Dance With Me

All Kat wanted at this point was a shower, a meal and some sleep. Between layovers and the 14 hours actually in the air, she'd been awake for over 30 hours and it was beginning to tell. She still couldn't believe she was on her way to China to be with Xi for 4 months while they prepared a dance performance for charity. He'd been working on putting this together for months and all the pieces had finally fallen into place.

The pilot announced their approach to the airport and she checked her purse again for the hundredth time making sure she had her passport, visa, and temporary residence permit, allowing her to stay with Xi's family in Chengdu for the duration. Mrs. Wei, her Mandarin teacher from the cultural center, had agreed to come along with her to ease her through customs and the other red tape and to visit Xi's parents for a while.

Xi's people picked her and Mrs. Wei up at the airport and took them to the police station for Kat to register her residency, then to Xi's home in the city center. There was a guest cottage and Kat's baggage had been put there, just across the courtyard from the dance studio where she and Xi would be working. It had been renovated with the latest state of the art sound system and video equipment and had plenty of room for her choreographing. She also had a personal assistant assigned to her. Chen Mei was her name, and she was around 30 years old, tall and slender with a way of getting straight to the point on anything. She spoke perfect English with a very slight accent.

"Is there anything you need, Kat?" Chen Mei asked.

Kat shook her head. "I just want a shower and maybe something light to eat. A sandwich or something. Then I want to sleep forever".

Chen Mei laughed, "Yeah that flight is a beast. First time traveling to Asia?"

Kat nodded.

"Ok. Shower's through here. I'll go to the kitchen and get something for you and bring it here. You can wait to unpack. Xi's on location and won't be home until at least tomorrow. Here's my cell phone number, and you can also just come find me if you need anything else, OK?"

"Xiè xiè"

"Oh, and Xi says I'm supposed to help you with your Mandarin, so we can work on that later. Right now, get a shower and some sleep."

Chen Mei left and Kat looked around the guest house. There was a bedroom, a sitting room, a tiny kitchen and a very luxurious bathroom with a deep jetted bathtub and a HUGE shower with multiple shower heads. And there were roses of all colors in several vases. The guest house smelled like a florist's shop. Kat shook her head and smiled "Crazy man", she murmured. Then she dug into her suitcase and found her Hello Kitty nightshirt. When she got out of the shower and toweled off, there was a bowl of hot noodles on the kitchen table. She ate it down, rinsed out the bowl, put it in the dish drainer and crawled into bed, feeling like she could sleep for a week.

A slight noise woke her. It was still dark outside so she reached for the bedside light. Xi was sitting in a chair by the window just looking at her.

"Hey," she whispered blearily.

He smiled at her, but said nothing.

"What time is it?"

"About 2 AM."

"What day is it?"

Xi laughed and responded, "Wednesday."

"Ugh. I thought you weren't supposed to be home yet."

"I couldn't wait to see you, so I drove all night"

"Crazy man. I don't have to be functional until Friday. Come to bed."

His eyebrows rose at that, but he undressed and climbed into bed with her, cradling her head on his shoulder and falling asleep pretty quickly.