The Sums of Us

Together

You and me
Me and you
Somehow we made it through
I may be gone
I may be far away
But I walk beside you
Every step of the way
When you're used
Bruised
Black and blued
Don't think about it
Never doubt it
I'll walk beside you

(I Walk Beside You, Beth Rowley)

LA, August 2019

Time spent together in LA was always meaningful. With him. That was perhaps why I never looked at LA again with the same colour as when I was with him. Without him, LA was just a big glamour city where dreamers pursuing their paper dreams; some made it but most just stuck collecting dusts. Trapped in a multicolour city with deceiving brightness.

We went to many interesting little places around LA where people or tourist rarely go. I was afraid of paps catching on us and the butterfly effect we created to our lukewarm careers. We didn't need unnecessary attention, but the right attention on our acting abilities and talents. So we strayed far from people. A week with him flew fast to compare with a week with myself. Unfair, innit?

My highlight with him this time was our trip to wet market in LA. I loved seafood and it was a compulsory commodities in my fridge. He loved chicken and I believe his love for chicken surpassed his love for me. So we were getting our one week supply at the wet market. Nobody knew us because you guess what? Nobody glamour would come within a kilometre radius to a wet, smelly and noisy wet market. No paps would waste their bloody time hanging around wet markets! Perfect place for us. He loved my seafood fried rice or any pasta seafood I made, so I knew seafood was a must in our palette that week. He loved the market trip, telling me in London they could get all the supplies in any of the supermarket chains like Tesco, Asda, Lidl or that posh supermarket (like I used to call them, making him rolled his eyes) like Waitrose and Ocado. The same here as well but nothing beat the real thrill going to a real wet market and enjoying the chaos within. In Perth, you found a lot of wet markets with endless selections of seafood, poultry and meats because of our thriving Asian community which centred around these ingredients in their everyday cookings. Wet market trip was my family highlight as well, since we were children. Now, I brought him to my secret place. It was my privilege to see his gleeful and excited face looking at all the seafood selection, his wonder watching the butcher carving the meats and his smiles seeing row and rows of freshly slaughtered chickens. Did I said I love him for all he was? Yeah, including the small child in him. Adorable H.

We went to Anna's house for few times whenever she called us to join her family for dinner or lunch. At this point we knew Anna must had made her own conclusion about us. She must had a finding but she kept it to herself. She never ask and we were happy enough with her arrangement. Whenever we came to her place, he sometimes made salad or I made Banoffee pie to bring along with us. Asher loved the pie and so did Anna and Jordan. Him definitely. I learned how to make it when I was in acting school, because that was the easiest pie to make and I was fed up with people bringing cakes or pizzas to our weekly potlucks. I perfected the skills over the years and never in my slightest mind I would one day had an English boyfriend who supposed to appreciate the pie. You see, Banoffee pie is an English dessert pie so naturally any British subject would fond of it, except my Hero. He didn't eat much sweet, so Banoffee pie was the same way pizza was to me. Only when I made one for Shane's birthday last year, and had it sent to him before I went back to Perth via Anna, he got his attention on the pie. Apparently Anna got to taste it from Shane and she was raving endlessly about it during our After tour. Among the first thing he asked me to do when he came home to me before Toronto was to make him a Banoffee pie. He ate it and he liked it. He told me it tasted like this one shop near his home in London. He further told me nobody baked for him because his mother was sucks at almost everything cooking and Mercy was too lazy to even attempt to make it. I had to bite my lip to stop from smiling. What an honest mommy's boy!