White Tiger

said.
    Simone put her hand on Leo’s shoulder and whispered urgently into his ear. He listened carefully, then moved her so that she sat facing the table and wrapped his huge arms around her.
    ‘We’re okay,’ Simone said, eyes wide.
    Three teenage boys walked past our table. They seemed perfectly ordinary, wearing baggy denim jeans and black T-shirts. Simone and Leo didn’t shift their eyes from them as they went between our table and the next one.
    One of the boys leered at Simone, and Leo held her tighter and whispered something in her ear. She nodded, her eyes still wide. The boys went out of the restaurant. Leo and Simone visibly relaxed.
    ‘Are you guys okay?’ I said.
    ‘What was all that about?’ Louise said.
    ‘Where the hell are the trolleys?’ Leo said. ‘What sort of yum cha is this without any food?’
    ‘Here’s one,’ April said. The waitress stopped the trolley next to our table. April read the signs on the front. ‘Har gow, siu mai, cha siu bow, sticky rice, tripes.’ She smiled around the table. ‘Who wants?’
    ‘Cha siu bow, please, Emma!’ Simone said, and climbed off Leo’s lap and sat in her own chair. ‘Siu mai too. I’m hungry !’
    ‘Okay now?’ Leo said.
    ‘Yes.’ Simone grinned broadly.
    ‘Sticky rice,’ Leo said.
    ‘So you and Andy have your own place now?’ Louise asked April after the steamers had been set on the table.
    ‘Yes. Andy spends most of his time in China for his work, so I see him once every six weeks or so.’
    Louise stared at her. ‘You only see your husband once every six weeks?’
    April nodded through the dim sum. ‘We’ve decided to go and live in Australia. He wants to get Australian citizenship. I’ll go first, do the papers, find us a place to live. He’ll come later.’
    ‘You’re leaving Hong Kong?’ I said. ‘When?’
    ‘In about a month, I think,’ April said. ‘September, October.’
    ‘I’ll miss you.’
    ‘I’ll be back all the time,’ she said. ‘To visit. And go shopping.’
    Another trolley rolled up beside us. Instead of the little bamboo steamers, it had four square pots with lids and ladles. ‘Who wants pig’s blood?’ April said. ‘Congee, mixed beef guts. Anybody?’
    Everybody shook their heads. April ordered some pig’s blood anyway: dark red jelly-like cubes in clear broth. She passed the card to the waitress who stamped it with a tiny circular stamp held on a string around her neck.
    April stirred the blood. ‘Emma, you have to go and see Aunty Kitty.’
    ‘Aunty who?’ Louise said. ‘Aunty Kitty.’ ‘Kitty Kwok?’ I said.
    ‘Yes. She wants to see you.’ ‘What for?’
    ‘Don’t go, Emma, she just wants to bully you into working there again,’ Louise said. ‘Business has really gone downhill at the kindergarten since you left.’
    ‘You have to go and see her,’ April said again.
    ‘No, I don’t.’
    ‘Call her then,’ April said. ‘She wants to talk to you.’
    I rose and went to the ladies’ room without saying another word. Louise followed me. As soon as we were out of earshot, she was onto me. ‘Quick, tell me all.’
    ‘About what? Kitty Kwok?’
    ‘No, silly,’ she hissed with a grin. ‘Your new job.’
    ‘Nothing much to tell,’ I said. ‘I work as a nanny, I look after Simone, end of story.’
    ‘What about her dad?’ she said. ‘What’s he like? Are he and Leo…’ She nodded back towards the dining room. ‘You know?’
    I smiled. ‘He’s absolutely gorgeous. A total gentleman. And him and Leo? No.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘I’m sure of it. Leo brings guys home all the time. Real man-about-town. Leo even told me himself: not Mr Chen.’
    ‘But what about Mr Chen? What’s he do ?’
    ‘I have no idea,’ I said. ‘I think he’s a spy. He teaches
    martial arts to kids, but he says that he works for the
    government.’
    Louise stared incredulously at me. I nodded, reinforcing the point.
    ‘Can you invite me up?’ she said as we went through the doors. ‘I’d love to check him out, Emma. Sounds unreal.’
    ‘You have no idea.’ I lowered my voice. ‘You know he only ever wears black? Everything. Sometimes he even wears a black shirt with his suits.’
    ‘You have to get me up there,’ Louise whispered. ‘I have to see. Please, Emma.’ ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
    She reached out and squeezed my arm. ‘ Please .’
    We walked out from City Hall and back along the waterfront.
    ‘Can we go to the shops in Central before we go home,