Bed Partners

Tool

Tape 3, Side B

I know we agreed upon it. My mind and heart were resolved to follow that agreement. An agreement that Qing and I will not sleep with each other again.

But...you know...things happen.

I think I should stop promising to "never" do something again. Promise not to say the word "never" again. Because it doesn't come true.

I thought I will "never" see Qing again after that disastrous "morning after" of our one night stand but hours later, I didn't just see him again, we suddenly get related to each other.

We became stepbrothers.

Then we said we will "never" fuck again. One week later...we broke that agreement.

I want to say it was all his fault but that will be cowardice so...yeah, I will share the blame for this one.

The week after sleeping with Qing then meeting the man my mother is dating who turned out to be the father of the man I had a one night stand with was normal enough.

Yes, the weekend was chaotic but my weekdays after that weekend were quite normal that I was so relieved for it. It was work and lunch with friends and more work and dodging my friends questions as to who do I go home with that night of us partying in the club. Then more work. Stress, then more stress, and I never knew it, it was Friday again.

I decided to stay home, tidy up my apartment a bit and watch some movies in my laptop.

A normal opening to my weekend.

Then my mother called.

"Dayu, I am meeting my in laws this weekend. What should I do?"

I frowned. Her in laws? My father's parents were both dead and my father's sister is not close to us. She never liked my mother for my father. Which in law will my mother meet? My aunt?

"You will meet Auntie Dei?" I asked in confusion.

"Who? No! Why will I meet that witch? No." I heard my mother sigh. "Dayu, I am not talking about your father's family. I am talking about Mr.Wang's relative. My soon to be in laws."

Oh right! Yeah yeah...I forgot that my mother is about to marry another man who is not my father because my father died ten years ago.

What?

"Okay. Then you should meet them?"

"I am scared they won't like me?"

"What?" I am genuinely surprised. My mother is a beautiful and kind woman that everybody likes when they met her. She is a likable person. "Surely, they will like you."

"They are rich and sophisticated people..." she sounded insecure.

"So what? You are a beautiful and sophisticated woman. Sure, we are not as rich as them but you earn your own money and you are not marrying Mr.Wang for his money. Why act like a guilty person?" I defended her fiercely.

My mother is a bank manager. She has her own savings and money of her own. She doesn't need to act guilty of marrying a man richer than her because she can provide for herself. She doesn't need a man to do that for her.

But I can understand if she is nervous. She wanted Mr.Wang's family to like her. "They hated his first wife. Qing's mother. And Mr.Wang said that contributed to them divorcing. I don't want to marry then be a divorced woman because my husband's family didn't like me. Dayu ah, help me."

"How?"

"Come with me on that dinner. Let's meet Mr.Wang's family."