secretly loves cheesy romance novels and rom-coms.
always has a sketchbook and pencils on her at all time.
has a "lucky" hoodie that she takes many places even if she's not wearing it and it's tucked inside a travel bag.
had an imaginary friend well into elementary school until she got made fun of for it.
won a very small town art show when she was seven and has had a love for art and all things creative ever since.
had a love for climbing trees.
broke her left arm and collarbone climbing said trees.
holds tightly to the recipes her mother has passed down to her from her families Thai roots.
loves riddles, puzzles, crosswords, and all things of that nature.
does play Wordle almost every day, when she forgets she gets very annoyed with herself.
wishes she learned an instrument in school but her creativity laid more in the arts.
is afraid to attempt learning an instrument as an adult because she is a bit of a perfectionist.
has a love for photography, candid shots she believes show so much more than posed.
uses food for comfort in a stressful situation.
will try anything mango, papaya, or banana flavored at least once.
dislikes pineapple with a burning passion.
their morning shower is their sacred time, do not disrupt unless of emergency.
has been told she talks in her sleep.
can usually sense when someone is upset long before they admit or show that they are.
loyal to friends, sometimes to her own determent.
does not love big crowds of people, tends to make her very anxious when she's crowded in places.
Has kept a journal since she was 8 and still writes almost daily, typically at least 4 to 5 times a week.
still knows how to surf but is incredibly rusty and wouldn't trust getting up on any decent sized waves.
was diagnosed with severe panic disorder when she was a teenager and often times still struggles with it.
blames it on having a large office now but keeps a mini fridge under her desk to keep stocked on snacks and beverages. She may casually blame being pregnant too.
sleeps with a fan on no matter what the temperature is outside.
she still has both her engagement ring and wedding band and keeps them in her jewelry box.
Her engagement ring is a three carat emerald cut lab created diamond with micro pave band in yellow gold that Asher and her created together. She was adamant on wanting lab created and not a mined diamond for practicality, cost saving, and the history of diamonds.
loves to thrift shop even though she makes a decent pay from her job now.
when she found out she was having twins she fainted and had to stay overnight in the hospital for one night, she's still embarrassed.
her biggest "weird" craving since being pregnant has been ice cream and hot sauce.
anything lemon flavored will win her over.
her home is meticulous and tidy but her room is where she lets out most of her creativity, which includes fairy lights and a canopy bed frame.
has trust issues that stem from broken friendships and once things are broken or she feels like you've hurt her in some way it's not easy for her to let those walls back down.
Leyla took her seat at the hibachi table, shrugging off her jacket and rolling up her sleeves like she was settling in for some time. The chef hadn't started cooking, but the grill was getting hot, and the air was already smelling wonderful with soy and garlic, making everyone excited. She looked at the empty seat next to her, then around the table, a calm, watchful, and slightly entertained look on her face, waiting for the fun to begin.
"Just so you know," she said, not really talking to anyone specific, tapping her chopsticks gently on her plate. "I'm here for both the entertainment and the food, and I will be judging the knife tricks. Not in a mean way, though. Just… critically." She paused, then gave a small smile. "Are you going to sit down, or are you just going to stand there acting like you don't want the best view of shrimp flying through the air?"
It had been a long day at work, add in the extra of her pregnancy that was becoming more daunting, exhausting, and just taking the normal toll on a woman's body, meaning Emi had no plans on going home to cook for herself. Making the executive decision that this was one of those "treat yourself" moments, she headed to one of her local favorite spots, yum yum sushi. Knowing that she could at the very least eat her body weight in fried rice and garlic shrimp. As she pulled off her wool coat and placed on the back of the chair, the woman next to her making comment about the knife skills.
"Glad to know it's not me being judged for the amount of garlic and fried shrimp I plan to eat." Emi quipped as she pulled the napkin out and over her lap. "I will, however, leave it up to you to catch all the frying shrimp, I'm here strictly to enjoy and not have to worry about cooking tonight, and possibly taking home leftovers so I don't have to worry about lunch tomorrow too. I consider that a win."
open starter @windsorbaystarters
location: the lucerna (new year's eve)
Once outside, Amara pressed her back to the cold brick wall and exhaled, slow and deliberate, like she'd been taught in therapy; nights like this always buzzed too loud, too bright, too much for her. Her breath fogged up immediately, briefly luminous under a street lamp before it vanished. She glanced back over her shoulder, looking through the fogged up window — looking at the party going strong inside. She repeated the exercise a couple more times.
Just when she was about to drop her shoulders and relax, she heard the door opening and instinctively wrapped her arms around her. "Needing a breath of fresh air, too?" Amara smiled softly and stepped to the side.
As much as Emi was looking forward to ushering in the New Year, being surrounded by a lot of people, packed in slightly, made her skin crawl just a tiny bit. She could enjoy it for a small amount of time before the air would start to feel thick and she needed to excuse herself, slipping out one of the side doors, letting the cold air hit her as she pulled her jacket around her. Being heavily pregnant with twins probably didn't help the cause of feeling overly warm either.
As she heard a voice turning in the direct she glanced up spotting a face, "Yes." Emi said, "I was getting a bit too warm in there, you know when the air gets thick and you feel suddenly like it's harder to breathe." Then again it didn't take much for the petite woman to get out of breath these days. "Figured some fresh air before everyone comes out for the fireworks was my best decision yet."
Adrian chuckled, the sound low and easy as he leaned a little more against the railing. "Not selfish at all," he said, glancing over at her with a small smile. "In fact, I’d say it’s smart. Why risk it yourself when you can live vicariously through someone else’s questionable choices?"
He tilted his head toward the taco truck menu, eyes scanning it with exaggerated deliberation. "Though, fair warning, some of these decisions might come with serious consequences. Spicy, cheesy, or both. You sure you want me to tempt fate like this?"
"It's a little bit selfish since I can't." she said, at least she couldn't do anything too crazy given her current state. When he said it was smart she laughed, "Well I've been told I'm smart a time or two in my life before but normally I'd be down for anything like extra spicy or make me regret my choices later, but right now I can't." In fact, she missed her extra spicy choices that she normally got to enjoy and other things in foods that were just off limits. You didn't realize how much you couldn't eat until you were told you couldn't.
Glancing towards him she laughed, "I mean as long as you don't regret it immediately and why not both? Cheesy and spicy go hand in hand practically, or at least it seems a lot of people think so."
LENGTH OF TIME IN WINDSOR BAY: From 16 till her divorce, returning now
HOUSING: Coral Coast
OCCUPATION: Senior Vice President of The Art Institute
THE INTERVIEW.
What’s it like, living in Windsor Bay? Did you ever picture yourself settling down here or did you always know this would be your home?
"It's different than California, I can say that much for sure. My family moved here when I was sixteen. If you asked me then my siblings and I would have told you our lives were over and they were moving us to a little nowhere town. Which it absolutely felt like that after growing up in California. Think at heart I'm always going to be a California girl, it's something that's just apart of you, but Windsor grew on me through the years. After the divorce I was sure I'd never come back here. Packed up my bags, moved to a condo in Los Angeles and really didn't want to turn back. Sometimes it's easier to leave a part of you in the past, but when I was offered the position as Senior Vice President at the Art Institute, it's not something you can really pass up. To manage a position like that in LA you need to know the right people or have the right kind of money. So, no, I never thought in the end this would be my home again - but here I am."
If you could recommend one hidden gem around town everyone should try, what is it? What makes it so special?
"Is it too cheeky to say the Art Institute? Feels like it might be but it really is a special place. To be able to work with pieces of art from some of the biggest artists in history just has a way of captivating you. Not to mention it's a place we encourage up and coming artist to come, display their work, learn more about themselves as an artist. Now I'm not conventionally artistic but think it's the old saying "those who can't do, teach, well in my case, those who can't, manage."
What’s your family like? Are you still close, or have you blocked all their numbers?
"I'm lucky as far as family goes, my parents moved out of Windsor Bay and now live in one of those retirement communities in Florida. They wanted to soak up more sun and enjoy the beaches in their later years, which I can't even blame them. But, we make time for each other. We alternate holidays, sometimes we go there, sometimes they come back here. I actually just moved back into their home that they purchased on the coast that is absolutely breathtaking. My siblings? Well I love them, to pieces. We keep in contact a lot, have multiple different group chats that we're always in and out of. But, my greatest loves, are my twins they may not be born yet but they've changed my life in more ways than I can begin to explain, and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to show them all the great things just like my parents did."
With a free afternoon on his schedule, Asher used his free time to run a few errands. One of which was picking up a prescription and a few other small things at Better Soon. The small basket in his hands were filled with bandaids and other typical first aid items, since he needed to restock some expired things for the kit at the record store. Even though he had already gotten everything he needed, Asher couldn't help but wander down some of the other aisles to see if anything else caught his eye.
Asher turned a corner while his gaze was caught on some new kind of Christmas candy already stocked on the shelves. He didn't even realize that another person was in his vicinity until he felt his body collide with theirs. "Holy shit, I'm so sorry," he immediately apologized, reaching out in an effort to help the poor woman he knocked off balance. "I need to pay more atten—" He stopped dead in his tracks like a deer trapped in the brightness of headlights. There was no way his ex wife was standing in front of him. His eyes immediately locked onto her noticeable baby bump and he could feel the color drain from his face. "Emi? Wh-what are you doing here? I thought you were in California?" So many questions flooded his mind, but he was too in shock to ask anything more just yet.
Being back such a short amount of time, realization had set in pretty early that there'd be the awkward run in. Emi had gone under the general assumption it'd take at least a little longer than the universe had obviously had planned for her — for them. Life would have been easier if she had stayed in California once she had moved back, only when the offer landed in her lap to become the Senior VP at the Art Institute there in Windsor Bay, a position she had done dozens of interviews and meeting for while there finally opened and she was their pick. Time had passed there was no way a position like that would just pop up out of the blue, only it had. The offer too sweet not to take, and without even a propers heads up had moved all the way back to the town that was her ex-husband's more than hers.
Knowing Asher since her early twenties, introduced by their parents after her parents had needed some legal advice, never would she thought she would have ended up his wife. Let alone, now his ex-wife. They had always been like ships passing in the night, it had never been the right time. He had had other relationships, hell he had had a whole-ass other wife, not that she had known her. When he had been single, she had been dating someone. It all seemed like a fever dream, once they had managed to end up in each others orbits it had been unstoppable. They dated briefly before finding herself in a lavish wedding marrying into the Goldstein clan, who had welcomed her with open arms.
Now, here she was, pregnant and returning back to a town that didn't fully feel like hers anymore. Like he had somehow "won" it in the divorce. Clearing her through she moved her basket slightly more in front of her, not that it could hide that she was expecting. Maybe it was more in a protective gesture, guarding her from all the pain they had put each other through. "I moved back." she said almost defiantly, feeling like he was saying she shouldn't be there. "I was offered the Senior Vice President position at the Art Institute." she finally said, "I couldn't pass up the offer."
Like anything the change of season brought change of weather, and the last thing that Emi needed was any kind of illness. It had lead her to the local pharmacy to stock up on all kinds of preventative things, cough drops, nasal sprays, vitamins, all things approved by her doctor back in California — thankful for virtual visits, as she hadn't fully established with someone back in town at this point. With a basket hanging on her forearm, swinging slightly back and forth she wove her way through the aisles, adding a bit of this or that to her shopping.
Just as she was going to grab a gummy vitamin she had seen online a bunch of times to scan the bottle she felt her body turn and bump into someone, sending her stumbling forward slightly, gripping the shelves to steady herself. "I'll take that as these aren't a good idea." A soft chuckle leaving her lips as her hands placed the bottle back on the shelf and adjusted to right herself, hand on her belly for a brief moment, "I'm so sorry I'm still not used to — " Her voice cutting out as she felt the tightness in her throat start to kick in, her mouth feeling suddenly dryer than sandpaper. "Asher.. I — uh hello."
The Food Stop had become Adrian's guilty pleasure. Sure, he owned The Lucerna and could afford a private chef but something about wandering between food trucks, smelling everything at once, and pretending he wasn’t eyeing the dessert options like a kid in a candy store made him feel… normal.
Today, he was on a mission. Gourmet mac and cheese first, then maybe the ice cream truck. His boots crunched against the gravel as he walked between trucks, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. Sunlight glinted off the edge of his shades, though he eventually pushed them up onto his head when he got too into debating whether to go spicy or cheesy. He paused, scanning the crowds with that habitual air of quiet calculation, a small smirk forming on his lips. Perfect spot for people watching. Or maybe for bumping into trouble.
Leaning against a railing by the taco truck, he tilted his head back toward the sky, letting the breeze catch his hair. "Decisions, decisions," he muttered, mostly to himself, though the faint trace of amusement in his voice made it sound like a challenge. "Do I start with something safe… or something that’ll make me regret it later?"
Moving back to Windsor Bay in the last few weeks had been a lot of work, that tended to happen when you were heavily pregnant with twins. Now Emi found herself at officially twenty-eight weeks along, attempting to unpack boxes, set up a nursery, and settling into her new job as Senior Vice President of the Art Institute. Today had been a lot of office work, mostly setting up her large private office to just the way she liked it, yes — Emi Choi was that woman who enjoyed decking her office out with decorations, colored keyboards, and office supplies to match... a girl had to have her "thing" about her.
About halfway through the day that familiar reminder that she needed to eat from her assistant meant taking a break, right now she was pulling well over twelve hours in order to feel like she was getting to a place to really be doing the job.
Whilst a lunch had been packed, the food didn't sound appetizing any longer and it had been a little while since she had last explored the town she had moved away from a few short years ago after her divorce. Finding her way down to The Food Spot, a classic favorite for several in town Emi scanned her options. Spotting a few new choices, and the hardcore loved favorites, it was now making a choice that she wouldn't live to regret later on. Pregnancy heartburn? No laughing matter, no matter how many told her to simply pop an extra Tums or two.
"Would it be selfish for me to say regret later because I cannot do that so I would be able to vicariously live through you?"
