Page 3 of The Sitcom Star
Or maybe the problem was that her list for today simply hadn’t been long enough?Maybe that was why she’d felt restless at ten in the evening and decided to go for a walk?
But walking had always helped Maddie, and as she passed streetlight after streetlight, the buzzing in her brain began to recede.Perhaps she needed to do more walking in the next few weeks.Would ten kilometers a day would be a good start?Or was it a bad idea to put a number on it?
Her brain was whirring again.Relaxation shouldn’t make her feel so agitated, and oh God, why was she so bad at this?
If there was one thing Maddie Ng didn’t like, it was being bad at something.That had always been unacceptable to her and—
Someone stepped out of a bubble tea shop, right in front of her, and the next thing she knew, she was covered in taro milk tea and tapioca.
“Shit!”she cried.
Chapter 2
@asiandude888: I still can’t believe Chuties caught on.I thought of it while high.It’s not as good as Kimbits.
@theicecreamfiend: I like it!
Maddiewasusuallygoodat maintaining her composure in public, no matter what happened, but then again, she wasn’t used to getting soaked in cool purple liquid—why did it have to bepurple?
“Oh my God.I’m so sorry,” said the man in front of her.“Let me get you some napkins.”
“No, no,” she said, “it’s fine.I don’t live too far from here.”It was an accident, she understood.She wasn’t mad at him; she just wanted to get out of this situation and be alone.
But then he said the absolute worst thing possible.
“Maddie Ng?Oh my God, is that you?”
Yep, this was a nightmare.
She’d been recognized, presumably by someone who watchedChu’s Restaurant—she was still getting used to that—and right now, she wasn’t in the mood.But even as she tensed, she pasted on a smile and—
“Remember me?”he asked.
Okay, that wasn’t what she’d expected him to say.
She took in the handsome man in front of her, who wasn’t covered in milk tea.Lucky him.He was East Asian, a few inches taller than her.He had a charming smile and dimples, and she really couldn’t place him, but therewassomething rather familiar about that smile.
Then he said the name of her elementary school, and she was instantly on alert.How did he know that?
Oh.He must have gone to school with her.
She squinted, as if that would help her place him, and for some reason, it did.Memories of a short, scrawny kid came back to her.
“Adrian Ma?”she said tentatively.
He grinned wider, and she couldn’t help herself from smiling back.
Yes, she did remember him.They’d done a French skit together in grade eight.She also remembered him forgetting they had a math test until the teacher started handing out the papers, then shrugging as though it was no big deal and getting ninety-one.
She didn’t know why she remembered what mark Adrian Ma had gotten on a math test in grade eight, but sometimes her brain filed away useless information.
Like the fact that she’d gotten ninety-four on that test.
He’d been a bit of an easygoing slacker, from what she recalled.And now, here he was, all grown up and holding a mostly empty bubble tea cup.
“I really am sorry.”His voice was lower than it had been at thirteen.“I just stepped out the door…and there you were.My fault for not looking where I was going.Here, you can take my shirt.I have another one on underneath.”He lifted up the hem of his blue polo shirt, revealing a slice of white T-shirt, the sort men sometimes wore as undershirts.
Well, that really wasn’t necessary, but she was struggling to say those words, even though he wasn’t showing her anything other than white fabric.Something about the action of this man removing a shirt was appealing.
