The Misadventures of Endora Pan | The Taste of New Beginnings
Chapter 23
You are reading The Misadventures of Endora Pan, a romantic comedy exploring the unpredictable nature of love and the chaos of everyday life. Set in the world of a young Taiwanese-American woman, this story delves into themes of self-discovery, cultural identity, and finding connection in unexpected places. Written in a witty, self-aware style, this novel is for readers looking for a light-hearted yet emotional read.
Endora watched, aghast. Dominic grimaced and grabbed some napkins to wipe tea and spit off his face. This was it. The end. Before “once upon a time” had even begun. This had to be just one hit too many.
“I am—so sorry—” Endora began.
“Geez, you really are a walking disaster, aren’t you?” her victim said, trying to get flecks of purple out of his hair with a crumbled brown napkin. He looked at the splatter pattern on his white polo shirt and burst out laughing. “This is kind of lost cause, huh?”
The tension left Endora’s shoulders and she relaxed enough to laugh, too. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll get you a new shirt if you want?”
“No thanks. At the rate we’re going, you’ll probably end up ripping it before you hand it to me.”
“Wow!”
“Am I wrong?”
“Actually, yeah, I’m a very capable person. You just happen to catch me at some unlucky moments in my life for some reason.”
Dominic snorted. “Well, thanks to you, I’ve now had several injuries, a ruthless stare-down by your best friend, and milk tea in my hair. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were out to get me.”
“You melted my chocolate, remember?” Endora rolled her eyes for good measure, but couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She couldn’t explain why talking to Dominic was so easy, in spite of all the mishaps they’d gone through already. Even though she had literally spit in his face, he hadn’t taken off screaming about crazy women, but was sitting back, chill as anything, drinking his tea.
“That I did. I guess we’re about even now.” Dominic laughed again. “Anyway, why was my news so shocking? Do I look like a lady killer?” He flipped his hair for good measure, but his hair just go into his eyes in a not-remotely-attractive way at all.
Endora let out a barking laugh. “You look ridiculous when you do that. No, I’m just surprised. Not many people our age would admit they’ve never dated before, that’s all.” She stirred her tea. “Like, don’t you get those nosy questions from older people at church about why you’re still single and everything? Just the constant pressure is enough to make you wanna grab anybody sometimes and make them stop.”
“I get that. I think I’ve just been too focused on my career to really consider it. Or I guess no one’s caught my interest enough to pull me out of that…”
He paused and caught her with a penetrating gaze as though he wanted to continue. Endora barely noticed anything else around her for a few moments—not the tinkling of the bell as customers came in and out of the boba shop, not the whirring of the boba machines, not the indistinct chatter of other people. All she could think of was how brown his eyes were, and how there was a little mole right at the top of his cheek that she really, really wanted to—
Dominic cleared his throat. “Uh, so, yeah, so, actually, yeah I just haven’t dated,” he said lamely.
Endora sat back in her chair, a little disappointed. “You didn’t press me to talk about my ex, so you don’t have to elaborate on your dating experience if you don’t feel comfortable,” she said. “What you said concerns me because one of the reasons why my ex and I broke up was because he was too focused on his career.” The reminder gave her fresh pause. Her eyes burned again, and she looked away, angry at this betrayal of her emotions. Why’d she have to bring that up when she was already feeling vulnerable anyway?
Dominic shuffled his feet, then stood and held out a hand to her. “You wanna get out of here?”
Surprise chased away Endora’s tears. She hesitated, wondering how far she wanted this to go. Tiffany’s voice intruded at this inopportune time, “You deserve to be happy, Honey.” Endora didn’t know if going with Dominic would lead to happiness, but she didn’t see how closing herself off forever would be any better.
She took his hand. On the way out, she tossed her barely-drunk taro tea in the trash.