[YourExcellency]

Morning #2
The next morning, I was awaken by my daily morning call. The phone rang loudly and in my slumber, I answered the phone and realized it was an automated call. I glanced over beside me, onto the other side of the king sized bed, and saw Liz, a gorgeous woman with her hair in a strangely attractive mess. (You know the out of bed look?) I leaned over and gave her a kiss on her forehead, aware of my morning breath.

“Good morning, babe” I smiled at her.
“Good morning… what time is it?” she asked.
“Its 8am, honey… I have to get to work… why don’t you sleep in and call me when you wake up?” I couldn’t bear to make her wake up so early and risk her having dark eye circles.
“OK, have a good day at work, I'll call you later” she went back to sleep again.

I washed up and got dressed in my usual suit and headed downstairs to have a quite bite. Before I left the room, I gave Liz another light kiss on the forehead, not wanting to disturb her and yet wanting to catch that wonderful whiff of her.

I was busy the entire day, running from conference room to conference room, meetings back to back. By lunch, I had already finished 3 meetings and I was feeling hungry. At exactly 1230hrs, my phone rang.

Liz: “Hey honey, how was your day so far?”
Me: “Pretty good! You awake?”
Liz: “Yes, I’ve been awake since 1000hrs! I didn’t want to disturb you at work so I waited till now before I decided to call you! I’m back home now, and wondering if you had lunch? Are you hungry? Wanna grab some lunch together?”
Me: “Sure! How about lunch at IFC? There’s a Crystal Jade Xiao Long Bao place there that I go sometimes, it’s on the 2nd floor, just above the Airport Express Station”
Liz: “OK, see you there in 10 minutes?”

I took a short walk over to IFC and got a table after a 5 minute wait. It was a busy restaurant and they served simple fare. Lunch was rather uneventful, we chatted and had a quick lunch. Liz had an appointment in the evening so we decided we would not see each other anymore that day.

After lunch, as I was walking back to the office, I was consumed with questions in my mind. What was I doing with Liz? Was I really attracted to her or was I just lonely? And how was this relationship (if you could call it one) supposed to end? What did Liz expect from me? She was a smart woman, a little too smart, and she was definitely an experienced one too. Even though we had many opportunities to talk, we never did talk about things that were too personal, instead we had many other common topics like banking, investments, travels, hobbies and others to fill up our time. I didn’t know much about her and I was starting to get worried about where this was leading to.

That night I stayed in my room and chatted with my wife. She was juggling between work and taking care of my son and luckily my mother in law was around to help out while my son was home with the maid. I felt guilty for what I had done, I had cheated behind my wife’s back. She assured that everything was fine at the homefront and that I should just focus on resolving my work issues. I was grateful to have such a wonderful wife. We spoke on the phone for a good 2 hours as she filled me up with news at home and her work. I switched my phone to silent for the entire night and turned in early.

I was very busy the entire week and it simply just breezed past. I kept in touch with Liz via SMS as I was back to my schedule of working till 10pm nightly again. Before I knew it, it was already Friday afternoon when I next heard from Liz.

Liz: “Hey workaholic! How is your day so far?”
Me: “Pretty good but my head is just about to explode! I’ve had so many sit-down meetings that I cannot bear to sit down on my butt without needing to stand up every 10 minutes!”
Liz: “Do you wanna have dinner tonight? I feel like Yung Kee!”
Me: “Yeah sure! I’ve been having the urge for roast goose for almost a week now too! Shall I see you there at 8pm?”
Liz: “OK! I will make reservations!”

I finished my work for the day earlier than usual to pick up a bouquet of flowers for Liz, and chose a bunch of beautiful white tiger lilies. While we were having oysters and wine at Knutsford Terrace, she had told me she liked lilies and I wanted to give her a nice surprise. By 1945hrs, I was strolling casually towards Yung Kee, situated just beside Lan Kwai Fong. For brothers who have not been there, its one of the most famous roast goose restaurants in Hong Kong. They have a long history and it’s a must-go if you are in Hong Kong. I walked up to the waitress and asked if there was a reservation for 8pm for Liz Cheng, but there wasn’t. I could see the reservations book was all full. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Liz: “Hi! You’re early!”
Me: “Yeah I left a little earlier because I wanted to get you this”, I handed her the bouquet of flowers and gave her a peck on the cheek.
Liz: “Wow! My favorite flowers! Hmmm… you have a good memory!”

Liz, as usual was impeccably dressed. She had on a pastel pink top adorned with hand-sewn beading of a bird of paradise floral pattern teamed with a plain, tight white skirt. she changed her handbag this time, toting a white Birkin crocodile leather handbag. And she matched this perfectly with a pair of elegant 3 inch white heels. She looked hot hot hot!!! I was happy I had chosen the white lilies as they matched her outfit.

She walked up to the waitress and said the manager, Peter had already made reservations on her behalf. The waitress nodded and soon we were shown to our table. Surprisingly, this was not in the main restaurant itself, we had to go up an elevator, walk across a corridor and then up another elevator. When the elevator doors opened, I was surprised at the plush décor of the restaurant. Gone were the loud, noisy, bright colors of the old familiar Yung Kee that I knew. We had stepped into the fine dining section of Yung Kee, only accessible on Fridays if you had ‘connections’.

We had a good dinner, starting with their superb world famous century eggs, and then their succulent roast goose. As usual, the manager knew Liz, and came over to say hello to us.

Manager: “鄭小姐， 你好！歡迎光臨！今晚的野滿意嗎？"
Liz: “幾好啊！我專程帶我的朋友來吃你們的燒鵝， 這位系Leo, 陳生！”

I shook hands with the manager, and made some small talk. Soon, we were done with dinner, and I called for the bill. While walking out of the restaurant, Liz hooked her hand in mine, and I was aware that many people were looking at us. We got to the car jockey and when they aw us emerge from the restaurant, they asked “鄭小姐， 系唔系衣家拿車啊？”

Liz nodded and asked me if I could please drive again.

I got into the drivers seat again and as I pulled slowly away from Yung Kee, I asked Liz what she felt like doing. She held me hand in hers and said she didn’t mind doing anything as long as she was with me. We were like lovebirds again. I looked at the time and it was already close to 2000hrs. What could we do on a Friday night?

Me: “How about catching a movie?”
Liz: “Sure! What movie would you like to see?”
Me: “Hmmmm… honestly, I don’t know… I’m usually not much of a movie person, why don’t we just try our luck?”
Liz: “Let’s go baby!”

How could anybody not love her for her spontaneity? I love women like that – the get up and go kind, no dilly-dallying around, waiting for the cows to come home, worrying about the unnecessary.

I drove towards 圓方 (Element) at Kowloon station and soon we were in line for movie tickets. It was a thriller movie with excellent reviews and we were both fans of movies with intricate plots. She went to the washroom while I bought some pop corn and drinks. The movie was very good, very well thought of plot and we both enjoyed it immensely. We held hands during the entire movie and she leaned her head on my shoulder. It almost felt like we were in love.