Chapter 15

That night, I explained everything to Wendy through the phone: How Lara and I first met when we were just seven, our first romance that lasted for two years and the reunion that sparked our romance again.
Wendy did not take it lightly. For every sentence she said, there had to be a “fuck” or “bastard”. She would always use those words when we were quarrelling. “You fucker.” That was her last sentence before she hung up.

Lara slept peacefully that night. I was by her side the entire night. By the fifth day, she was allowed to be discharged. “More rest, more water.” I told her. “No coffee. And please, no Coke.”

She did not mention about the commotion anymore. That day had scared me: This was the first time I saw Lara with such drive and anger. She had looked as if she was possessed. I thought she might even kill Wendy if I had chosen Wendy.

Everything was over then. I promised Lara a fairy tale romance on the day she was discharged.
“From now on, there will be no conflict. Life will be simple: You like me and I like you. Like what we had planned seven years ago, we would get married at thirty-three and have a child at thirty-four. How’s that? Our story will be like this: Once upon a time, Jie Lun meets Lara, Jie Lun falls in love with Lara and they live happily ever after.”

“It’s… marvellous.” she said and then clapped her hand.

A perfect love story… almost.

Until the symptoms came.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When Lara seemed too calm about the commotion that day, I started to get worried.

If she was angry and sad about my relationship with Wendy, she had hidden it very well. There was no trace of anger or remembrance of that day: It was like that day had never existed. I would have felt better if she had confronted me or lost her temper at me.

A week later, I decided to do something about it. I went to her office at ten in the morning. Two weeks ago, she had given me the address of her office after much persuasion from me. I had brought along a bouquet of flowers which I tried to hide on my back. Heads turned wherever I went with those flowers.
The office entrance was just a small glass door that looked enticing to burglars. I did not even knock: I just pushed open the door and sneaked my head in. The office was only about five hundred square feet. That was just one-fifth the size of my office.

I scanned the tables for Lara. She would either be in the toilet or in the boss’ room. A young man with large black plastic glasses approached me. He had just finished photocopying some papers. “Hello. Who are you looking for?”

I made sure he did not see my flowers and said, “Hi, I’m looking for Lara. Is she here?”

“Lara?” the man turned to face his colleagues. Everyone had heard our conversation. “Any Lara here?”

The office workers all looked up, looked around; then, looked back to their computers.

“Lara Wu, a new employee. She just joined the company a few weeks ago.”

“Can’t be. We haven’t employed new workers for… a year or so. You must have made a mistake.”

I read the address and the name of the company on my handphone. It was, certainly, the correct address and company.

“How about-”

The guy had gone back to his workstation, whispered to a female worker and turned to me. “Yes, there’s no new employee for the past, in fact, two years.”

I gripped the tip of my flowers tighter, nodded, thanked them and stepped back. Then my handphone rang.

“Where are you?” It was Lara.

“Well…” I stuttered. I looked into the office through the glass door again. No Lara. “Where are you?” I shot back.

“At my void deck! Look at the time! We’re going to miss the bus! Come on! Where are you?!”

Bus? I looked into the office again. The friendly guy glared at me. I went off instantly.

“Lara, what bus?”

“The company bus to Kenny Clark! We’re going to be late. Where are you?”

“What is your exact location?”

She gave me the address of her house. “Void deck. Come quickly, dear dear. Where are you?”

I looked at my watch. I told Lara I was on my way, hung up and then called my boss to apply for a half-day leave.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I threw the flowers at a nearby bus stop and took a taxi to meet Lara.

My mind was filled with questions as I was in the taxi: What had Lara meant? Why had she given me a fake address?

The taxi driver’s talking did not calm me down. He kept on chattering about the high rent of taxis and the number of passengers he had to fetch in order to break even. I hinted him to shut up by closing my eyes but he continued to talk nineteen to the dozen.

By the time I reached Lara’s apartment’s void deck, it was ten-thirty. Lara was sitting on the bench. She did not see me coming in a taxi. She wore a skin-tight pink t-shirt, tight-fit jeans constricted with a big white belt.

“Lara?” I said.

She turned, saw me and widened her eyes. I inspected myself: I was wearing a light blue shirt and black pants. On my right hand was a briefcase that Wendy had bought for my birthday this year.

“Why are you dressed like that? There’s a dress code, you know. You want to go change first? Maybe we can take a taxi there and then claim for the taxi fare. It’s already-”

“Lara, what happened…?”

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