White Tiger

with a stereotype, why don’t you?’ ‘Come on, Leo, I need you.’
    ‘Damn straight you do.’ He uncrossed his arms and pulled himself sideways on the sofa to speak to me. ‘It’s a wonder you haven’t been listed in “Hong Kong’s worst dressed”. You’re as bad as Mr Chen for wearing clothes that are way past their use-by date.’
    ‘He’s always impeccably dressed when he goes out; he’s only scruffy at home.’
    Leo grinned.
    ‘You don’t!’
    His grin widened.
    I collapsed over my knees, laughing.
    ‘Actually it was Michelle who did the buying to start off with,’ he said. ‘The job sorta fell onto me afterwards. I don’t think he even looks at what’s in his closet; he just grabs whatever’s hanging up, as long as it’s black.’
    His smile softened as he remembered. ‘I don’t even know if he was human to start off with, but it took him a lot of adjusting.’ He put his hands behind his head. ‘You should have seen some of the expressions on his face. Michelle thought it was charming.’
    I laughed. I thought it was charming too. ‘I wish I’d seen some of them.’
    Leo shrugged.
    ‘So?’ I said.
    ‘Okay. Looks like I’ll have two wardrobes to manage now.’
    ‘You did throw those black shirts away.’
    ‘Nope.’ He gestured towards his own room, darkly masculine in its decoration. ‘They’re in my closet, and he’ll get them back when he’s worn the white ones for a while.’
    ‘The minute you give them back, he’ll wear them again, you know that.’ Leo sighed. ‘Yep.’
    I rose to go out. ‘When are you free to take me shopping?’
    ‘I’ll clear it with Mr Chen.’
    I opened the door. ‘Thanks, Leo.’
    He raised his hands. ‘I have to warn you, we won’t be buying anything black.’
    We arranged to go shopping the next morning, and Mr Chen took Simone out so we could do it. I went to Leo’s room and poked my head around his doorway. ‘Ready to go?’
    He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me, then pointed at my jeans and shirt. ‘You going like that?’
    He ducked into his bedroom and came out with a shopping bag.
    I waved my hands. ‘No. No way.’
    He pushed the bag at me. ‘If you want to be taken seriously where we’re going, you wear this. Otherwise you’ll be ignored so bad you’ll think Jade is a perfect sweetheart.’
    I snatched the bag out of his hand and checked the contents. I nearly dropped it. ‘Shit, Leo, you even bought freaking underwear for me!’
    ‘Of course I did. I have a pretty good idea what’s under there, and if the shopgirls see it they’ll be laughing so hard you won’t be able to buy anything.’ He hustled me to the door. ‘Go and change. Make sure you carry that nice designer handbag you picked up in Paris.’
    ‘You mean the handbag you forced me to buy.’ ‘Yeah, that one.’
    We met at the front door after I’d changed. ‘Go on, admit it,’ he said.
    ‘It looks okay.’ Actually, it looked terrific, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. The tailored designer slacks and polo shirt fitted like no others I’d ever worn, and their muted shades of cream and tan suited me perfectly. ‘But you ever buy me underwear again and you are in serious trouble.’
    ‘You’ll be begging me to one day, sweetheart. I’ll bet you love that black lace.’
    I shoved him when we reached the shoe cupboard.
    He passed me a pair of designer loafers. ‘These too.’
    ‘I hate you,’ I whispered as I pulled them on. ‘Did you go through my wardrobe or something? How come you knew the right size for everything?’
    ‘I would never risk my sanity by entering the disaster area that you so casually refer to as a room,’ he said.
    ‘Whoa, big words,’ I said. ‘So how did you know my size?’
    His voice softened and he looked away. ‘You’re about the same size as Michelle.’
    ‘Do your best to be rude to me when we’re down there,’ he said in the car. ‘Treat me like staff.’
    ‘Not a problem, you ugly bastard.’
    He grinned at the road. ‘Not that rude.’
    ‘Damn.’
    ‘Emma.’ He became more serious. ‘I bought you the lingerie for a reason. Go out. Meet people. Don’t mooch about at home all the time. Get your friend to set you up. Find somebody to show it to.’
    I didn’t say anything.
    ‘Find somebody, Emma. Don’t for a minute think that you have any sort of chance.’ ‘I don’t. Friends. That’s all.’ ‘Good.’
    We went to Central, where all of the most famous