This is how we met
- A popular architect
It was a Saturday night in the quiet part of Hong Kong. Crickets were chirruping idly in the trees, and in the distance, I could see a small child playing with abandoned armaments. There was a slight chill in the air, but the sky was clear and crisp, and the evening was mercifully dry.
"You know what we should do?" I said to Michael.
Michael took a long draw on his cigarette, dropped it and ground the butt under the heel of his boot.
"Why don't we go out?" he replied. "We'll go to the usual places, looking for a boyfriend for me, but you can come along for company. Later on, I'll pick on someone gorgeous, fixate on them, and not be hugely surprised when I go home alone. You, meanwhile, can basically pick and choose despite your awful chat-up lines and your bulging beer belly."
"Hey," I said. "That beer belly is nothing compared to what it's going to be like in a couple of years."
He pointed out how true that statement was and sniggered ironically.
Later, we stood in a dark corner in a crowded bar, making mock of everyone we could see. We mocked plaid-shirt-guy, we mocked grandfather-and-grandson-couple, we even briefly mocked South-American-barman, mainly because we knew he trimmed his chest hair. It was a fairly typical Saturday night.
And then, across the room, I saw the man who was to change my life.
[To be continued, 22 Jan 2005]
23 January, 2004
