“I have to go now, lieverd.”
“Yes, you should,” she agreed unhesitatingly. “It’s super late there, I know. Time to hit the bed.”
“I’ll rest when I hear the words.”
She said softly, “Lieverd, I miss you, I love you, and I dream of one day flying in your arms again. Good night.”
Ayah was smiling by the time she emerged from the sub and all the way up to the tenth floor, which she used the stairs to reach since the elevator queues were too long.
Mr. Hsu, the old white-haired widower who owned Nana’s Guesthouse, took one look at her face and snorted. “He called you again, didn’t he?” He was seated behind the counter like he always was, his eagle eye trained on the screen that showed footage from the various CCTV cameras installed throughout the tenth floor.
“He misses me,” she said smugly, responding in Cantonese as well, albeit less fluently. It was the one Chinese dialect she struggled with the most. Fujian and Mandarin, she had conquered easily, using it to communicate with overseas Chinese guests. Cantonese was more complicated. There was something about the harder tones and quicker rhythm of Hong Kong’s official language that had her tongue tripping over the words frequently.
Mr. Hsu rapped the floor with his cane, saying emphatically, “No, he doesn’t.” He gave her a baleful look. “He misses playing with you.”
She rolled her eyes, unaffected. Mr. Hsu wasn’t alone in thinking that way. Everyone else who knew about Luuk thought she was a fool for “saving” herself for him, but she didn’t think so. Actually, it was a very practical thing to do. If she gave her virginity to anyone other than Luuk, it would be a disaster. But if she waited for Luuk...
Ayah sighed.
Mr. Hsu let out a loud ‘hmph’ at hearing it. “You’re in for a heartbreak,” he warned her as she twirled her way to the back kitchen to grab a glass of water.
Outside, she heard the phone ring and Mr. Hsu answer it. A second later, he called out, “Mari’s looking for you.”
“Be there in a sec.” She hurriedly drank the rest of her water and went out again. “Mari?”
“I’m in huge trouble,” her friend said right away. “Today’s the speed dating event and we’re lacking one girl! She’s down with flu, the idiot.”
Ayah laughed. “I’m sure she couldn’t help that, Mari.”
“Idiot went skinny dipping in Repulse Bay at three in the morning.”
Oh. The recent typhoon that hit Hong Kong had only left this morning. Maybe the girl really did need to think twice about her decisions.
“...please?” Mari was begging.
“Sorry, I missed that.”
“...her place...here right away...please?”
“You’re getting choppy,” Ayah said.
“...come...here...place!” The line went dead.
Maybe Mari wanted her there for moral support, Ayah thought, chewing her lip as she put the phone down. She glanced at Mr. Hsu. “Can I take a few hours off and make it up tonight? I think Mari needs me at the café – a hiccup in her first speed dating event.”
Mr. Hsu waved her away, already busy playing Tetris on Facebook.
With a sigh, she hurried to the elevator, waited for ten minutes, and saw that it was still stuck on the third floor. Oh well, Ayah thought as she made a 180-degree turn and headed for the back stairs. At least she’d get her exercise with the stairs.
FIFTEEN LONG MINUTES had passed before Nic was finally next in line to step in the elevator. He couldn’t believe that Ayah worked in such a dingy old place. The building’s reception area was no larger than his dressing room, forcing everyone to squeeze next to each other like can-packed sardines as they waited for their turn at one of the two ancient-looking elevators.
“What floor?” the old man, who seemed to act like some kind of Chinese ferryman to hell, demanded just as the elevator doors opened and Nic was about to step inside.
“Tenth.”
He shook his head at Nic. “Other elevator. Go back in line.”
Was the man fucking serious?
Seeing that he was still not moving, the old man pointed to a taped message on the wall post between the elevators. “Left elevator, ODD floors. Right elevator, EVEN floors.” He muttered something that sounded like “hoe chon”, which – from the Cantonese lessons Ayah occasionally supplied him with – Nic knew meant ‘really stupid’.
Nic looked at the old man. “You’re not kidding?”
“NO JOKE.”
He looked at the other passengers, most of them appearing to be English-speaking tourists and a few locals. “I’ll give each of you one hundred dollars if you let me go first.”
In a few seconds, Nic was alone in the elevator, the others generously providing him with privacy. The elevator creaked and shook as it ascended. It gave him a headache, just thinking of Ayah having to ride this contraption from hell every day to get to work.
An eternity passed before he was at the front door of Nana’s Guesthouse. It was open, but courtesy had him knocking anyway. There was another old man seated behind the counter, and he, too, looked grumpy. “Good morning,” the old man said, even though he sounded like it was anything but.