China Kiss - After the Party

China Kiss is an occasional series of one-off tales about the lives of expatriates in China and their romantic and sexual encounters. Each tale is stand-alone which means that they can be read in any order and there are no recurring characters. They are similar in style though, so if you like one, you will hopefully like the others as well. They aim to celebrate cultural differences rather than fetishize them.

Thanks as always to my beta readers Mal_Bey and 29wordsforsnow for all their help.

I'd gotten away from the Christmas party for about two hours when I had to go back again.

I'd done my bit. Turned up, given a more or less genuine smile for the photographs with the students, made halting small talk in English and even more halting small talk in Mandarin, drank one paper cup of sickly sweet red wine, and gotten the hell out of there again after the minimum socially acceptable amount of time. Christmas was my festival not theirs, and as such, I went, talked about it and we all had a culturally enriching experience. There may have been Christians amongst the student body, in fact statistically there probably were, but I didn't ask. Religion was a topic I'd been told to avoid.

So I found myself back in my apartment at nine o'clock facing the prospect of Christmas Eve alone, which I was fine with, followed by Christmas Day alone which I was more sanguine about. Alone, of course, bar a series of Skype calls round the various relatives and possibly a meet-up with some of the other teachers from around the city in the evening - if I felt like it. I probably wouldn't. It was fine, really. There were a lot of upsides to teaching English at a university in China, and this was just one of the downsides. And it only really applied for a few days each December.

I'd stuck a movie on when I'd gotten back and it was just reaching its denouement when my mobile rang. I muted the TV and answered. "Hi?"

"Is that David? Hi, it's Celine from the office. Umm, do you know where Gordon's apartment is?"

Celine was one of the administrators. I'd dealt with her a lot when she'd been in charge of arranging the permits for my visa, but less so once I'd arrived. Most of her other responsibilities were more student-facing. It was a pity because she was one of the more competent members of staff -- cute too.

"Sure, it's two floors down from mine on the same side. That would make it 7C."

"Okay, great. Thanks. 7C." The conversation felt like it was over and yet she didn't immediately hang up.

"Is everything okay? Do you want me to knock on his door and give him a message or something?" I didn't much care for Gordon. He was a second-year engineering teacher from New Zealand. I found him vaguely obnoxious at work and plain obnoxious socially. I mostly tried to avoid him. Still, a little bit of niceness never went a miss.

"No. That's okay. He's still here at the party."

I was used to the occasional weird conversation since arriving in China. I no longer expected every conversation in an alien culture to make perfect sense. "Well, okay. I'm glad I could help. 7C. Enjoy the rest of..."

"He's drunk."

Who the hell got drunk at a student Christmas party? It was an extension of work. I couldn't imagine there was any amount of alcohol would actually make it fun. Gordon had obviously decided to test this theory to the point where he either couldn't remember where he lived or couldn't get himself back there. He hadn't been in China more than six months which meant he was still in the sink or swim period. Sink it was, then.

"Exactly how drunk is drunk?" I asked.

"He's having trouble standing. And he's singing. And abusing the students."

'Abuse' is an English word that covered a lot more ground than Celine probably realized. Ground that I was thankfully well away from. This wasn't my problem.

On the other hand it was Celine's problem and I couldn't help that there was a certain amount of unspoken pleading in her call. And it was Christmas Eve after all.

I sighed and asked, "Do you want me to come back?"

- - - -

The university was only a five minutes walk away -- maybe ten now that the ground was frozen and I had to watch every step. The temperature had dropped to about minus twelve Celsius, but it was always a dry cold and as long as there was no wind, you didn't feel it too much.

When I got to the atrium of the teaching building, the party was already clearly winding down. There were a few students milling around and a few more engaged in various clean up activities. Most of the groups were clearly standing away from, but also intently watching, one corner of the room. I headed straight there.

Gordon was being supported by two students and surrounded by another four or so. I winced. At least three of them were my own freshmen. Celine was hopping around in front, trying to orchestrate matters. Piper, the administrator I dealt with on a more regular basis was on the phone to someone. Mr Feng, the head of the student affairs office was standing on, looking authoritative but not actually doing anything, which was about par for him.

As I approached, Gordon took a step forward to greet me, which nearly ended with him on the floor. As he regained his balance, he hugged the student on his right as if to indicate his arm was round the guy because he was his new best mate and not in any way providing any kind of physical support.

"David, my man. Hey, you're still here. Shit party."

My goal here was clearly to get him out of here with the minimum of further disruption. "Yeah, sure. How about we go home?"

"Yeah, great. I've got some beer at my place. We'll go back and crack open a few."

Gordon was, it seemed, largely unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that the return voyage was going to be much more complicated than normal. Celine gave some orders in Chinese and arranged a team of four students to provide an escort -- two to provide support to each arm and another two to rotate in when the first team got tired.

We set off. The ice made it slow going. I'd probably be forced to volunteer a turn at some point, but I hung back with Celine and the unencumbered students.

"Sorry to trouble you," said Celine. "Were you busy?"

I didn't really want to say I'd only been watching a film because that might indicate my real opinion of the party she'd organized and I'd left. "Just had some family calls to make," I said. "You know, with the time difference..."

"You're a good filial son," she said. I suddenly felt bad about the lie. She was always very earnest. Sometimes to the point where I wondered if there was a form of Chinese sarcasm that I hadn't mastered yet.

"It's nearly the end of term," I said. "Just exams and then its Spring Festival. You going home?"

"My parents are here," she said. "But we'll probably go back to my grandparents for a week. Heilongjiang. I'm not likely to be able to get much extra time off work."

"Heilongjiang eh, this must feel like summer to you," I said. "I've always wanted to go and see the ice-festival in Harbin."

We got past the university gate with a minimum of fuss, but shortly afterwards, one of the bearers made a stupid mistake. He attempted conversation.

"Did you watch the World Cup?"

"Football! Fuck football! It's a game for wusses. Rugby, that's a proper game. Not that you'd know anything about that with your ping-fucking-pong. The only sport worse..."

Gordon pulled himself free to admonish the poor lad more and promptly slipped on the ice. The impact looked rough, but it didn't seem to faze the drunk. He continued his rant about the most and least masculine sports from the ground. The student stood back warily. I guessed it was my time to shine. I moved to the front of the group in an attempt to mollify him.

"What about you? You one of these football poofs?"

I wasn't into sports much at all, but I sensed this wouldn't be the right answer. "Motorsport. Formula One, Rally, that sort of thing. We getting that beer, mate?" He was clearly spoiling for a fight. The trick was to deliver the answer nonchalantly. Look him directly in the eyes and he'd see at as a challenge. Look away and it'd be seen as weakness. You had to stay somewhere in the middle.

"Fucking A," he said, trying and failing to get off the ground. When this didn't work, his bearer pulled him up again.

We rounded the corner. As I hung back, one of the students turned to me and asked. "So, is he going to be our tutor next year?"

"I'm afraid so," I said. I was doubly embarrassed on behalf of both my profession and my Commonwealth. The engineering programme wasn't currently large enough to have multiple tutors on the same module and Gordon's subject was mandatory. I wondered about the chances of Gordon still being employed here by the next academic year, but it was hardly something I could mention to the student.

"Up here on the left," I said, indicating the entrance to our community.

"Oi David?" Gordon turned around, his escort swivelling as he did so. He took a moment, trying to get his eyes to focus on me from only three meters away. "You only answered half my question."

I had no idea what he was talking about. "Let's get out of this cold and we can discuss it. We're nearly there," I said.

"What I asked was 'are you a football poof'. You said you didn't like football, you didn't answer if you were a poof or not."

Oh Christ. The small mercy was that, thought the belligerent tone was pretty clear, the audience, including hopefully Celine, wouldn't have understood the crucial word. If it was a normal Friday night down Reading town centre, we'd be squaring off to him at this point. As it was, it was critical that, even if he threw a punch, I'd not be seen to incite him in any way. Sober, I wouldn't have fancied my chances, but he wouldn't be much trouble in this state.

"No, I'm not." I said it neutrally and factually. It was up to him what he chose to do with the information.

"Oh yeah. You got a girlfriend?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Let me guess, you've got a stunning beautiful girl back home, only you didn't bring any pictures and that's why you never hit on any of the girls here, because you're such a good boy. You should fuck a few while you're here just for the hell of it. You could fuck C...C...Cindy here. She'd be up for it. Wouldn't you, love?"

I looked back. Celine was exactly as mortified as I'd expected. She appeared to be rooted to the spot.

"Gordon, it's Christmas Eve for fuck sake, we're standing around freezing our asses off. Whatever you think of me, I don't need your help to get laid, but you promised me a beer about an hour ago and you keep keeping me waiting. Now are we going to have a party or what?" It had actually only been about ten minutes, but I doubted Gordon was keeping track.

"Aye, aye," said Gordon, patting me on the arm. "You're alright."

We finally got out of the cold and into the elevator. As it started the ascent for a moment it looked as if Gordon was going to spew everywhere. He barely kept it down but the clock was clearly ticking. Celine started rooting around her bag and pulled out a set of keys. The university was renting them on our behalf and they kept the spares handy. When the lift reached the seventh floor, she immediately rushed out and waved the magnetic strip in front of the lock. As the large metal security door opened, Gordon pulled free of his companions and made a break for the toilets, slamming the door shut on his way past. A cry of "Thanks" was half-audible and then things went quiet.

Celine addressed the students in Mandarin. The first part of the speech was obviously very thankful, the second part seemed stricter. Probably warning them not to repeat anything that had happened here. It didn't much matter. Everyone in the student and faculty bodies had clearly seen everything that happened at the party. Student would talk to student and staff would talk to staff, but officially everyone would pretend nothing had happened. I shook a couple of the guys' hands and gave my own thanks before they were dismissed.

I gently knocked on the door, "Gordon? Are you alright in there?" There was no answer. I didn't really want to wake in the morning to find he'd chocked to death on his own vomit, but I also didn't really want to find out that he'd purged enough of the poison from his system that I'd have to spend the rest of the night actually drinking with him.

"He'll be okay," I said.

"Yeah," Celine replied. She was clearly done as well.

We stood on the stairwell in silence for a moment.

"Sorry about him," I said. "It's not really fair on you."

"No, thanks for your help," she said. "Is he always like this?"

"I don't really know. He's not someone I hang out with a lot. Not if I can avoid it."

There was another uncomfortable pause. I wasn't sure if we were still hanging around to check if he was okay, or if I should leave. Celine looked up at me, her handbag clutched in front of her and took what seemed to me like a deep breath.

"He was right about one thing though."

"What's that?" I asked.

"We should fuck."

For a moment I wasn't sure that she'd actually said what I'd heard. She wasn't the most forthright person at the best of times and this had come out as barely a whisper. But I also knew that if I asked her to repeat it, she would probably just mutter something and run away. I floundered for a second and then made a decision.

"Would you like to come up to my apartment? We can talk about it inside."

The lift was nowhere near our floor so we took the stairs and I let us in. "I'll make us a cup of coffee. Here, have a seat."

I indicated the beaten-up couch in the living room and fiddled with the air-conditioning to get some heat back into the place. I went into the kitchen and smiled to myself as I filled the kettle. A girl had invited herself up for sex and here I was making coffee. Here was me getting things backwards again. I left the water to boil and returned to the living room. She'd been sitting there quietly, the only light in the room coming from my still paused movie.

"Is everything okay?" I said.

"No. Everything is not okay. I'm completely fed-up. You know how much effort I spent arranging that party. How long getting permission to host it and then getting all the food and drink ordered and the tree, organizing all the students to do all the jobs. You know I actually fought with Feng to be able to serve alcohol. Ha. All that effort and now it's a complete disaster and it will all be my fault. I'll have to spend all of Monday sitting in meeting after meeting explaining what happened and what we're going to do about. You know, I just wanted everyone to have one nice evening."

It had all come out in a rush. She was on the verge of crying.

"And...and...we'll have to get rid of Gordon. Which means hiring a new teacher halfway through the year. That'll involve arguing with the government for a new set of foreign expert permits and going through hundreds of mostly useless CVs and having people drop out at the last minute or arriving and then deciding they don't want to be here after all. Endless complaints about the accommodation, the classrooms and a hundred other things I can't do anything about. And, if they stay, perhaps they're as big an ass-hole as Gordon and I'll end up having to go through it all again in six months. I won't get any support from anyone and whatever goes wrong it'll all be my fault again."

She wasn't exaggerating. It had taken me three months and two trips to the embassy in London to get visa sorted and about a week in, once the adrenaline of being in a new place had worn off, I'd taken a good look around and nearly booked a ticket straight back home.

"I know. What can I do to help?" I said, cautiously putting an arm round her shoulder.

"What I really need is for you to take me into your bedroom for an hour or so and just let me forget everything. I just want to stop having to deal with just everything for a little while."

"An hour?" I asked.

"I will need to get back at some point. Piper said she'd deal with all the tidying up if I dealt with Gordon and I can say it took longer than it did. Then I'll have to go home."

"Are you married?" I asked. I didn't think so, but it paid to be sure.

"No. No, I'm not. To be honest. I've never done this before."

"If you want we can take it slowly and just hold each other."

She looked at me uncomprehending for a second and then laughed. "No. I mean I've never donethis before. Throwing myself at someone. One night love. I've doneit before."

I was relieved. If she'd been a virgin then it would have felt wrong. As it was, it seemed karma had liked my kindness earlier.

I put my arm around her gently and as she angled her head upwards to look at me, I leant down and kissed her. I intended it to be chaste and gentle, but that lasted only a moment. She swung herself around my body so she was straddling my lap. Resting on her knees, she was now well above me and, from this position, she was able to stick her tongue all the way inside my mouth, placing both hands round the back of my head as she did so.

We made out in this position for several minutes until I heard a click as the kettle came to the boil.

Initially I made no motion to break things off, but eventually, as we came up for air, I said, "I'll get us that drink."

She let me go, but then, as I was filling each cup with instant coffee, I felt her arms reach around me and the soft mounds of her breasts press into my back. She kissed my neck softly. "Let's have them in bed," she said. Turning around I saw that she was completely naked.

It would have been somewhat anti-climatic to ask how she took her coffee, so I filled each cup three-quarters full, poured some milk into a bowl and grabbed the whole packet of sugar-cubes. She took her cup in her hand and led me by the arm into the bedroom. Her body was incredible -- neither her breasts nor her butt were particularly pronounced, but she was so slim, with no fat to be found anywhere on her. Her luxurious straight hair fell down just past her shoulders.

Depositing the coffee equipment on the bedside table, I quickly undressed too and joined her under the covers. We started to make out again, but this time, when she tried to move into a more dominant position, I kept her held firmly in place beneath me, pushing her down by her shoulders. In response, she reached down between my legs and found my rapidly stiffening cock. She gave it several squeezes, moving her hand up and down as if trying to get a sense of its size. As our lips broke apart, she gave me a smile.

I started to move down her body, stopping to kiss and suck at her breasts and then licking my way down to her navel. She squirmed with pleasure a little, but as I went to place my head between her legs, she pulled her knees up and tightly together.

"No?" I asked.

"I never..." she started to say and then she suddenly relaxed, laying her legs flat again and opening them up slightly.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

In response she took her hand and pushed my head further down. She was not shaved, but she had only a little hair down there, confined to just an inch-long triangle above her legs. I started to kiss her upper thighs first, trying to make sure I wasn't moving too quickly for her. After about a minute or so, a second hand joined the first on the top of my head and together they guided me firmly towards her womanhood. Using my own hand to gently part the lips, I worked my tongue around each side of her labia and then upwards towards the crown. Once I reached it, she started to moan with pleasure in earnest.

It'd been a while since I'd made love and even longer since I'd spent any time between a woman's legs. I resolved to make tonight all about her and to spend as long there as necessary. I did my best, probing and experimenting to see what got a reaction. The magic moment was when I lapped against the hood of her clitoris and felt her thighs involuntary squeezed against my neck, taking my breath away