I awoke at 6:30 am as the light started to filter into my room. I laid in bed and got caught up on the emails from the states and texted back and forth with my wife. About 7, I got up to take a shower and get cleaned up. I put on shorts and a t shirt with a ball cap and headed downstairs to get some coffee. I really don't eat breakfast, but I do need at least four cups of coffee in the morning.
As I checked into the restaurant, I informed them I would like a pot of coffee brought to the outside bar area. I liked to smoke and drink coffee as I retreated to my favorite table that overlooked their Koi Pond. About five minutes later a very attractive waitress brought me my coffee. She was in her yellow uniform, consisting of a short skirt and tight top with hose and medium high heels. She was very attractive and after she poured my first cup I asked her name. "Lilly" she said with a shy smile.
I smiled back and wished her a good morning and she in turn asked my name. When I told her Bob, she said "Good Morning Mr. Bob, would there be anything else you need?"
I informed her that I could use a bottle of Perrier as I was feeling the effects of the dehydration from such a long journey. She smiled and said "Right away sir", which translated means I would get it about the time I was ready to leave.
As I waited for Lilly to return with my water, I took out my phone to follow-up on the hundreds of WeChat messages I received during my trip. There was always a container to book, a vendor to scold for missing a deadline or an invoice to approve.
I had a system where I could get through a lot of the simple tasks by just forwarding the issue to someone that worked for me. On my third cup of coffee and my 10th cigarette Lilly showed up with my bottled water. There was something different about her from just a few minutes before when she was there and as I was staring at her trying to figure out the difference, she caught me looking and blushed.
"Lilly, did you put on eye makeup since you were just here?" I inquired after I figured out what had changed.
"Mr. Bob, yes sir. I'm sorry sir. I was running late this morning and didn't have time for my makeup. I'm so sorry sir. Please don't tell my manager, sir," She was speaking so fast I could hardly make it all out.
"Lilly, don't worry about me. Your eyes are beautiful with or without makeup"
She blushed even deeper and said almost in a whisper
"Thank you sir, Jasmine told me that you were a very nice guy."
She turned to leave and I caught her attention and asked her "What else did Jasmine tell you, Lilly?"
"Oh Mr. Bob, nothing. We girls talk to see who the good customers are and are the bad ones. You know" she whispered conspiratorially "The ones with hands that..." she said as she put her hand on her very pert bottom and wiggled it while she smiled.
We both laughed for a second and she emptied my ashtray and turned to walk away and asked with a glimmer in her eye over her shoulder, allowing me a good view of her very nice small bottom, "Is there anything else you need Mr. Bob?"
I smiled and told her that yes, she could bring my tab and I would be on my way. She frowned a little and said "Right away Mr. Bob".
As she was gone to collect my tab, I went through all the contact requests on WeChat. Normally I don't bother with them as they are mostly bait and switch whores that aren't worth the time of day. But this time when going through them I had one that stuck out to me. Her profile picture was of a very cute Filipina in a business outfit and her query was "I do real estate in Makati, do you have any requests?" The odd thing the request came in at 2:00am, not really a time to be sending out messages for business, but who knows, maybe she is really is good at what she does.
Her name was Laza and I decided not to delete her request just yet. You never know when you might need to have a plan B, and I really needed to nail something down as far as long-term arrangements this weekend.
I checked my email one more time as it got close to 8am, knowing my Real Estate guy was supposed to be here any minute. I reminded myself that I was on Philippines time, and just relax and have the final cup of coffee in the pot and another smoke.
Lilly came by with my bill and another wiggle of her cute butt and about 8:15 I decided to go wait in the lobby for my real estate guy to show up. There are a thousand reasons why a person is late in Manila, but traffic is the main source for tardiness. The traffic is horrible, and when it's raining, forgetaboutit.
I was chatting with my main gal in Shanghai about the green tractor customer and about the necessity of getting their production started as soon as possible. Carrie was handling all the logistics of getting the raw material out of Indonesia and China, and paving the way for the start of production before we even had a singed deal with the Philippine factory who would actually produce the goods.
Carrie is as close to my right hand as you can get. Educated at Oxford, she is as smart as they come. Almost six feet tall and 104 pounds, she looks like Olive Oil. She has a very strange style and dresses in clothes that make her look even more curveless than she already is. The only thing she lacked was an ability to think outside the box. Within that box she was the best in the business, but get her to try to think independently and she was hopelessly lost. Sadly, a trait many Chinese have.