•2•

As she opened the door to her little apartment, she let out a tired sigh. She was finally going to end her miserable life, and this time with no interruptions from hunky annoying men.

She knew she had some more of those pills in one of her cupboards but for some reason her brain which had been working in overdrive just minutes ago, was failing her now. She walked past her living room and pushed open the door to her bedroom.

The only thing calling her name in there was her bed. Right then, it looked so luscious and soft; she could've sworn it whispered her name. Well, who was she to ignore her own bed beckoning on her to come to it? Right now, she needed her bed. She collapsed on the bed almost immediately not bothering to take off her shoes or jacket, and she was out like a light.

She woke up to constant banging. She groaned. Loudly. "Ugh, why the hell do I drink when I know exactly what happens after I do?!", she whined to herself soon after realising the banging was going on only in her head. It only intensified as she got up from her bed to stare directly at her curtains which barely hid the harsh rays of the sun. She groaned again. Loudly.

She needed to get new blinds, she mentally noted. She roughly took off the one red four-inch stiletto left on her foot, the other had reached the floor somehow, in her sleep. She threw her jacket off her body to reveal the tiny sequin dress she had on.

En route to the kitchen, everything seemed to be swaying, and for some reason she had two doorways. She walked forward and hit the wall, alerting her that there was no second doorway.

The minute she entered her kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water and opened one of her cupboards before it occurred to her what she wanted to do the night before. That was the reason she didn't drink. While others drank to forget their problems, it seemed when she drank, everything came like a gigantic wave. It wasn't strange that she had wanted to end her life the day before, but it was definitely tiring.

Every time she had wanted to kill herself, she hadn't succeeded. It was either she'd get some random call and simply end up forgetting or, like yesterday night, someone would physically interrupt her. Immediately she had taken the painkillers, she heard her doorbell ring, and it was like the ringing happened in her head. She groaned again, she was doing a lot of that today. She trudged to her front door and pulled it open to reveal a smiling woman. "Morning!", the woman greeted–more like screamed to Mei.

"Ah! Not so loud, Ava!", Mei groaned.

"Why aren't you getting ready? You have a book signing in two hours Mei!", Ava said as she closed the door to Mei's apartment.

Avaline Roberts was Mei's publishing and events agent. She had been doing the job for about a year now and Mei had to admit she was pretty good at her job, when she wasn't being loud. Mei was quite a successful romance writer. She had published works circulating the American populace as they spoke. Her publishing company had assigned to her an agent to assist her, if that was the word for it.

"Exactly, in two hours. I have a lot of time to prepare, Ava. I do not need you here annoying me this early in the morning.", Mei complained.

"First, it's not early, it's 8:15. Second, were you out drinking again? It's not good for you Mei."

"You're not my mom okay? I don't think you need to talk to me about what is or isn't good for me, I know how to handle my life, thank you very much.", Mei dismissed her concern, which Ava was used to by now.

Mei had already taken a seat on her couch rubbing her eyes when she heard Ava say, "Did you try it again? To kill yourself?"

Mei groaned again before answering, "I regret telling you that. Never again ask me stuff when I'm intoxicated." Mei wouldn't describe her relationship with Ava as friendship, but they were as far from being enemies as they were from being friends. They were just quite civil.

Ava was only three years older than she was, but sometimes, it felt like Ava was her mom.

"You should start seeing a doctor again, you know. You can't keep doing this. Maybe if you talked about things more, you wouldn't be contemplating suicide.", Ava once again tried to advise.

"And what exactly is the use of talking about my damn problems? You of all people should know I hate people pitying me like I need it. I'll deal with my stupid problems however I see fit, thank you."

Ava heaved a tired sigh. "I still think you need to see someone, a psychologist, they won't feel sorry for you.", she pulled out a card from her purse and handed it to Mei. "Here.", she simply said. Mei took the card from her begrudgingly and read out the name, "Dr. B.R Romano."

"He's a psychologist. Best in the biz if you ask me."

"I'm not asking you.", Mei deadpanned before continuing, "And I don't need to see a psychologist, I'm not crazy. And if anything, they make problems worse."

"No, they do not. Not this one at least.", Ava simply commented.

"Now come on, go get ready! It's a 30-minute drive to your book signing from here.", she said as she pushed Mei off the couch in the direction of the bathroom. Mei obliged her by moving but soon stopped before she turned to ask, "Wait, why do you have a psychologist's card?"

"Well, contrary to what you believe, we all have problems, Mei.", Ava answered, before she shoved Mei into the bathroom and closed the door.

Not much later, she had gotten to her book signing, located in the park of a hotel midtown. When she arrived, she hadn't expected to see this much people for her signing and reading.

Most times, only a handful of people would show up. That never had a negative impact on her because well, she believed, people who loved to read books weren't really the kind to go out so much, and socialize just for the hell of it. Heck, she wasn't the kind to go out and socialize, but she had to compromise if she wanted a successful career. She took a seat in the chair designated for her and greeted everyone.

After the book signing was done, it was finally time to do some Q&A. She prepared herself for all the questions people could possibly ask, all the while Ava just stood quietly behind her jotting God knows what down. As she waited for everyone to quiet down, and for Ava to tell the crowd it was finally time to do what they really came there for, she surveyed the buzzing crowd. The writer in her had awoken, making her people-watch and try to guess what each person's personality type would be just from looking at them.

Sometimes, she guessed correctly, other times, partially correctly. As she people-watched, her eyes fell upon fiery blue ones, she could've sworn she'd seen them before but she couldn't recall exactly where. He had reading glasses hanging off his neck while he chose to look at something on his phone with his actual eyes. Weirdo. He was striking. She couldn't help but be dazed. He was looking at his phone but then it felt like he was looking at her after some time.

He immediately smiled a smile that Mei could not mistake for anything else other than a cocky smile. Great, she hated him already, she thought. She immediately rolled her eyes although she felt it was useless; he must have noticed her staring at him for longer than normal.

That was something she had no control over, the moment something caught her attention, it was hard to let it go. That moment, Ava signified to the crowd that it was time for the Q&A session. Almost half of the crowd raised their hands. Mei had to pick at random, "Uh... The man in the green shirt.", she pointed at a man obviously older than she was, maybe in his mid forties, she guessed. Quite surprising that a man that age would be reading a romance novel, but who was she to judge? The man stood up and went on to ask his question, "How old are you?", Mei let out a nervous laugh, obviously trying to hold back her sudden irritation at that question. She certainly didn't want to be like most of the other women she knew who got offended when people asked their age, but she couldn't help it.

To Ava, it was a normal question that curious readers asked and so, she kept quiet. "Uh...", Mei began, "I'm old enough to write every single thing you see in that romance novel." She let out a forced laugh just to reduce the intensity of her answer and to her relief everyone laughed as the man took his seat smiling innocently. She picked at random again and this time it was a young lady who looked close to her age, but younger, she guessed.

Mei listened to her questions and many questions after that. Her mind and mouth were exhausted.

A/N: Second chapter! Tell me what you think in the comments. Thanks!