My Chinese Pen-pal
Opening the dirty white front door to my house, I stepped through it quickly. The cold winter air threatening to force its way in behind me. While taking off my gloves and beanie, I was greeted by the familiar smell of Chinese cooking. I walked through the dimly lit corridor, through the dark living room and stood in the doorway to the bright kitchen. Flora, was furiously chopping vegetables. In one practiced movement, she lifted the cutting board and scrapped it all into the pot of boiling water. "That smells nice" I said, breathing deeply to let the smell saturate my very being.
Flora looked up, her comically huge round glasses, placed at the tip of her thin nose. Her face twisted as she squinted looking over her glasses. With a dainty finger she pushed their bridge up into place. Her thick lenses magnifying her brown eye. "Hi Tom" she said, in her usual high pitch and overly friendly voice. She smiled as she said, "Thank you". I asked her about her day, and we talk for a short while before I made my excuse to leave to go to my room. She called out after me, "Tom" she paused, waiting for me to turn around. "My girlfriend arrives tonight. She will be here all week; I hope you don't mind."
I smiled cheekily, "I wouldn't mind so much if I had a plate of your cooking." I continued, "But thank you for letting me know. She's incredibly lucky to come home to such a good meal." She blushed and gracefully thanked me. I continued to my room. Flora, my house mate, is from China, her given name is Mei, I think she said it meant something like beautiful flower. I joked at the time that it was a very appropriate name and she had turned a shade of scarlet that I had never seen before and she ran off to her room probably embarrassed. She was very pretty; her short black hair framed her porcelain face perfectly. Whenever I saw her inside the house, she always wore an oversized thin silk dressing gown, with beautiful red roses on its black material. Her pale skin and small frame contrasting with the gown, giving her a certain elegance as she wondered gracefully around the kitchen.
Her girlfriend, also Chinese, was similar in body type, but not as attractive. She had big watery heavy-lidded eyes, that gave her the impression she was always very tired. Judging from what she told me of her life, she was probably right. Linda was a university student who worked part time. She rarely had a day off, and when she did, she drove down to our town to stay with Flora. Linda and Flora had been together for about 2 years. I could tell that they really enjoyed each other's company, bar the exceptional argument.
Unfortunately, our time living under the same house wouldn't last long. Due to viral circumstances Flora had to go back to China, and Linda had to stay in the country to complete her degree. Six Months passed and I hadn't heard a word from her. When one morning I received a letter from her. In the letter, she explains how her girlfriend and she had split up as their distance was too great and it was hard to keep in contact. However, she's done something stupid and her very traditional parents now suspect her of being a lesbian. She countered their argument with doing something even worse and showed them a picture of her and I that we'd taken. She's got the next plane out of china to come see me. She'll only be in the country for a month because she couldn't get a proper visa.
I finish reading the letter, this must be some sort of joke. I scrunched up the paper and threw it into the wastepaper basket. Why on earth would she send a letter? Wouldn't an email have been faster? Before I could process what had happened, there was a knock at the door. In no particular hurry, I went to open the door. To my surprise, I found a windswept Flora, her eyes red, indicating she'd been crying a lot. Confused and a bit embarrassed for her, I help her inside and grab her luggage. Seeing as she doesn't live here anymore, I show her up to my room. I notice that she didn't really speak much, other than repeatedly apologising and thanking me. I did my best to help her calm down and she does her best to explain the situation again. Linda isn't responding to her texts and calls, so she doesn't knows where Linda lives.
That night, I asked her to sleep in my bed while I slept on the couch downstairs. My room was quite small, and only had a single person bed. She protested saying that she would sleep on the couch, but I was firm about it. I definitely drew the short straw. I had difficulty falling asleep because it was so cold. After waking up for the nth time I saw that Flora was opening the door to the living room and sneaking through to the kitchen. The soft clatter of glass, the gurgle of pouring water and a soft sigh told me what I needed to know. It was probably boiling in my room and the heat was making her thirsty.
I rolled over and pulled the short quilt over my head to try hide the light. My feet instantly began to feel cold through my thick socks. Then, I felt a hand on the quilt covering my shoulders. I lowered the quilt just past my nose looking up at Flora's hidden face. The rim of her glasses reflecting the little light there was in the room. "Please Tom, come up stairs, I don't mind sharing the bed. You are going to get a cold like this."
Not wanting this horribly broken sleep to continue, I gave a curt nod and got up. I followed her up the steep staircase. Her ass a foot in front of me, level with my eyes. I knew she had hit the gym a lot when she was living here, but had it gotten bigger? I shook the thoughts out of my head. A sliver of light seeped through the gaps in my door. As she opened it, I felt the heat in the room. I moved to turn the heating down just a bit as she made her way to my bed. I turned round to see her taking off her red silk night gown. Underneath she was wearing a red silk chemise. The thin material pressing lightly against her thin body. I could see her stiffening nipples etch their shape into the material. The silk barely framed the shallow curves of her breasts. As she laid in bed, she took the side closest to the wall.