Chapter Text
Ava’s head was buzzing a little and the sun was far too bright to be eating food at an open-air restaurant, but Chanel had asked her 3 days ago to have brunch with her and Chanel was a great friend and she was free anyway, so why wouldn’t she say yes? For once she was early though, probably because she woke up needing to pee really badly and then she had to shower and wash her face because she didn’t take her make up off last night (somehow her sheets are clean, God bless). Apparently, Micheal and JC sent her home, which she feels bad for, because she knows her roommates probably were having fun and then had to deal with her drunk ass – she’ll buy some food to repay them – but for now, it was just waiting another 10 minutes for Chanel. The lady was always exactly on time, so Ava wouldn’t be surprised in Chanel plopped down on the seat only at exactly 10.30 am.
The waiter came by with the menu and Ava scrunches her nose when she sees the prices but Chanel had promised this place’s food was ‘scrumptious with a capital S’ so Ava just went with the shakshuka. Granted, not fully brunch food, moreso breakfast food, but throw Ava a bone, she hadn’t eaten in 15 hours.
She gave the waiter her order and got an iced macchiato just because. She flipped through TikTok idly as she waited for Chanel or her food, whichever was first.
Her shakshuka came only six minutes later (did the chefs have voodoo magic or something? Ava did not want to find out) and she sent a picture to Chanel (something about hurrying up before her food gets cold and to agree that the food did indeed, look scrumptious with a capital S).
She was about to dig in when she accidentally overheard the table next to her.
“Hey did you guys see? Beatrice Young got engaged,”
Ava’s finger twitched.
“Who the hell is Beatrice Young?”
“You don’t know who Beatrice Young is? CEO of TY Corp and basically all its subsidiaries, Forbes 30 under 30, number 1 bachelorette for 3 years running?”
“Well, she ain’t a bachelorette no more huh?”
Ava immediately went and Googled ‘Beatrice Young’ and found the obscene number of articles covering the engagement, at least the whole first 3 pages were filled with that. She just clicked on the first link and scanned the article fervently, ‘Beatrice Young engaged to Joseph Aden Pierre’, ‘have been said to have been dating for 2 years secretly before deciding to tie the knot’, ‘Pierre is the CEO of Richard-Knox Entertainment and an up-and-rising actor’.
Who the fuck was this JAP dude and why hasn’t Ava heard about him before?
Also, actor?
Like male?
Wasn’t Beatrice a lesbian?
Ava Googled Joseph Aden Pierre.
Male. 39. CEO. Actor.
39?
That was a whole 11 years older than Beatrice.
Ava checked the images.
She frowned. He was objectively a 6/10 and Ava wasn’t even being biased, she was bi sure, but not bi-ased (haha get it? Not funny? Okay, sorry). Ava’s brows furrowed, she didn’t get it, Beatrice was a lesbian and even if her orientation did change (it’s fluid, Ava gets it), she wouldn’t go for someone like him, right? All of the people in the world, 8 billion for fucks sake, and Beatrice settles for him? Like c’mon Bea, your tastes are much better than that. But sure, Beatrice could technically go for personality but Bea wasn’t known for her flowery personality (and to be honest this Pierre guy looked like he says ‘women belong in the kitchen’).
Of course, after Ava immigrated to the States, the only way she was keeping up with any news of Beatrice was through her phone, and article after article was all about how she was stoic and fierce and never ever smiled, never spoke more than 3 whole sentences, and everyone was scared of her (so many anonymous confessions on those stupid blogs, Ava wanted to punch the screen) and how all she focused on was business. They didn’t understand, Bea was nice and kind and warm and smiley and home but she supposed their breakup really did leave a scar on her.
Oh.
Ava wasn’t hungry anymore.