A Memory of You
"7.30 PM, at the Mod-Sin restaurant in Esplanade Mall, am I right?" Michelle asked.
"Yup! See you later!" I replied.
"See you soon!" she replied back.
A moment before I put off the call, she whispered, "Don't be late! Please bring what will be needed!"
"For sure!"
As soon as I put off the call. An e-mail came with a nightmare.
"Hi Mike, I'll need you to present your latest product line to the CEO. Presentation will be tomorrow at 9 AM. I know it's kind of sudden, but I was also just informed by CEO about this sudden meeting. Kindly discuss with me the presentation material later at 6.30 PM. Best Regards, Nancy, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)"
Oh yeah! Great!
I thought to myself.
As I finished reading the e-mail, my head started to hurt very badly. I looked at the right bottom corner of my computer screen. It was now 5.30 PM. I only had 1 hour to come up with a set of slides for the CEO. Out of a sudden, my hands moved at the speed of light, clicking the mouse buttons to open e-mails and files containing the specifications of the latest products developed by my team. My surroundings started to move in slow motion. It was funny how time could dilate during a moment of crisis. Without realizing it, it was 6.25 PM now and I had luckily managed to make 20 beautiful slides. It was a miracle of some sort. As I finished the final touch-up, my eyes intermittently stared at the conclusion slide and the time. Finally, at 6.28 PM, I clicked the "Send" button of my e-mail in Outlook.
I took a sip of water, then I grabbed a pen and my notebook. Then, I walked quickly to the CTO office. Her office was just 30 meters away in the other section of the office, but this time, it felt as if it was several-hundred meters away. Along the corridor, as I walked quickly, my mind spun with what the CTO would ask me and what I needed to do to reach Esplanade Mall by 7.30 PM.
"This is a disaster!" I thought to myself.
There was the CTO office. The door was open. I entered slowly.
"Excuse me, Nancy!"
"Hi Mike, come in!"
I sat on the chair opposite her. She adjusted her monitor to show my slides. As we went through the slides one by one, in my head, I deeply wished that she would approve them. Any request for modification would certainly ruin my plan tonight. About 15 minutes passed and with some occasional brief questions and explanations, we arrived at the conclusion slide. This was certainly the most important slide. It was the one which would tell the CEO how the state of product development in my team was like. As she read through the conclusions line by line, my heart beat very fast. My hands started to tremble a little. I swore that I could see her lips move in slow motion as she started to speak.
"Everything's in good order! Please meet me in my office tomorrow morning at 8.50 AM and we shall go to CEO office together! Thanks, Mike!"
"Thanks, Nancy!"
I left her office with huge relief and after a few steps of slow walking, I ran back to my desk. I grabbed my bag and immediately went to my car. As my car left my company, I started to think hard about how to reach my destination the fastest way and whether there was some traffic jam along the way. When one was in a hurry, even Google map could easily be forgotten. I tried to remember any convenience shop along the way and recalled that there was one in Esplanade Mall. My car moved at the maximum allowed speed possible. I looked at the clock. It was 7.28 PM and I could see the artistic architecture of Esplanade about 500 m away. I drove to the lobby and got a valet service to part my Honda Vezel. I hated to get a valet service, but I had no choice. Not even one second could be wasted. I quickly walked to the convenience shop. I grabbed a pack of Durex Invisible and a packet of mint candies. I didn't even bother to retrieve the change at the cashier. I walked fast and finally arrived at the restaurant entrance. I looked at my iPhone. It was 7.46 PM.
"Damn it!" I said to myself.
"Do you have any reservation, sir?" the waiter in suit asked me politely.
"Yes, under the name Mike Lee!"
"Alright! Follow me please!"
I was escorted to a corner table. Michelle should have arrived because one of the two napkins was no longer in the original folded form. I sat down and a waitress gave me a warm towel. I was wiping my face and hands when I felt a gentle tap on my left shoulder.
"You haven't changed, Mr. Lee!" Michelle said with playful voice.
"I... Urghhh... I was held back at the office!"
"Oh, right! You seem to have bad karma with time! I recall now!" she smiled.
"I... I guess so!"
A waitress came and gave us the menus. We ordered some of the Mod-Sin dishes recommended by the waitress. I chose this restaurant as I wanted Michelle to taste something different, not the usual European or Asian dishes. In the lion city where I lived, the Mod-Sin or modern Singaporean style of cooking had recently become the new hit.
"So... How have you been? It's been over 12 years, I suppose?" she asked.
"Yes! 12 years and 3 months to be precise. How old are your kids?" I asked her.
"Yes, one is 5 years old and other one is 2 years old! How old is yours?"
"3 years old"
I and Michelle used to be a couple several years ago. She studied in Singapore for her MBA and after she left for a job in London, we slowly grew apart and eventually called it quit.
"What brought you here?" I asked her.
"Work, of course! I just attended a few meetings with our clients in Melbourne. Most flights transit in Singapore, so I just decided that I would stay here for 2 nights."
"You miss this place?"
"Isn't that an obvious question?" she replied with her sweet smile which reminded me of the golden old time.
Our food came and soon, we had the dinner while continuing the conversation.
"Actually..." she started to say something while biting the satay from the skewer. "I remember how amazing this place and its food were! And besides... there is someone here whom I wanna meet!"
As she finished her sentence, her cheeks started to move again chewing the satay. Her red lips were still sexy as they used to be. I still could remember how it felt to kiss those beautiful lips even after 12 years. Our conversation turned to our careers, our families and of course, our past relationship. She was now married to an British guy a few years older than her while I was married to a local Singaporean Chinese girl whom I met at work. As the night slowly passed, what felt like a few minutes turned out to be 2 hours. I settled the bill and we both left the restaurant. We didn't say a word, but we both knew that we would next go to her room in the nearby Marina Bay Sands hotel. It took us just 5 minutes by car. After getting another valet service to park my car, we went to the lift at the hotel hobby.
"After you...," I told her when the door of one lift opened.
"You haven't changed at all! Still polite as always!"
I felt very nostalgic when hearing these words. They made me wonder why we broke up last time. In a few steps, we arrived at her room. She opened the door slowly and held it open to allow me to enter.
"Come in!"
The big window was in the direction of the financial district of Singapore, one of the biggest in Asia and probably the world.
"Wow! Just... wow!" I said while looking out into the night view of the city state. "This must be the best place in the country!"
"No!" she interrupted. "Definitely not! That place is...."
"That place?" I repeated. Slowly, as I looked into her eyes, I knew that she referred to. It was my rented studio in Commonwealth, somehow an ordinary neighbourhood. It was in that apartment where we made love for the first time. Yes, we did not only have sex, we made love. Tonight, the sexual tension was in the air. There were only two of us in this hotel room. I could sense that she was horny. We faced each other. I put my palms on her cheeks.
"I'm not young anymore!" she said.
She was 37 years old now, 2 years younger than me. I could see some wrinkles on some parts of her face.
"Still gorgeous... As always!" I told her.
"My flight is on Saturday...," she said. "We don't have much time!"
Our lips met. Our tongues explored each other's mouth. Like last time, she was a good kisser. Slowly, but surely, our clothes started to fall down onto the floor, one piece by one piece. After the last pieces of clothes left our bodies, we just stood there for a while, naked, looking at each other. She was still beautiful, but age clearly had caught up with her. Her B-cup boobs were a little saggy while her tummy was not as flat as it used to be. I myself started to have beer belly, though not that bad as I tried to exercise weekly. After what seemed like one or two minutes, we hugged, embracing each other. No, each of us didn't embrace another person. We embraced parts of ourselves. Since making love in that rented studio 12 years ago, we had become parts of each other. We kissed deeply. Then, our foreheads met, our noses touched each other.
"We shouldn't do this...," she said, while looking at her left hand. A beautiful diamond ring shone as if warning me that this woman had already been reserved. Another ring came to our views. It was on my ring finger. It was a simple gold ring, my wedding ring.
"Maybe, we should stop...," I told her. To my surprise, she giggled a bit.
"You're still the same old Mike... Non-pushy, understanding...," she said. "That's why I always like you."
