Over My Dead Body!

"Come now, Laurie. I need the juicy details of your relationship with the guy we met last night."

"Shut up, Andrei! If you want to distract yourself with your real problem at hand by mingling at my shit. Think again."

"What's wrong with us having fun together?" He raised his palm in the air in mock surrender when she threw him a dagger look. "I mean -- for old times sake." he grinned.

She watched him grin mischievously.

'For old times sake, huh?'

She curled the corner of her lips and scoffed, "There is no old times sake for us, Andrei. Besides, if you think I haven't had my fun with Hideaki ---" she grabbed his collar and leaned on his ear, "You got it all wrong," she whispered, grazing the tip of her tongue on his earlobe.

Andrei flinched and pushed her away, "Ew, bitch," he rubbed his earlobe as though it got contaminated by some disgusting poison.

She smirked at his action and signaled the server standing like a statue a few feet away from there, waiting for any order.

She raised her wine glass, and it seemed like a blink of an eye, her champagne flute was filled with the mesmerizing liquid that bubbles in her glass.

"Unlike you, Andrei. I never stopped having fun." She laughed softly.

"Beautiful!" she gushed when Bella came out of the dressing room in a peach long gown that squeezed her boobs too tightly into a perfect globe, high enough to almost reach her collarbone.

Not only the dress has a very captivating neckline, the length of the dress that perfectly hugged Bella's womanly curves has a slit on its right thigh that offers a tantalizing view of her dangerous yet promising body part of a woman.

Bella blushed, hearing her drunken compliment. She had enough alcohol that sitting in this dressing room parlor, squealing in delight in every dress that Bella put on, doesn't feel so bad at all.

Right now, if someone would ask her if she enjoys shopping, she might say yes.

"You don't think it's too much?" Bella twirled around the mirror to check how she looks.

"It is not too much. It's not going to be too much. Get the dress."

Bella couldn't take her eyes off her reflection in the mirror. She loves how she looks in the dress. But the dress is too expensive and she does not have anywhere to go to wear the dress.

Laurie, who was watching Bella, suddenly said, "Get the dress. We can always find a reason to wear it later."

Bella still looked reluctant to get the dress, so she added, "We have a fat wallet here, remember? You won't have any other chance to use Andrei as our wallet."

Bella chuckled awkwardly. When she became friends with Laurie, she had no idea that she had this kind of lifestyle since she was just bumming on the island like everyone else.

She didn't know that Laurie knew people like Andrei Mark Tan. Same with the fact that she had no idea that the owner of the house they were staying in were bigshots. That looked so normal until she found herself in this store where she was the only one fitting a dress.

The store was closed and they were the only customers inside the store. All the employees of the store were fussing over her.

She never imagined that she would be part of this kind of lifestyle. Her family isn't poor by any standard, however, they are not this level of rich.

"Okay, I'll get this," she told the store assistant.

"Excellent! Now onto the next outfit!"

She was so buzzed that she was giggling and clapping at what she hated the most -- shopping.

"Hey," she elbowed Andrei who was unusually quiet next to her, "Is there something in this wine that makes me so drunk?" she giggled before Andrei could answer her.

"It's not the bubbles that you are drinking right now. I think it was the sake you had at the restaurant after you finished two bottles of wine."

"Oh! Shoot!" She grinned and crooked her finger towards their server.

"Stopped drinking, Laurie. We are here to distract Bella from the rejection she received from her publishing company."

"Pfft, oh please! It's not a rejection. That's how those bastards operate. She is not gonna win. But she should not consider it as a rejection, end of the world kind."

When she saw Bella come out in another dress, she grinned at her, "Don't be so sad, Bella.". You weren't rejected today. What you got is a minor setback -- not a rejection, okay?"

"What do you think of this dress?"

Bella avoided the topic about her publishing company and tried to make Laurie focus on the dress she was wearing. With all the dresses she tried on, she loves this one the most.

"What about the dress? It's perfect of course! You look so ethereal. I'm beginning to hate you." she chuckled lightly, putting down her glass.

The server that was watching her was about to approach her to refill her glass, but she raised her hand to stop her. She has enough alcohol.

Her vision was not getting fuzzy. She got her phone and sent Mei Mei a message. She now wants a bed. However, she doesn't want just any bed. She wanted her narrow bed at home.

So she asked Mei Mei to take care of all the things she bought that the store sent to their hotel. She has no plan to go back to the hotel once Bella is done with her shopping.

"Okay, I'm done! I think I had enough." Bella announced.

Laurie nodded her head, not in agreement but in drowsiness.

"A car is waiting for us outside. Mei Mei sent her driver over to send us back home."

"How about our stuff at the hotel?" Andrei asked, surprised by the abrupt change of Laurie's mind.

"Don't mind those. The hotel will take care of it."

When Andrei was done settling their tab, they all went out of the store, and just like what Laurie said, there was a car waiting for them.

"I won't get in this car. Over my dead body!"