Paradise Street

9

After dropping Yu at college, Zi Hong continued to drive aimlessly for some hours before heading home, he wanted Joyce to leave for work before he came back. In the last few weeks they've hardly seen each other, just a 'hey' or 'bye' when one is arriving and the other leaving. It's eleven o'clock when Zi Hong finally decides to come back, and he doesn't find the house empty, what he finds is Joyce sitting on the sofa, leaning against the window, still in her nightgown and a half cigarette between her fingers.

"Look who's back," Joyce says without getting up from the sofa, "I was already thinking about notifying your disappearance."

"Why didn't you go to work?" Zi Hong asks, standing in the middle of the room, not getting too close to her.

Joyce shrugs and takes a drag on her cigarette, "I had this stupid idea to spend the day with my husband."

Zi Hong was never the perfect husband, but he tried to be, he tried to pretend he really cares about her. Not that he doesn't care about her, this woman in front of her was once his friend. Their parents were always partners, so they practically grew up together, hearing that one day they would get married.

He cares about her, but he is just tired.

They started dating at sixteen, not out of their own will but because their parents pushed them to each other, talking about how good it would be to bring families together. Zi Hong already knew at the time that he liked men, but he never dared to end his parents's plans, and this resulted in a marriage at twenty-two when the two graduated from college. Now, at twenty-eight, Zi Hong is drowning in a pit of lies and has no idea how to get out. But he has because, for the first time, he's letting himself fall in love, and Yu already has too much trouble to be dragged into the mess that is his life.

"What you want to do?" Zi Hong asks, Joyce is not to blame for any of this either, so he can spend a few hours with her, it won't kill him.

"I want to have lunch, and then we have to order your mom's birthday cake," Joyce says.

"Why do we have to take the cake?" Zi Hong asks.

"Because you said you would," she says, getting up and walking over to him. "Don't you remember? It must have been one of the many times you went to moon world and fuck everyone," she says and leaves towards their room. "You can use the guest room bathroom to get ready."

---

The lunch was okay, they practically didn't talk to each other.

Now, they are going to the bakery, Zi Hong doesn't understand why they have to go there, he can call or send another person to do the order. But Joyce is already pretty mad at him, so he just lets her drag them wherever she wants to go, and where she wants to go is now a small French bakery in centre of Taipei.

"Belle and I came here last week, the cakes are fantastic," Joyce says, getting out of the car.

"I still think we don't need a cake," Zi Hong says, trying for the last time and getting out the car too.

He just wants to go home and talk to Yu.

"Of course we need a cake! If you ate more sweets, maybe you wouldn't be so grumpy," Joyce says and he just rolls his eyes. They walk side by side to the bakery counter, where someone is crouched arranging the sweets in the showcase. "Hi, excuse me...," she says calling the person behind the counter, that soon gets up.

The old man behind the counter gets up.

"How can I help you?" He asks sympathetically.