Honey Ko - A Novel

Chapter Thirty

I jumped from the jeepney and ran up the sidewalk. I could barely contain my joy: my request to re-enlist and stay in Hawaii had been approved. That meant another tour of sea duty and two more deployments. The gate squealed as I opened it. I pushed the brick aside and opened the front door and took the steps three at a time, meeting Aida on the landing. She frowned but, heck, I always sounded like an elephant when I ran up the stairs.

"Hey, Aida. I have good news. I get to stay in Hawaii for another three years."

"Who Lek?"

My scalp tingled at Lek's name. For a moment, I lost the ability to form words. I brushed my hand through my hair and down the back of my neck, a nervous habit probably intended to buy time to come up with a believable lie. Aida stared, her eyes red and puffy, and her lips pressed into a thin line. My mind whirled as I stammered and tried to make sense of the black hole I found myself in.

I made like I hadn't heard her. "What? Who is who?"

"I said, who Lek?" She spoke each word deliberately. "How she knows you in Thailand?"

My brain scrambled in a desperate search for something to say. How had Aida learned about Lek? From George? Bob? Don? It wouldn't have been Alex, I was sure of that, and certainly not Mark. Both were good friends, all the guys were, but .... No, it would not have been them. I knew them too well. It had to have been someone else, but who?

"I waiting."

Pain showed in Aida's eyes. I could see how deeply she hurt, how embarrassed, how betrayed. My presence made her feel ridiculous, as though I were laughing at her stupidity and blindness. In her mind, I was openly parading another woman in front of the world so the world could laugh at her too.

"Lek?"

"Lek."

I had done nothing with Lek a girlfriend could take fault with except buy her dinner. But I had done that with the intent of telling her about Aida. Lek had wanted to make love, but I had stopped her. However, Aida wouldn't believe a word I said no matter how hard I protested my innocence. It would have been different had she asked me who Sasi was. At least then I could have spoken the truth instead of lying my way out of trouble.

"Ohhh. Lek. She works at the club the guys and I used to go to. We went there after work to unwind. Why do you ask? Did one of the guys tell you about her?" I half expected Aida to flourish a butterfly knife while screaming, "You butterfly me? Hey? Hey?"

I tried to sound nonchalant, but my voice and burning ears gave me away. She knew something had happened in Thailand, and she wanted an explanation. She wanted me to tell her it was all a mistake, that I had angered this woman somehow, perhaps snubbed her advances, and this was her revenge. Which was exactly what had happened, but Aida wouldn't believe it, no matter how much she wanted to. Something drastic loomed on the horizon. Lies would not help, and pleading turned my stomach.

"No. She send me this."

Aida held out several sheets of a letter. Her hand was steady, but her face contorted as she held back the tears. How in the world had Lek gotten hold of the address? Who would give it to her? None of the guys would have. The only people at the hotel to see Lek had been the staff, the maids and front desk clerks. I recalled the dirty looks from the good-looking front desk clerk. She must have given Lek the address. No. That couldn't be it. I had left the squadron address in the hotel register, not Aida's. Oh no. The letter. Aida's letter. I had left it at the front desk to go out with the mail. The good-looking desk clerk must have given it to Lek.

"She said you slept with her. She said she didn't know about me, or she would not go with you. She said she slept with you last year too, and that you promised to marry her. Why you butterfly on me, hey? Hey? Why? Why you cheat on me? I haven't cheated on you since all the time we have known each other. What you got to say? What? I know you going to lie to me, like you lie to them. Also, now I want to know, you got a girlfriend in Japan too? And Hong Kong too? Probably you do, eh? And Hawaii? Why you butterfly on me, Tommy? Why? Why I'm not good enough for you? I know how Sailors are. You think because I a barmaid I sleep with the guys all the time. That is a lie. I don't sleep with any guys but you since all the way to last year. But you do. You sleep with all the girls. What other girls in Olongapo are you sleeping with? When you stay to the barracks, do you sleep with a girl there too?"