White Tiger

The waitress poured us some Japanese green tea and gave us the lunch menu. Typically for Hong Kong restaurants, it had a set-price lunch menu for the office crowd. We all ordered the same thing. Then Louise pulled out her notebook and I felt a jolt of dismay.
    ‘Uh, Louise,’ I said as I raised my hand, ‘don’t bother about that. I haven’t had time. I’ve been flat out busy and haven’t even been collecting names. So you win by default. I’m paying.’
    ‘Humph.’ Louise put her notebook away. ‘I had some really good ones too. There’s a guy in a shop in Mong Kok called Circus Wong.’
    ‘So how’s life in Australia, April?’ I said. ‘Andy’s not joined you there yet?’
    ‘He’s always having emergencies at work, he can’t leave yet,’ April said. ‘Soon.’
    ‘It’s nearly three months since you went yourself, April,’ Louise said. ‘He should be making a move.’
    ‘When he’s back in Hong Kong we’ll talk about it,’ April said. ‘He said he’ll see me again before I go home to Australia.’
    Louise and I stared at her.
    The chef came out from the back of the restaurant. He bowed to us and we nodded back. He turned on the teppan and polished the plate completely clean with a wet cloth.
    ‘Did you just say that your husband isn’t in Hong Kong?’ Louise said.
    April watched the chef. ‘He had another emergency at work. We had a couple of days together, then he had to rush off to China.’ She brightened. ‘But he says he’ll definitely come to Australia to see me at Chinese New Year. Because I’m his family.’
    Louise and I shared a look.
    ‘Are you still working as nanny, Emma?’ April said. ‘Yep.’
    ‘What about your study?’ ‘Still doing that.’
    ‘What gym do you go to?’ Louise said. ‘Gym?’
    The chef put some prawns on the plate and expertly moved them around.
    ‘You’ve been working out,’ Louise said. ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight.’
    ‘I run around the Peak,’ I said. ‘That’s all.’
    ‘Not learning martial arts off your Mr Chen?’ Louise said.
    I didn’t reply.
    Louise grinned. ‘I want some good news soon, Emma.’
    ‘Never going to happen.’
    ‘How about you come along with me on Saturday night then and I introduce you to a couple of new guys at the bank? Both of them are really cute.’
    I hesitated, then, ‘Not Saturday. I’m busy.’
    ‘Don’t moon over him if he isn’t going to do anything about it, Emma.’
    ‘I have study to do.’
    The chef placed the cooked prawns on our plates. April picked up a piece and delicately dipped it into the garlic sauce. She popped it into her mouth. ‘Eat. This is good. Fresh.’
    Louise and I tried the prawns as the chef cooked some chicken fillets.
    ‘You have to go and see Aunty Kitty, Emma, she has something for you,’ April said.
    ‘Geez, April, I resigned from the kindergarten nearly a year ago,’ I said. ‘Why doesn’t she just give up?’
    ‘She says you have an award or something. Because you were such a good English teacher. She says you have to go to her house and collect it,’ April said. ‘Apparently it’s a prize or something. A holiday.’
    ‘You can have it, whatever it is.’
    ‘You mean it?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘You’re too generous, Emma,’ April said. ‘I’ll go and collect it for you.’
    ‘Okay, whatever,’ I said. ‘I don’t have time to take a holiday right now anyway.’
    The chef placed thinly sliced beef on the plate, then put long-stemmed enoki mushrooms in the centre and rolled the beef around them. It cooked very quickly.
    My mobile phone rang and I answered it. ‘Emma.’
    ‘Hello, Emma. It’s Jade. Can you talk?’
    ‘I can talk, but nothing special.’
    ‘Okay. I was just wondering—I have an appointment with the tailor tomorrow afternoon and thought you might like to come along and have some cheongsams made at the same time. We could have lunch, then go and choose some silk and have some dresses made for you.’
    ‘Sounds great. When? Where?’
    ‘Can you meet me at the Princes Building? Noon?’
    ‘Sure. But I need to clear it with Mr Chen first.’
    ‘Don’t worry, I just asked him, he said it’s okay. He said something about buying your own clothes for a change. What does that mean?’
    ‘Don’t worry about it. Is he there? Let me talk to him.’
    ‘No, he’s not here, I just talked to him. I need to run. See you tomorrow?’ ‘Sure. Bye, Jade.’
    I snapped the phone shut, then checked to see if it had