Where are the Inhalers?
1461 Words
The next morning I found myself curled around Mr Xi again, much like the first time I woke up next to him. My hips were stinging. The ointment he had applied later in night seemed to have worked because the swelling had gone down. Everything was quiet and I could feel my head moving up and down on his chest as he breathed in and out. What is it that I liked about this man? I met him ten days ago. We had spent just two nights together and talked almost negligible. Yet lying there on his chest half-asleep in the wee hours of morning, I felt so peaceful. What was it that I liked about this man?
His fingers snaked in my hair, messaging my scalp softly, his eyes were still closed and his breathing as even as if he was asleep.
"Sleep a little more, Sera." He said, caressing my shoulders with his other hand.
"It is going to be a long day for you." His voice was hoarse with sleep.
I gulped when hearing it. I remember wondering what he meant by a long day? All kinds of scenarios popped into my head. Long day, as in, was he going to punish me by making me run? Or stand out in the sun? Or were we going to tumble around in bed the whole day? Or were we going to go to some place which would take a lot of time?
All my guesses were for naught as Mr Xi took me back to my house after we freshened up and had breakfast. Coming out of his Villa, I had a deja-vu moment, sporting a punch bruise on my face and trying to hide the bite marks on my neck and collar bones under Mr Xi's extra large white shirt. The guards and the maids were eyeing me like the last time. They must think I am always roughed up inside Mr Xi's room. Which wasn't totally wrong. It was embarrassing to think of what all those people might be thinking. I even observed a few pitiful glances in my direction.
Walking to the door of my apartment, I felt confused. Was Mr Xi walking me to the door? Or was he going to come inside my house? What was these people's obsession with walking people to their door? Baldie did the same last time. And what about having a long day?
When I punched in the passcode and opened my door, I turned to Mr Xi. Wondering what to do next. There was an awkward moment for a few seconds as he kept looking at me with a poker face. I could not withstand the awkwardness and hastily got inside my house.
"Thank you for dropping me, Mr Xi" and closed the door behind me.
I had just released a breath of relief when I heard the door bell ring. Looking through the peep-hole, I saw Mr Xi's annoyed face. It was then I realized he had meant to come inside and I had messed up.
When opening the door, my hands were shaking a bit. I stepped aside to let him in. I had never been this awkward with anyone in my entire life. I did not even know where to place my hands or legs. I felt like an outsider in my own house.
"Where is Justin's room?" He asked.
"Oh! The bedroom is this way." I told him, walking towards the bedroom to show him the way.
"So you slept together." He said as if as an afterthought.
"You need to go through all his stuff and find all the drugs, medicine, inhaler, pain relief spray and that sort of thing." He interjected before I could even answer and turned towards the living area. He went on to sit on the couch cross-legged with his hands in his pockets.
It felt like the right moment to answer the "sleeping together" question had passed, so I left it at that. There were two beds in the bedroom, it was obvious what Austin and my arrangements as a 'couple' were like.
"I have already put all his stuff in a garbage bag. There was a medicine box, I can take that out." I went to rummage through Austin's stuff to get the small medicine box he had, but I was wondering why Mr Xi needed it. He had told me that Austin had messed up with some information on a tender by double-crossing his people. Then what was this about?
I bought out the medicine box and placed it on the coffee table in front of Mr Xi. He opened it and went through the medicine inside, then pushed the box away, as if annoyed.
"This is not it. There must be something else too." He said, as if wanting me to check all of Austin's stuff again.
"But I have gone through everything. There are just clothes and a few books and his toiletries and shoes and watches, things like that." I told Mr Xi.
"Sera, do you realize that I am asking you to look for it when I can have my men to come and rummage your place?"
"See, I don't want to do that. So you better look for what I am asking you to look for." His voice was full of threats and I felt very dejected.
It was not like I wanted to hide any of Austin's things from him. What use was it for me anyway? As ridiculous as it sounds, I wanted him to trust my words. When I was saying I couldn't find anything, I wanted him to believe it completely. When I was thinking over why I was wanting what I was wanting, a sudden flash of visuals of the inhalers I had found in the drawers of the television cabinet resurfaced in my mind.
"Oh right! I found a pair of inhalers the other day." I told him as I went on to look for them in the drawers.
It was not in there. I looked for it around the living area. Then, in the bedroom, the bedside drawers, Austin's cupboard. I even checked my cupboard and the drawers in the kitchen. I remembered clearly, I had found a pair of inhalers that evening before I and Katy went for the beer and chicken. But no matter how much I looked around for them, I could not find them.
"Alright, stop going in circles, sit down and tell me what it was like?"
"They were like normal inhalers, the kind asthmatic people take." I replied in frustration.
"You found them before your friend Katy turned up?"
"Yes." I replied, but realized what it implied after a beat.
"No, Katy has no reason to take them with her." I said defensively.
"Yeah, right" he replied cynically.
"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to instigate my friend?" I did not realized my voice had got a notch higher.
"You are in no position to be protecting anyone, Sera. His voice had turned cold.
"I don't need to instigate anyone, I'll find what I need to." He said nonchalantly, making me worried about Katy.
"What is this about?" I asked him after moments of pensive silence.
"Your dear husband was involved in a lot of bad things, it seems. He was also dealing with these really dangerous kinds of substance abuse." He answered, looking quite pleased with the fact.
"What!" It was unbelievable. Austin was so sorted, so regular. I could not understand what was what at that point.
"And now, I have a hunch that your dear friend Katy is also involved in it."
"No way, don't say nonsense, Mr Xi. You don't know anything about these people." I was triggered. I felt a sense of fear and a strong surge of denial at the same time. How could Katy be into anything like that?
"I know these people way more than you will ever know."
"You know, you are like an ostrich, putting its head in the sand to hide itself."
"Anyways, enough of this. Now get on the table and strip."
I wanted to yell obscenities at him. He was sitting cross-legged, one hand on the handrest, the other tapping on his knee. As if waiting for a show to begin. I was worried and anxious after hearing what all he had just said and now he wanted me to get on the table and give him a strip-tease or something.
"You don't want to?" He asked, watching me stand there glued to the floor, glaring at him.
"That is some bad attitude you are showing me, Sera. Do you want to be punished?" He said so sweetly that it was scary.
- Writer
