"I'll have the strawberry passionfruit tea with mango, kiwi and peach popping boba," Mia, the best little sister a girl could ask for, places her order with our waitress. Satisfied with her choice, she playfully wraps her finger around a juicy coil of hair as she waits for us to order.

"Ohh, girl, wait! Where'd you see that?" Penelope, our lifelong best friend, asks excitedly.

Mia points to the item on Penelope's menu. "Right there."

Penelope looks gleefully at the waitress and points to the menu. "Ohh, yes. I want that!" she exclaims before calmly resting her head on her folded hands. If it wasn't for her gorgeous hazel eyes and luscious black long straight hair, I'd say she looks as content as Chester the cat.

Without ever having picked up the menu, I ride their train. "Make that three."

"Will that be all?" Dressed in a green and white Tea Treat uniform, the waitress, whose name appears to be McKinsey, hurries back to punch in our order and take the next table.

"So, bubble tea? Or is it boba tea?" I ask, gazing at the long line of people waiting to place an order and observing all the busy bodies chatting and drinking various concoctions.

"Latest craze," Mia smiles. "Thanks to ya girl," she points at herself, "who got us in without waiting in line." Mia blows her nails and buffers them on her sleeve. "Yeah!" She leans back with a deep sense of satisfaction.

"Yeah. Thanks so much sis," I reply sarcastically. "So glad we got in to this exclusive," I showcase air quotes, "uhm café and were able to get bo-bo tea."

Penelope laughs. "Well, I've heard about it and I've been dying to try it. So, I appreciate, OK!" she gives Mia an extra girly air high five.

I roll my eyes. "So childish."

"What's gotten into you?" Mia asks, her lip snagged on one side.

I shake her off. "It's nothing."

"Nothing my ass!" Penelope interjects. "You've been sitting there all moldy since we got here." She holds her finger to her nose to block the phantom odor.

"Moldy?!" I huff and roll my eyes again. "It's nothing. OK?"

"It's nothing OK," Mia mimics me with all the affection of a bratty younger sister. She grabs my hand and looks me in the eyes. "Come on. What's up, sis? You know you want to talk about it." She raises her eyebrows as if to prompt me to start talking now.

And she's right. I do want to talk about.

"OK." I close my eyes and take a moment. "It's Phoenix—"

Penelope throws her hands in the air. "Knew it. What he'd do this time?"

"Listen, it's not what he's doing, it's more about what he's not doing." I glance at both of them to see if they catch my drift.

Rather than speak, Penelope looks at me intently and positions her ear to hear me out.

I glance back and forth between them. They stare back at me waiting for me to fill them in.

"OK," I reply, relieved that I don't have to be on defense. "Maybe it's just me or you know maybe I'm not being patient enough, but I hate the way things are going right now." I look down at my belly. "I mean, I'm four months pregnant now. The baby will start to show any minute and I have to go around hiding the fact that Phoenix is the father."

Mia holds up a finger as if she's about to interrupt but thinks for a second and stops short of saying anything. She motions for me to continue.

"The fact that his divorce isn't final, just makes everything worse. If anyone were to find out, especially anyone at work, people will say I'm a homewrecker. Like I'm the reason they're getting divorced. The timing is all bad. And if they don't say it, they will think it and then they'll treat me like shit and going to work will be a nightmare." I wait for their objections. "And not only will my personal life be shit, but my work life will be shit too. And everything will be ruined and Phoenix will leave me cause his reputation will be at stake and I'll get fired and—"

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down cowgirl." Mia puts up a hand. "Downward spiral, much?" She throws a what-the-fuck glance at Penelope. "Now I see why you're so twisted up in knots. That sounds horrible, but it's not true. None of that has happened and none of it probably will."

"Yeah, girl, lighten up!" Penelope side eyes Mia. "Ella loca!" She looks at me. "You got to back that truck up some, Chica. You ran over your entire life without a second thought. Plowed it down like it was nada."

"And to top it off, who says you have to hide?" Mia asks. "Is this what Phoenix wants?"

I shake my head no.

"Then why are you doing this, girl?" Penelope asks as if she can't believe what she's hearing.

"Cause she's doing an Ari!" Mia replies.

"A wha?" Penelope looks caught off guard.

"She's going off her own assumptions. Wrong assumptions!" Mia turns to me, "Let's stick to the facts and what's actually happened." She holds up one finger. "He wants to be with you?"

"Yes."

"OK, that's good. Two, he wants the baby?"

"Yes," I nod.

"Good. Three, he's getting the divorce."

"Yes . . . well. . . I don't know."

"Wha?" Penelope immediately gets angry.

Before she can reply, Mia holds Penelope's wrist as if to tell her to wait. "What do you mean?" she asks me.

"Well, that's the thing. He says he is, but the more he says that, he seems to spend more time with her. Like the other day for instance. He left to go meet with her to discuss properties and what they were splitting. And now tonight he's meeting with her again. Claims he's doing it at her request. Having dinner with her and her parents to break the news of their divorce. It's like what the fuck! Who does that? Why is it his responsibility to let her people know?"

Mia looks at me calmly. Always the voice of reason. "Why did he say he was doing it, Ari?"

Irritated that she continues to give him room, I reply, "because he wants the divorce to go as smoothly as possible. He's appeasing her so the divorce is amicable, as he likes to say."

"And?" Penelope asks, as if she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"And nothing," Mia replies before she turns to me. "Has anything happened to make you believe otherwise? Facts, I want facts." She motions for me to come out with it.

"But what if he drags this out. What if this goes on so long, I end up having the baby before the divorce is finalized? What if piece by piece, degree by degree, he gets me used to living like this, to the point where I just accept Nora as part of our lives? And we become like sister wives or something, competing for his love?" I rub my temples. "I mean—"

"—You mean, he's done nothing concrete to contradict what he's told you?" Mia gives me an all-knowing expression.

Penelope jumps to my defense. "You know how subtle men can be, telling you one thing, doing another. You're all calm and shit cause you and Riz are on solid ground. If she's having doubts, then she should trust her gut."

"And you're just saying that because you and J.C. aren't," Mia shoots back. "But you know Ari. Sometimes she can go overboard. Pina, she literally went on a high-speed chase, following the man through the rip-your-car-in-half traffic in Chicago. Of all places!"

"Don't call me no Pina." Penelope flairs her nostrils. "That shade was felt, Mia."

"But that high-speed chase showed me what he was hiding from me!" I purse my lips and throw an I-told-you-so glance at Mia.

"But that's the thing. It wasn't what you thought it was." Mia purses her lips back at me. "I say let things reveal themselves. Give him a chance to hang himself. If he's playing both sides, it will show eventually."

"Before I have this baby?" I ask annoyed.

Mia shakes her head. "You're watching him this close already, you'll be first to see evidence if it's there."

"Or you'll just lose interest even though you know he's a good guy and on your break from him, you'll find out he's dating someone else . . ." Penelope stares out into space.

"So, you and J.C. are done? Where have I been?" I ask, obviously catching wind of old news. "You knew about this?" I look to Mia.

"Yeah."

I stare at her for an explanation.

"You've been stuck in your own world, Ari. Nobody wants to add to your already full plate."

McKinsey, our waitress, returns with our order. She places a boba tea and oversized, colorful straw next to each of us. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

We all tell her no thank you, swiftly sending her away.

I pull down the wrapper on the fat straw and stab the plastic cup cover with the sharp end. "Let me taste this stupid tea." 

One sip and my baby does a somersault in my belly. I smile.

"Yeah, you like it!" Mia laughs.

"It is good!" Penelope adds.

The cold strawberry passionfruit flavor followed by bursting little bubbles filled with delicious fruit juices, is divinely refreshing. For a moment, I forget why I was even upset.

"I just want to know that it is what he says it is. That he's actually getting a divorce. I'm scared. How do I know they're not trying to work it out while he's telling me they're working out terms of the divorce? What if he doesn't care for me as deeply as I care for him? What if when all this is over, I'm just left a baby's mama? I never wanted that for myself. I just don't want to find out there's more that he's hiding. You know how private he can be. He tells people things on a need-to-know basis."

Mia slurps her tea.

"Question is, how real is our love? Can I trust Phoenix after all we've been through? Is he really leaving Nora? Can I go through this again, if he isn't? Should I just save myself the heartache and break his heart before he breaks mine?"

Penelope looks as if she's just had an epiphany. "What you really want to know is, do people really change." Penelope looks as if she's surprised at her own nugget of wisdom.

I sit with that thought. "Yea, Pina. Has he changed or is he still hiding things from me? And if so, what is he hiding?"

"Be careful with those suspicions. They've led you to the worst versions of yourself!" Mia playfully warns with a reminiscent smile. She looks as if she's reliving my greatest hits. "That five-foot boulder you drove your car on."

I look up at the ceiling. "Why is everyone reminding me of that today?"

"That sex club, life-threatening Chicago traffic and that horrible accident that totaled, hear me totaled your BMW. A car you wouldn't even allow yourself to dream of having before you actually got it."

Penelope laughs, "Yea, Inspector Crusoe! Always on the case!"

Mia licks her finger and lifts it into the air. "The wind is blowing southeast! That means Phoenix is traveling . . . west!"

Penelope cackles and pounds on the table loud enough for the next table to hear her. The four girls next to us stare with wide eyes and smiles.

"She loves too hard," Mia continues.

"Girl! Don't you know it. Always have! Love blinds this child." Penelope chimes in.

"Can't help herself but to follow a bruh," Mia says sarcastically through slurps.

My eyes light up. "You're right!"

"Nope—"

"—That's what I'll do." A weight lifts off my shoulders.

"That's what you got out of this?" Mia puts a hand up. "I didn't mean that!" She shakes her head from side to side.

"I'll follow him to that dinner tonight!"

Mia waves her hands in my face. "No, Ari! Don't do that!"

"I got this. I'll be careful this time."

Mildly panicked, Mia closes her eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh.

Penelope snickers as she continues sipping her tea. "Ari, girl!" is all she can say.

***********************************************

Should Aria keep up with her old ways or ditch them and at least try to trust?

On a fun note, have you had tried Popping Boba Tea? Did you like it?