Life as a Venn Diagram

It sounded too perfect, and then I picked up on one part of her statement. "A suite for me, not us?" I questioned.

She hesitated, never a good omen. "Alex, I'll be staying at my apartment," she admitted. "It's the one concession I had to agree to. Alan wants me to have no distractions while I sort out the mess; the client is demanding I concentrate on his problem to the exclusion of all others."

"So I'm a problem now. Will I see you at any time?"

"Of course." But somehow, her statement lacked conviction.

I sat back, my thoughts a swirling mess. I'd be trading one lonely vacation for another, laced with more heartache. I didn't see the point. "No, I'm going to stick with our original plan," I said regretfully, and I heard her catch her breath and start to cry.

"At least there, I'll be able to accept I'm on my own. I'll know where I stand, and just maybe I'll get to relax on the beach, to try and do some of the things we planned."

Mandy whimpered, but I ignored her, "What have I got to look forward to in Hong Kong?" I asked. "Nothing, I'll have the dubious pleasure of sitting around in a hotel or going sightseeing on my own: all the time knowing how close by you are, a bitter reminder of what could have been. Most likely, I'll only get to see you when it suits Alan or your mystery client, which sounds like never! That would be a sick form of Chinese torture. No, what I want is for you to keep your commitment to us, to me. I have a vacation booked, and I intend to do my best to enjoy it, with or without you."

It was her turn to slump back in the chair. "And if I were to promise to be with you every evening?"

"Don't promise me something that I doubt you'd be able to keep, and why should I accept just the evenings? In the Maldives, we would have been together all day and night."

"But I love you," she said softly.

"I know you do, and no matter what, I still love you, but it seems you love your job more, and I don't think I can take being an afterthought anymore. I'm tired of all the secrecy, and the lack of trust, never knowing what you do when you're over there."

She sat beside me and pulled her legs up, hugging her knees to herself. "But I do tell you."

"No, you might mention you've gone out for a drink or a meal, but never where, or with whom. Christ, I don't even have your address, just your UK phone number, and that goes to voicemail half the time."

She gently shook as she cried, little sobs escaping her lips. I couldn't tell, was she crying for herself or us? All I could do was keep my arm around her and wonder what it was that Alan had over her that would make her react like this.

Finally, the sobbing stopped, and she used the tail of the shirt she was wearing to wipe her eyes. She took several deep breaths and stood, upsetting the chair, making it slide across the floor with the violence of her movement.

She started to move away, then stopped, her fingers drumming on the back of her phone. Again, she headed towards the back door, then paused and looked back at me, studying my expression. She came and stood in front of me. She took hold of one of my hands, while the other pulled her phone from her pocket.

She dialed a number, "Listen and don't interrupt me," she said into the phone when the call was answered. "You have two choices; actually, you have three! First, I go on my planned vacation with your blessing and a promise not to disturb us. Second, I stay with Alex in the suite, or he stays in my apartment, I don't care which. I only work for a couple of hours in the mornings. Or lastly, I resign, and you know the ramifications of what that would mean to all of us, but I'm willing to risk it. It's Alex's vacation time, and I'm going to do my best to spend as much time with him as possible and make sure he enjoys it." There was an odd tone to her last statement that worried me.

She paused, listening to the other end for a few seconds, then added. "Regardless of which one you decide on, all our previous arrangements are over. You need to do what you promised to do. Call me back when you've made your choice."

She ended the call, not giving the person at the other end any chance to reply. Logically, it had to be Alan, but she hadn't mentioned a name, so that it could have been someone else.

She sat down beside me without looking at me and said, "There are a few things I need to tell you about growing up in Hong Kong, but right now is not the best time. What you need to do now is take me to bed and finish off what you started this afternoon. I suspect Alan will decide to stick his heels in and fuck me over, so I'll end up resigning. If I'm going to get fucked, it better be by my lover."

I didn't get a chance to point out the rather significant flaw I saw in the options she'd proposed as her phone started to ring. It had been less than a minute, which startled her. She looked at the caller's identity and raised her eyebrows. "That was a lot faster than I expected."

She answered the call. She held the phone to her ear closest to me, and I could hear both sides of the conversation. I don't know if she did it to prove to me her sincerity, or she just forgot, as this was the first time she'd ever taken a call from either Alan or the bank without stepping out of my hearing.

Alan's voice was so loud and harsh, I could have probably heard him from the other side of the patio. "Amanda, don't ever call me and make threats like that again."

"They weren't threats Alan; I was just giving you the options. It's your choice which one you choose."

"Christ, you know how important the Sung's are to the bank. The Patriarch demands nothing less than your full attention, and he won't understand your infatuation with your lover. Not with your history."

What history? Another question I'd be adding to the list.

"Come on, Alan; it's a simple choice, one, two, or three. Tell me which one."

"No," I interrupted and told her. "There aren't three options; only two. It's either the first or the last; the middle one is not an option I'll accept. I told you I wouldn't accept timesharing you on our vacation."

"I'm putting you on hold," she told Alan roughly, and did so, dropping the phone to the cushion beside her, and cutting off his indignant "Wait."

She gave me an anguished look, "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I tried to, but you weren't listening. You were so fixated on resolving all your issues and making everyone happy," I said.

I took her hands in mine, hoping she'd understand. "I told you I wasn't willing to sit around a hotel in the vain hope of seeing you at some point. You've known for years that I'd like to come to Hong Kong with you. But you were the one who always said no, and why? Because you said, you wouldn't be able to spend enough time with me, so what's changed? Nothing that I can see, except that now it suits you. Am I supposed to sit around a hotel and be happy? I don't think so. What you are proposing isn't my idea of a vacation."

"What if I promise you it will only be a couple of hours a day, at most, and I'll even let you pick them. If I'm lucky, I should be able to wrap it up in three or four days. I want the chance to show you the places I grew up in and let you meet some of the people I grew up with."

"I'd love to meet your friends and see those important places. But somehow, I can't see Alan or your client letting you keep to your promise."

Her voice was cold and hard when she replied. "Oh, they will; they, of all people, owe me that." Her tone softened, "I won't lose you."

I'm not sure that you already haven't, I thought. She was painting me into a corner. Alan's only logical choice was the one I was taking off the table.

"You're not giving me much of a choice, are you," I said. "Alan's going to choose the Hong Kong option; it's the only one he can. So either I lose you now, or in a few days when he forces you to break your promise."

"I won't let him," but even I could hear the hint of uncertainty.

I knew if I acquiesced to Alan's demand, I was just delaying the inevitable, but sometimes you need to take a leap of faith, and this was mine. I loved her, and I needed to show her that. I could end up regretting it, but I said. "I'll go to Hong Kong with you if that's the option he chooses."

She began to relax and moved to pick up her phone, but stopped when I continued. "But there have to be some ground rules. I'm going to hold you to your promises—no separate accommodation. You only work for a couple of hours a day, and never in the evening. I'm going to give you a week, that's all. And you need to start telling me the truth and stop keeping secrets from me. As soon as you don't keep one, or you don't answer one of my questions, I'll be taking the first flight home."

She looked like she was caught between a rock and a hard place. "I will keep every promise I can make, but remember, I can't answer any questions about the bank or its customers."

"That fair enough, but I don't want you to use the excuse that someone's a customer to avoid answering a question. You could say anybody was a customer, and I wouldn't know any better."

She took a deep breath and said, "I promise the only questions I won't answer will be about the bank workings or a specific customer's dealings with the bank, will you accept that?"

I nodded, and she gave me no time to retract my decision. She picked up the phone, taking it off hold.

"Alan," she said, putting the phone to the same ear.

He almost shouted down the phone. "Don't you ever put me on hold again, Amanda!"

"Alan, I'm sorry, but Alex and I had an issue we needed to resolve. The second option is back on the table with a couple of nonnegotiable modifications. I'll work on the Sung clan account for a couple of hours each morning, but just the morning, and for no longer than a week. After the week, the bank's going to fly Alex and me to Bali, and we will be staying in the villa the bank owns. I don't care if it's already booked, you will make sure it's free for us."

"Damn it, Mandy, you are holding me to ransom; you know the Sung's will only deal with you. I don't have a choice; I'll take your second option."

His voice grew quieter, and now I could barely hear him. "I've never regretted anything, and I hope you don't; we made the best of a terrible situation, but all the same, I'm sorry."

She gave me a guilty look and moved the phone to her other ear. "Alan, we both did what we had to do. We will be there Sunday afternoon, and I'm staying with Alex at the Mandarin, and it had better be one of their best suites. Don't even think of stiffing him on the ticket, he'll be sitting with me."

She smiled at me, then she seemed to have another thought. "Alan, canceling our vacation is going to cost Alex a lot of money; they won't refund any of the money he's paid out on our vacation at this late date. So you are going to cover it, I want you to transfer ten thousand into Alex's account; that should cover it. And don't forget to arrange a villa."

...

"No, sterling, not Kong dollars, you tight ass."

She finished the call and turned to me. "Now, where were we?"

She grabbed my face between her hands and kissed me hard and savagely, stopping only to breathe.

"I'm going to take you back to our bed and prove to you just how much I love you." She reached down to press her hands against the bulge in my jeans. "Fuck, I'm so yours, I want this thing in me. I've hurt you, and you need to punish me." She grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs.

We barely made the flight. Mandy had been desperate to prove to me how much she loved me. Her first step had been to strip and lay across my knees, insisting I smack her until her buttock cheeks glowed. Then she fucked me until my body cried surrender. We hadn't fallen asleep until after the sun had risen. Her loud alarm had dragged us back to the real world at midday, and we'd both needed the healing powers of the shower to begin functioning as human beings again.

Mandy usually traveled light, with hand baggage. She had all the clothes and toiletries she needed at her apartment. This time, she was throwing extra items into a second bag while I was trying to pack one with my stuff. My flight bag, an old backpack, held my MacBook Air and iPad. I added my camera and accessories, and a couple of books for the flight.

Usually, when I took Mandy to the airport for her flight, the journey would take me at least one and a half hours. Today, I was going to need to park the car, I guessed that it would add an extra hour. Our flight was scheduled to leave at six-thirty, and you were supposed to be there a couple of hours earlier to clear the security checks.

It was three before we left the cottage, Mandy was on her phone attempting to check us in. "Nice, we've got tickets in first," she said. Then she called the British Airways Gold member help desk and found out that we could use the valet service to park the car. She'd racked up so many miles that she'd acquired a gold status for life several years before, and was now on the highest tier. It's incredible how much that status level, plus being booked in first class, will do to cut the red tape.

Of course, that monstrosity, better known as the M25, lived up to its reputation, and it was almost five-thirty before I drew up outside terminal 5. There were a couple of BA representatives and a car valet waiting for us. In one carefully orchestrated movement, the valet took responsibility for the car. The BA reps gave us our boarding passes and dealt with our checked bags, and then escorted us through the security checks.

We weren't the last passengers to board, but almost. There were only a couple of other passengers seated in first class when we were shown to our seats, 3E and F. The cabin attendant lowered the partition that separated the two seats, and we settled down.

Mandy took my hand and smiled, "Don't think this is the way I normally travel, I'm not usually in first," she admitted. "Most of the time, I'm in business."

Around us, the cabin crew was preparing the cabin for takeoff. We were offered a drink, and we both chose a glass of Champagne.

"How come we are in first class?"

"I think Alan's feeling a bit guilty. It looks like he had the girls in the office book me a first-class seat. I suspect he was going to book you in economy; that's why I told him to get you a seat in the same class as me."

"Well, I'm not complaining." I stretched across to kiss her.

The flight took off on schedule, and before long, the seatbelt signs were switched off, and we were at our cruising altitude. The early part of the flight followed a fairly usual pattern. We were fed and watered, and then the lights were dimmed, casting the cabin into deep shadow.

I had reclined my seat into a comfortable position and was considering opening a book when Mandy eased herself onto my lap and curled up against me.

"Before you say anything, I asked the stewardess if it was okay, and she said yes," she said in a soft, giggly voice. She fiddled with my seat belt. "But I'm supposed to strap us down in case of turbulence." She clicked the catch closed and tightened the strap.

She reclined the seat a bit further, then wriggled slightly to get comfortable and relaxed. Or tried to; it seemed to me that I could still feel her tension, and when I looked at her, she was staring into my eyes, and she looked scared.

"Please remember I love you," she whispered her body language, indicating that this was the start of a conversation she'd hoped to never have with me.

"I think I've known that since that first day," I said, trying to reassure her and kissing her. Our mouths joined, and for a brief moment, I felt her relax as I sought to confirm my last words with deeds.

She smiled as we broke apart and quietly said, "I guess you noticed I wasn't a virgin when we met."

"Telling me, 'that was the best fuck ever,' the first time might have given the game away."

"Yes, well ..." and she blushed. "I know I've never really told you much about that side of growing up in Hong Kong, have I? I guess now is as good a time as any to cover the salient points." She gave a little giggle, but her body betrayed her. It was as tense as a spring.

"Are you sure?"

She took her time answering me. "Yes... No, I'm scared of what you'll think of me and what I did. Shit, let me get the easy part over first. Before my father died, I'd had a couple of boyfriends, just schoolgirl crushes, and neither were serious, heavy petting was the most we did. So I was still very naïve; that all changed after my father's death. I had two lovers; one didn't last long; the other was a long-term affair."

She stopped, so I prompted her with quiet, "So how old were you?"

She hesitated and then said, "I was almost 18 and a half when I slept with the first of them. I didn't start my affair with the second for another year. It was a horrible time for me; at first, I was frightened and lost, and then I was involved with an older man, and for a few months, I felt safe as his companion, his lover."

The last few words she said so softly I could barely hear her over the rumblings of the jet engines. It was almost like she was trying to convince herself of the truth in her words.

"This was Alan?" I asked, fully expecting the answer to be yes. I'd always thought that they'd had a history; this seemed to prove it.

She surprised me; she shook her head, "No, it wasn't, it was an older Chinese gentleman, a longtime acquaintance of my father. He stepped in to help me out after all the confusion surrounding my father's death. For those first few months, he kept me safe and dealt with a number of the problems Dad had left me. I slept with him because I needed someone to comfort me. I think he loved me, but I've never been too sure. But he was married, and the affair couldn't last, so he ended it. Yet we've stayed good friends ever since, and I owe him so much."

"Who was the second one, then?"

"The second had always been around, and when my first lover had to end things with me, he took care of me, and ultimately we became lovers." Again she paused, as though she feared I'd turf her off my lap in anger.

When I didn't, she continued, her voice broken and hesitant. "I was his companion and lover for several years. When I was away at university, I would fly back to be with him for the vacations. He paid my bills and rented an apartment for me, so I didn't have to stay in the dorms. I was still living with him when I met you, but by then, it was more for convenience than anything else. I'd known for a long time I didn't love him. Being with him was more of a comfort thing for both of us; I guess you could say we were friends with the occasional benefit."

Again she paused to gauge my reaction; sensing nothing, she continued. "I called him the day after I met you and told him it was over. He didn't make a fuss; he told me he'd sensed I was ready to move on and gave me his blessing. When I flew back, the first thing I did was move into a new apartment. I promise you I've never slept with another man since I met you."

"Why are you telling me about them now? They were in your past and are irrelevant to our future. You've never worried about meeting any of my old girlfriends, so why would I care about yours?"

"Because you didn't have the same kind of relationship I had with them. Now there's a good chance you'll meet one or both of them over the next few days. I don't want you to be blindsided by them."

I'd been looking at the top of her head as she'd been speaking; now she raised it, and I could see the tears in her eyes. "Neither of them has done anything to hurt me, but unfortunately, they are both the type of people who will take great pleasure in ensuring you know about my relationship with them."