Just my cup of tea

The "book" store

It's been a month since I heard from Kate. She hasn't texted and surprisingly I'm completely ok with that. I didn't dare message her for several reasons. The main one being that I didn't want to invade or cause a scene. I didn't know who would read the text if I did message. Didn't know if it's ok or safe to message.

I stepped into the office, ready for the afternoon rush of work when one of the local staff came up to me. "Hey Alice!" "Hi Bella, how are you today?" Bella was one of the Chinese staff here at the company, we call them local staff and us, foreign staff. "I'm good, not looking forward to the rush soon. These assholes really don't pay us enough to deal with shitty clients."

I should probably let you know that Bella was not typical local staff. She was strong headed and took no bullshit. If she could carry around a whip at the office, she would. I admired her for that though. She didn't just let people take advantage of her. She's calculated, intelligent and ambitious. If she wants something, you best believe she is going to get it.

"One day at a time Bella. I think you'll be rid of this place soon at the rate you're going." She scoffed and chuckled and handed me the stack of paper. "Looks like we have a project together. Got a minute to talk about it? " "Sure sure, let me just drop my stuff off at my desk and we can grab something to eat and chat about it. Sounds good?" "yeah sure, meet you down stairs at Sunshine."

I head over to my desk and Daniel pops his head around the corner. "Yo Al, heard you talking to Bella about getting something to eat?" Daniel was foreign staff from America. He got here a year before me. "Yeah why what's up?" He looked a little playful. "Well...can I come with?" I eyed him suspiciously. "Does someone have a little crush?" He blushed and shrugged. "What about Ashley and Rose?" I asked. "They're around...not sure what's their vibe right now." Daniel crushed on all the girls in the office. I guess it was because he was still pretty young and not entirely sure of himself yet but he's actually a really good guy.

"Yeah yeah playboy, you can come along." He pumped his fist in the air and tagged along. We reached the restaurant and found Bella had ordered already. "That was fast." "Well we don't have much time. Oh hi Daniel." We spoke about work and what we plan to do all the while Daniel threw a few bones to Bella which unfortunately flew right over her head. Maybe she was just too innocent in that area to understand he was trying to flirt or maybe he was just really bad at flirting but it was entertaining nonetheless.

We pushed through the busy evening and work came to an end. I headed back to my desk to grab my things.
"Do you think I should ask her out?" He looked hopeful like he hadn't just had all his advances completely blown away. "Um Daniel, I think that's the only way you're going to end up going out with her. I think you need to be extremely up front." He was confused. "What do you mean?" I sighed, "oh you're so young. I don't think she realized you were trying to flirt with her dude. You have to be super literal with her." He stopped walking and thought for a moment, said "be right back," and walked off.

About 3 minutes later he came back looking like a sulking puppy. "She straight up said no." I for one, was not surprised at all. "oh dude am really sorry but at least now you know where you stand." "That's true...I should focus more on Ashley anyway." I rolled my eyes and grabbed my things ready to get home to my couch. "Hey wait you wanna hang for a bit at my place? We could have a few drinks and I got a surprise that I think I can trust you with." "Yeah sure why not."

We got to his apartment and it looked exactly how I thought it would. Guitars laying around, dim lights with posters of bands and an old box of pizza on the table but as soon as I stepped in I could smell it. It was like smelling freshly mowed grass or coffee at the airport. I knew exactly what the surprise was. "Get out of here! I know that smell! How in world do you have wee- hey hey keep your voice down Al! We use the term books for it ok." "Books?"

I plopped down on his couch and watched him dig around in the storage for a lotion bottle. "Yeah books, we got to be extra careful here. I know it sounds ridiculous but we are not back home okay. Firstly this has got to stay between us and secondly never ever text about it. If you do, call it books." He actually sounded so serious about this, it was so out of character for him.

"Okay gotcha! So um is there like a bookstore or what? where did you get this?" He opened the lid of the lotion and poured some out into a bowel and then fished out a small Bankie with chopsticks. It was really funny to watch. "All in good time friend. I'll answer all your questions in good time but for now, let's read!"

He didn't have to tell me twice. We spent most of the night "reading" and talking and listening to music. I found out more about Daniel and how he ended up here. He really was a good guy at heart. He was also friendly and funny and just good company. He didn't care for drama or politics but rather living in the moment and making the best of life.

I got home in the early hours of the morning ready to sleep till the afternoon. As I got into bed I really wanted tell Kate about my new discovery..in fact I wanted to tell Kate many things. I wanted to tell her everything, about the flight to China, my workplace, about the people there and about my day to day activities in China, the lifestyle here. I guess I could go on about all the things I wanted to tell her but... I always end up with the same question; would she even want to hear it?