Bed Partners

Silence

Tape 17, Side A

Tape 17  will start on the day that Qing's fiancee came back to China from wherever she had hidden herself for six solid months.

My mother is now discharged on the hospital. Her babies are now three and a half months old and the baby bump has now shown. Twins occupy space I guess...

I now have a routine life. Work at day, call my mother at night, sleep in Qing's arms. If before, we only sleep together for two or three days, now we spend at least five nights a week with each other.

We don't have sex everyday though. We are not that horny for each other but instead we spent those nights learning more about ourselves. It's funny if you look at it, we started with sex first and now it feels like we are dating. It's like those dramas where the main characters married first before they decided that they like each other and started getting to know each other and date.

In our case, we fucked first before we started to get to know each other. Qing is an outdoor person. He knew how to ski, horseback riding, cycling, swimming, running (like a triathlete), jetski and snowboarding.

"I am not one of those people who binge watch dramas on their laptop or play video games all day in the couch if they have a free day. No offense to those people, but I think that's laziness and a waste of good life. If I am free, I think of an activity I can do outside and schedule it." He said.

"Ah," I nodded in fascination.

"How about you?" He gave me a small smile as he forked some of the salad we are having for dinner together with some roasted pork in sweet and spicy glaze.

"Oh, me?" I wave my hand, "I am one of those people who binge watch dramas on their laptop. And play games on my phone."

He was stunned first then he winced. "I see..."

"You are right in thinking that we are lazy and disgusting..." I teased him.

"No!" He denied it frantically.

I laughed at him. He chuckled with me. He stood up to get some water from his fridge. We are at his place. We will sleep here tonight. Tomorrow, I can cab it to get to work.

"You don't want to learn how to drive?" He asked me as he put a bottle of water in front of me.

"My Baba almost died while driving. He felt pain while we are on a highway and we almost crashed. My mother know how to drive and she took over and got us into a hospital. That's when we learned that Baba has cancer," I replied.

"I see..." Qing nodded.

"I was fourteen then. And my mind decided that driving is dangerous if you are sick. My convulated mind won't let me drive after that incident. I tried a lot of times to learn but I just can't. So I think I will cab or commute for the rest of my life..." I shrugged.

"I will drive you around," Qing reach out to wipe an errant sauce on the corners of my lips. We smiled at each other. After dinner, we just washed the dishes and clean his kitchen a little then we decided to go to bed. But his cellphone rang.

He frowned as he reads the name on the screen of his phone.

"Ato?" Qing took the call.

Ato? The name of his friend who went abroad for some vacation. His rude friend. "You are back? The both of you?"

Both of them? Who?