best Thing For Heartbreak And Deception
Tales Of Week 14 Of The Andie Chronicles And Her Breakup
Day 92: Tales Of Melbourne Cafes And Ex-Boyfriend Mentality
For some reason when you’re hunting for answers to one of your life’s biggest problems, you don’t feel like sleeping in.
When I broke up with Douglas, all I wanted to do, deep into my bones, was sleep. Lay in bed, immersing myself in the covers, never to surface. The bed was more than the obvious comfort; it was a place in the world that didn’t judge me.
You would think now, at the height of humiliation, during the height of the business heist of the century, I too would want to seek comfort once again in my bed.
But when I woke up on Monday morning, bright-eyed, before sunrise, I needed a space to think and drink coffee all at the same time.
And my bed simply wouldn’t cut it.
My mind was racing with what-ifs.
What if they don’t need me anymore?
What if I get kicked out of my own business?
What if I lose everything?
Pulling on my jeans and an oversized black hoodie, the thought of losing everything couldn’t keep me in bed any longer.
It’s one thing to mourn a relationship, but you eventually realise you’re going to be ok. There comes a point in your life where your mind shifts and you stop thinking about the person you were once in love with, and start thinking about a future.
It’s a beautiful moment. Sure, it can take people longer than they would like. It does happen though.
Oh no. Am I at that stage yet? Am I over my ex?
Focus, Andie. We’re not here to get over him.
I bypassed Candy’s bar and kept strolling to one of the laneways off Camberwell’s main strip of shops.
There weren’t as many laneways in this part of suburbia compared to the city. Yet, I didn’t have the time to get on a train and back and make it back home before James woke up and realised I was missing.
I found a little black door off one of the alleys, accompanied by the smell of roasting coffee.
The table I chose was against the back wall. There I could everyone coming and going.
As I waited for my coffee, I opened my prized new notebook and wrote down,
“WWDD?”. What would Douglas do?
What would my ex do? Now I allowed my brain to think of him. He was a masterful businessman. Surely his shrewd tactics I could mimic to my advantage.
Pulling my phone from my handbag, I googled his name and clicked the news tab. The latest article was about him acquiring a Sydney-based property group with roots in Melbourne.
The article quoted him:
“This business had potential. With my resources, I know I can bring it to the heights it could only dream of.”
I kept reading. Where was the part about how to find out if your friends were screwing you over?
Day 93: Tales Of Lawyer Money And Liars Who Don’t Tell You Anything
GG left spin class early this morning.
She mentioned something about a doctor’s appointment before running off out of the cycle room.
It was impossible to begrudge GG ditching me; she had a very important and demanding job, not to mention a blossoming relationship with Taylor.
What spare time did she have?
The woman was hardly ever at home. One day, I expect her to tell me she’s selling 5 Lovelock Drive. I’m wishing a pre-emptive goodbye, neighbour.
Alex tried to call me whilst I was in class. I contemplated calling him back when I saw his name on my phone.
Alas, I suspected he was calling to see how my personal life sideshow was going. I didn’t much feel like relaying how screwed I was to him and then feel succumbed to receiving pity sex from him.
I also had a message from Barbie, James’ mum.
“Leaving a pie on your front doorstep. James isn’t home. Reheat for 20 minutes. Love, love.”
Coming home, I noticed the pie where Barbie said she left it.
James wasn’t home. But after showering and having some breakfast, he came steaming in the door. I had never intended the dining room to face the front door.
Now it was a makeshift office, the location was perfect to watch James traipse in and out of my life. Despite being dressed in a suit, he seemed dishevelled, unnerved.
“You ok?”
As James flung his LV briefcase to the couch, along with his tie and jacket, he muffled expletives.
“Fucking lawyers.”
Now the gesture of the pie made sense; it was the day he was going to find out if he had any case against his bigot aunt. Note to self, start writing down these important events in the diary.
Don’t be a friend who forgets. And don’t be a dupe who can’t put the pieces together.
“No good?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. They think I could win. It’s just the money.”
James slumped on the couch beside his belongings.
“It doesn’t help when GG is sitting there, knowing she has Taylor’s money, bragging about money being no issue.”
GG was there? Hmm, a lie about this morning. Best note that one.
“I don’t have the money upfront.”
I couldn’t help but look at his designer accessories and think that with a little sacrifice, he could fund this plight quite easily.
I couldn’t tell him those thoughts, however. Sure, as his best friend I should be able to. They make it look so easy in Hollywood to tell your friends when they’re being jerks. It would blow up in a storm of rage and accusations if I did.
No, best to keep quiet.
Instead, I talked about food.
“Barbie brought around a pie. I’ll heat some up for lunch?” James nodded. If only pies really did solve everything, I thought.
Day 94: Tales Of Diary Discoveries And Poor
“I will be two minutes, babe,” said James, calling from his bedroom.
It didn’t matter he was held up. Talking to lawyers all morning on the phone will do that to you.
Besides, I could legitimately scroll through and stalk my Instagram friends without much skiving off work guilt.
Some of my “friends” were people I genuinely knew; there was Fiona from high school. She had twins at twenty-four, getting pregnant three months after her wedding.
I don’t see her anymore in real life, but I feel like I know everything about her.
Same with Annabella Anderson. Influencer, socialite, and the reason people tend to hate those who use the job label.
Sure, she’s beautiful. It might be where her endearing qualities end.
I could hear James still on the phone when I ditched my device and switched to the computer. Probably for the best, I had things to do. And I couldn’t wait for him to be ready.
I felt sorry for the guy, sure, but I couldn’t sit around forever. Much like I couldn’t wait for him to tell me what was happening with the business.
The last few days I tried to find the perfect spot to hide my dairy. There were enough moments in the day when James would disappear and I wanted to use my alone time to work on the mystery.
Like the moment this morning.
I was starting to regret not using the notes section on my phone instead. Today I was trying out putting the book under my laptop. That wouldn’t work.
It was too noticeable.
The classic hiding spot would have to do; underneath my pillow like a schoolgirl. How immature, but how damn necessary.
Picking it up I walked it back to my new hiding spot, flicking through the pages.
For some reason, the diary fell open on the details of the billboard. I had written everything down, with careful precision. “Highway.com” was indeed our future website.
Alex’s voice reciting the website link echoed in my mind. He read the entire thing with disbelief.
I ignored it at the time, probably because I had registered the domain and knew it was in my possession. Yet, now looking at my notes, I began to question it.
Why put the domain on there if it went to a blank website? We didn’t even have a landing page yet. Why mention it?
Stupid me, I thought. Everything about the billboard was intentional. The faces, the location of placement, and the message. And if the website was on there, something had changed.
After hiding the diary, I seized my laptop and entered the domain into a blank browser. There was a landing page, with the same photo from the billboard.
I logged into my domain centre and sure enough, there were the details of an IP address linking the domain. Who did this? Who had been into my account?
James entered the room and with as much haste as I could muster, I closed all the windows on my computer.
“Shall we get to work?”
Day 95: Tales Of Shopping And Relationship Duping Potentials
I went to bed last night in a panic.
The tiniest part of the business I still had some control over was no longer in my possession. Sure, I could still access it, but thanks to tampering from someone I couldn’t name quite yet, it wasn’t really mine.
Without control over the domain, the shop itself, what did I have?
To make matters worse, GG messaged me just before ten, inviting me to Taylor’s birthday soiree on Saturday night. I don’t know why the invite had come so late, not to mention the fact it wasn’t sent in our usual WhatsApp group chat.
Add that to the list of things completely out of whack at the moment.
Having the time to figure this all out would be a luxury. Taylor’s birthday was only two days away, and James wanted to go shopping for a present.
And new outfits.
He was just saying he couldn’t afford his pending legal bills, but now he could afford new clothes? Nothing was making sense. He insisted I come with him and we buy something together.
Sometimes I think James reverts back to the old ways when we used to function as a friendship. A force of habit kind of thing. He didn’t want me around when he saw the lawyers but was content to act like a happy, united front when it came to gift-giving.
It didn’t make sense.
“Where should we go?” I asked James, putting on my coat and picking up the keys.
“Chapel Street? I figure a man from South Yarra would love something from his own doorstep.”
And if I didn’t have the luxury of time to figure out what had happened with the domain, at least I could see James’ reaction when we ‘stumbled’ across the billboard.
“No,” he begged, shoving his phone, keys and wallet into varying pockets across his body. “The parking is a nightmare. Chaddy will be so much easier.”
Ugh, Chadstone.
I mean, I loved Chadstone, but it was impossible not to agree with him. I couldn’t exactly tell him I didn’t want to endure another James’ present fest at LV, either.
“It will be fine. We can park at the Jam Factory.”
James tisked at me.
“I’m not paying for parking. I would rather put that money towards something for Taylor.” He patted himself down and found his car key. “Come on, don’t argue with me. Or we won’t beat the lunchtime rush.”
Damn James’ forceful nature.
If I could be more like him; I wish I had a take-what-you-want-in-life-without-letting-anyone-stop-you attitude. But I guess it’s easier to insist people around you do what you want when you have so much on the line.
Your friendships.
Your trust.
Respect.
If I were hiding a gigantic billboard in the middle of one of Melbourne’s busiest streets, I would do anything to hide it too.
Though, I wouldn’t do that to my friends. I guess you could say that’s the bigger problem, huh?!
Day 96: Tales Of YSL Dresses And Relationship Debts
I didn’t think about my ex being at my brother’s party until I was picking out a present for the birthday boy.
I looked at the exquisite gold money clip, as I stood in the middle of Saint Laurent, and wondered if it was the same as the one Douglas bought that time we went to Sydney.
I went to say to James, as we debated over the purchase,
“Douglas won’t see it, so who cares if we give it to Taylor?”
But that didn’t make any sense. They were brothers; Taylor and Douglas.
The Gallo brothers.
As if he wouldn’t be there.
Only an hour earlier I had decided not to buy anything new for the occasion. Yet, once I realised I would come face to face with my ex, a new outfit was a necessity.
If I couldn’t quite get my mind right, or wrap my head around everything going on in my life, I could at least look like I wasn’t a mess.
Revenge dressing. Though it was hardly revenge.
James paid for the money clip with a card from his wallet. It was black. I had never seen it before. “Fancy new credit card you have there,” I probed as we left Saint Laurent.
“Care to buy me something new with it?” I laughed immediately.
My request wasn’t genuine. It was my own awkward way of pointing out to James how I wasn’t missing the changes in his life. I saw him, if not all of him, right now.
“Whatever you want, Andie. You want to go back in and get that blazer dress you were looking at?”
He couldn’t be serious. It was three thousand dollars. A limited run of sizes, too. Absurd.
“No, no, I’m joking.”
James grabbed my hand. “I’m serious. You would look amazing in that dress. Let’s go get it.”
I felt him tug at my hand further, pulling me back into the store. “James, don’t be absurd. I don’t need something so extravagant.”
Beautiful but way too much, I thought. And there was no I could owe James that much. Or afford to pay him back anytime soon.
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
I stopped James just as we were about to pass through the glass doors.
“Why?”
He couldn’t shift his gaze away from inside the store. Staring at the dress, the glowing displays.
“Because. Because you need it.”
I tried to capture his gaze. I couldn’t. What wasn’t he telling me?
“Please don’t tell me,” I started to say, then found myself correcting the words. “Tell me what this is all about. He’s going to be there, is that why I need this dress?”
James nodded.
Finally some honesty. If you could call it that. Why he couldn’t just say that I have no idea.
James’ connection to my ex, and his exclusion of me from the conversation, was unnerving.
Yet, I couldn’t think of that, as I slipped on the YSL dress. I had bigger fish to fry, like saving my business.
Day 97 Birthday Parties And Attention-Seeking Exes
“Do you think I can come with you?”
Standing in the middle of my living room, dressed in the most stunning dress ever to grace my body, I was in a panic.
Foolishly, I assumed James would get ready at our house and we would go in together. Assumptions a normal friend would have about their housemate and best friend attending the same social event together.
And James saw me in the changing rooms of Saint Laurent, panicking about the prospect of spending an evening in the same room as my ex. He knew how hard this would be. I needed him and he wasn’t there.
“We’re already on the way, babe,” replied Sophia, the noise of passing traffic audible in the background. “But I can wait by the front and be there as soon as you walk in?”
Lately, Sophia was starting to feel like a lifeline. Well, a half-lifeline. Like she was playing both sides at once. She knew the right thing to say at the moment, to appease me. And to shut me up?
The sceptic in me, the dubious and duped businesswoman felt like it was a little of both.
“No, no, it’s fine. Go in, have a glass of champagne ready for me.” Sophia laughed. “How about a bottle?!”
I knew she was joking. I could have slugged an entire cask of cheap bubbles I was that on edge.
My Uber pulled up out front of Gimlet. Foolish me didn’t think about the way the windows of the party would overlook the street.
Onlookers watched as I climbed out of the car.
What were they thinking of me?
Do they wonder why I’m here?
If I were them, I would question why the brother’s ex is here. The panic started to set in as I looked up at the regal city building and the myriad of faces I could see through the glass.
Suddenly, I began to convince myself I wouldn’t know anyone at the party. I would be standing alone, at the bar with no one to talk to.
How could I walk in? How could I not walk in? Each stair I ascended to the party felt final like I had better take in this moment as my last.
As the lights of the stairs dissipated and the glow of the Gimlet dining room, converted into a beautiful party space, talk over, I saw the faces.
No one cared I was there, except for my friends, who I found by the DJ.
No one was staring.
There wasn’t a stir toward my appearance that gave any justification to my panic.
“Girl, you look stunning,” James noted, as he kissed me on the cheek. It wasn’t long ago he was asking where I was, and now I was thinking the same thing of him.
Get it out of your mind, I begged myself.
Paint a smile.
The birthday boy came over. “Happy birthday Taylor,” I said, giving him a gentle hug, trying not to leave my make-up on his suit.
“Thank you, beautiful.” He held onto me.
“And ignore my brother. The girl he’s with is a nobody.”
A nobody, I thought. Yet, enough of a somebody for his brother to warn me on his night of nights before I had even locked eyes with my ex. My fear was coming true.
I didn’t want this night to be about my break-up.
And now it did.
Day 98: Tales Of Waking Up In Strange Places And Saviour Brothers
I opened my eyes and I have no clue where I am.
The walls are familiar, and the vibe of the room isn’t completely strange. But for the post-champagne-blurred life of me, I have no idea how I ended up here.
Slipping my feet out of bed and onto the plush floor, I pull the silk sheets off the bed and wrapped them around me. I’m still wearing my dress, but I feel completely naked.
Opening the door of the bedroom I venture into an apartment that I know well.
I see the dining room in the distance, the table set with an assortment of pancakes, eggs, fruit and three pots of coffee. The owner of the apartment is sitting at the head of the table. It doesn’t matter his back to me. I know that body.
“Taylor, why am I here?”
The birthday boy turned around and watched me descend the hallway. I anticipated finding GG at the table too.
She was his girlfriend and she practically lived in his penthouse. Alas, there he was, alone.
Only him and me.
“Good morning. I take it you don’t remember much of last night?”
I shook my head. It hurt to do, resulting in me collapsing into the first dining room chair I could find.
“I’m lost from about eleven onwards.”
Taylor pushed a cup of coffee towards me.
“It was a few hours after that. I found you in the laneway around the corner from Gimlet, trying to call someone. An Alex?”
Oh shit, I thought. Not Alex.
The poor guy didn’t need more of my drama. “Did I get onto him?”
“No, I don’t think so. But once you saw me, you sort of collapsed in my arms. I called for my driver and put you to bed.”
“Oh my, you did that for me?”
I was surprised.
It wasn’t like any of my friends were by my side during this moment. They knew things had been hard. James said so when he moved in, even if it was only a half-truth as to why he choose to be my roommate.
Yet, where I was in my life now, it didn’t feel like any would literally scoop me off the ground and save me when I needed them.
“Of course.” His sympathetic yet charming smile temporarily soothed my aching body.
“Where is GG?”
“She went home with James. He asked her to be with him. I didn’t really get all the details.”
I sipped the coffee and then put it down in horror. “Does GG know I’m here? Does anyone know I’m here?”
The thought of my friends having more proof of my incompetence, my suffering was too much to bear.
Taylor hesitated a little before straightening himself.
“No, she doesn’t. It’s not a secret.”
He took another sip of coffee. “But let’s be real. If she knows, then everyone will know. And you don’t need that right now. Neither do I.”
Finally, someone who gets it, I thought.
You’re reading a recap of The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
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