That One Time (7 page)

“…please?” Mari was begging.

“Sorry, I missed that.”

“…her place…here right away…please?”

“You’re getting choppy,” Ayah said.
 

“…come…here…place!” The line went dead.
 

Maybe Mari wanted her there for moral support
, Ayah thought, chewing her lip as she put the phone down. She glanced at Mr. Hsu. “Can I take a few hours off and make it up tonight? I think Mari needs me at the café – a hiccup in her first speed dating event.”

Mr. Hsu waved her away, already busy playing Tetris on Facebook.

With a sigh, she hurried to the elevator, waited for ten minutes, and saw that it was still stuck on the third floor.
Oh well
, Ayah thought as she made a 180-degree turn and headed for the back stairs. At least she’d get her exercise with the stairs.

            ****

Fifteen long minutes had passed before Nic was finally next in line to step in the elevator. He couldn’t believe that Ayah worked in such a dingy old place. The building’s reception area was no larger than his dressing room, forcing everyone to squeeze next to each other like can-packed sardines as they waited for their turn at one of the two ancient-looking elevators.

“What floor?” the old man, who seemed to act like some kind of Chinese ferryman to hell, demanded just as the elevator doors opened and Nic was about to step inside.

“Tenth.”

He shook his head at Nic. “Other elevator. Go back in line.”

Was the man fucking serious?

Seeing that he was still not moving, the old man pointed to a taped message on the wall post between the elevators. “Left elevator, ODD floors. Right elevator, EVEN floors.” He muttered something that sounded like “hoe chon”, which – from the Cantonese lessons Ayah occasionally supplied him with – Nic knew meant ‘really stupid’.

Nic looked at the old man. “You’re not kidding?”

“NO JOKE.”

He looked at the other passengers, most of them appearing to be English-speaking tourists and a few locals. “I’ll give each of you one hundred dollars if you let me go first.”

In a few seconds, Nic was alone in the elevator, the others generously providing him with privacy. The elevator creaked and shook as it ascended. It gave him a headache, just thinking of Ayah having to ride this contraption from hell every day to get to work.

An eternity passed before he was at the front door of Nana’s Guesthouse. It was open, but courtesy had him knocking anyway. There was another old man seated behind the counter, and he, too, looked grumpy. “Good morning,” the old man said, even though he sounded like it was anything but.

Nic suppressed a sigh. So far, Hong Kong was proving to be nothing like the stupendous place that Ayah kept raving it to be. “I’m looking for Ayah Chandler.”

The old man’s gaze narrowed. “You are Luuk?”

Nic made sure his surprise did not show on his face. “Yes, I am. Is she here?”

An evil grin appeared on the old man’s face. “She is out on a speed date.” He scribbled something quickly on a notepad and tore the page off. He waved it in the air with glee. “Here, you take it. You see for yourself.”

Nic thanked him with a tight-lipped smile before swiftly making his way back to the elevator.

What the fuck was she doing on a speed date?

~ Four ~
 

“One: do not say you have a boyfriend because, honestly, you don’t really have one. An imaginary boyfriend, sure, but a real one? No. So don’t you speak about it if you don’t want to kill our friendship.”

“But—”

Another finger came up. “Two: do not say anything about your Luuk. He has nothing to do with this. It is not a betrayal because, frankly, there’s nothing to betray since he never ever called you his girlfriend.”

“But—”

“And lastly, do not compare the guys to Luuk in your mind. Have fun.” Mari glared at her. “Understand?”

Ayah returned it with a grim look of her own. “Fine. I won’t talk about having a boyfriend, won’t talk about Luuk, but you have
no
control about what I think! I’ll always think about Luuk and that’s that!”

As Ayah stomped towards the tables to join the other speed dating candidates, some of the café’s crew who had overheard their conversation snickered amongst themselves. Since Mr. Hsu also owned the café, Ayah was known to all of them.
 

Mari grumbled to them. “She makes it sound like I’m setting her up to be raped.”

One of the waitresses, Emi, patted her back. “You know Ayah.”

The buzzer they used rang, indicating that the speed dating event was officially starting. They looked at Ayah, who had her smiling hotel receptionist face on. It was a very cute look, one that immediately made people relax and get comfortable with her. Also, she was dressed more fashionably than usual – a pink flowery scarf over a loose pale blouse with batwing sleeves, paired with a leather belt, peach-colored cotton shorts, and open-toed sandals.
 

She wanted to think it was for the speed dating event, but Mari knew that was sure to be wishful thinking. She recognized this look. It was what her friend called her “SoHo look” – outfits that were meant to make people think she was rich and just being casual about it, a look that helped Ayah sweet talk locals into providing discounts and freebies to the guests under her care.
 

Mari sighed. She was pretty sure that her friend would charm the socks off every guy in her event. If only one of them could make Ayah realize that nothing was going to happen between her and the evil Luuk.

Her mobile phone rang, and Mari was taken aback to see it was Mr. Hsu calling her. “Hello?”

“The bad Mr. Luuk is heading there,” he told her.
 

“Luuk – as in Ayah’s Luuk?”

“Yes,” Mr. Hsu said dourly. “I don’t trust him. He’s too good-looking. He doesn’t wear a ring though.”

“He could have just taken it off.”

“Bah! Doesn’t matter. Don’t want him for our Ayah. She should marry within her kind, a good Chinese boy—”

Mari had to smile. Mr. Hsu rarely took to foreigners, and this was yet another proof of how easy it was for Ayah to worm her way into people’s hearts. She was just so…sweet. Even when she was also so freaking stubborn, she was just too sweet about it.

“You do remember she’s American, right?” Mari teased.

“No,” Mr. Hsu snapped, “I don’t.” He ended the call.

Mari’s smile faded when she looked back at Ayah. She was clearly having fun, the guys she spoke to were clearly smitten with her, but it was also glaringly obvious she wasn’t taking any of the guys’ words seriously.
 

Ayah, Ayah, Ayah. What did that Luuk guy do to you to make you like him so much?

****

A waiter blocked his way the moment he tried to enter the café. “Wait here.” He had a curiously militant expression on his face, like he was expecting an enemy to come anytime. The way he was looking at Nic now, it was clear
he
was that enemy.

So far, Hong Kong was truly leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

Lifting a brow, he asked dryly, “I suppose you know I’m looking for Ayah Chandler?”

The waiter repeated stoically, “Wait here,” before promptly turning his back on Nic and entering the café.

He would give the guy five minutes
, Nic decided. He knew from Ayah’s stories that her boss also owned the café. It could be that they thought they were just protecting her from the big bad Western wolf.
 

A woman emerged from the café, a dark-haired local dressed in a lacy blouse and pencil cut skirt. She looked like a fashion executive – or to be specific, a fashion executive dressed for battle, considering the glint in her eyes.

“You are Luuk Aafjes?”
 

How many people had Ayah told about him anyway?
And what the hell did she tell them that made everyone seem to want to come after Nic with pitchforks?

He inclined his head to the side, not saying yes or no. “I’m looking for Ayah.”

“I know you are,” she told him frostily. “The question is, why are you looking for her just
now
?”

Nic asked coolly, “And this is your business because?”

“Because we prefer that she dates a nice man from here and not a lying jerk like you.”

“Not while I’m fucking alive,” he snapped right away. She appeared startled at his words. He supposed he could have toned it down, but…unlikely. Ayah – dating another man? No fucking way would he stand for that and especially not now that he had decided to…

Never mind what he had decided. The most important thing was to get Ayah out of this shitty speed date as soon as possible.

Ayah’s friend was still looking at him suspiciously, but he didn’t give a fuck. The more time he wasted here, the more time those assholes had with
his
Ayah. He said without preamble, “You either let me inside peacefully and I will not make a scene, or I will get this whole place shut down.”

Mari blinked at the man’s threat. He sounded like…he meant it and that he could carry it out easily. Her gaze narrowed. The way Ayah described him, Luuk Aafjes had seemed more like an ordinary white-collar worker in Europe, but there was
nothing
ordinary about this man. His height, his looks, and the way he spoke and moved – everything screamed money, power, and authority.
 

It was just so like Ayah not to notice all of that!

Lifting her chin, Mari said, “I don’t care who you are or what you can do. Before I let you in, I want you to know that we all think you’ve been leading her on all this time and we all think it’s suspicious that you’re suddenly here.”

When the man started to speak, she shook her head profusely. “No! You do not get to speak until I’m done.”

The man lifted a brow.

Gah! So smug
, Mari thought. Whatever did the sweet Ayah see in this jerk? She continued hotly, “All this time, Ayah’s been loyal to you when we all know you never even called her your girlfriend.” Planting her hands on her hips, she finished ominously, “If any of us find out that you’ve hurt her, we’ll kill you.”

His expression did not alter, meaning he still looked like a cold handsome bastard. But his voice was even when he said, “Fair enough. Now can I come in?”

Those were the only words he could manage to say. Nic felt like his world had started spinning in the wrong direction at what Ayah’s friend had revealed.
 

Over one year…
that was how long they had not seen each other.

Just that one time…
that was how short they fucking knew each other.

And yet this woman was telling him that none of those things mattered.
 

Ayah had…taken a risk on him, the way he had once gambled on them…and lost by choosing to take the easy way out.

“Anything else?” the man asked.

Trying not to show how disconcerted she was at how “cooperative” he was being, Mari dug into her pocket. “Not so fast, Mr. Aafjes.”

Nic suppressed an impatient sigh, reining in his instincts to just bodily lift the woman out of his way and barge into the café. Hong Kong was a nightmare so far, with everyone forcing him to wait on others and in a way that he had
never
waited on anyone his whole life.

“You’ll need this.”

Nic returned his attention to the woman and at the sight of the object in her hands, his jaw clenched hard. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

“No. I’m fucking not,” she said sweetly. “If you want to see Ayah
peacefully,
then this is what you have to do.”

“Fine.” He all but snarled the word as he grabbed the name badge from the woman’s fingers.
 

Mari suddenly had a bad feeling, and she caught his sleeve just as he started to walk past her. When he turned to her, his face terrifyingly blank, she swallowed.
Was she making the right decision here?
“Luuk…” Mari looked at him pleadingly. “What are you planning really?”