The Escort

Chapter Nine

ROBERT OFFERS ME a seat before he gets seated. The drive has taken us almost two hours, but I’m slightly relieved that the silence is not uncomfortable. He seems to be lost in his own bubble as well, and I wonder what he has been thinking while driving us to Phat Pho.

            The waiter has already started serving us food when we haven’t ordered anything yet. I guess my mom has already ordered for us, anticipating that we will arrive late. Ma must be a clairvoyant.

            The smell of Vietnamese cuisine makes my stomach grumble and I can hear Robert chuckling at the sound. My cheeks redden. He must think I’m unladylike to have a loud empty stomach. My favourite dish from the restaurant is Com Chen, and the smell of shrimps and stirred fried rice makes my mouth water. Ma knows me too well when it comes to food. I look at Robert’s plate and he has Thit Heo Nuong Xa. It’s a Vietnamese dish of a large lemongrass pork chop that is served on pandan rice with a mouthwatering fried egg, and vegetables. Both our dishes smell tasty, and our smiles tell us we both should dig in before they will get cold.

            “You mother is an excellent picker of food and restaurant,” he comments while he gulps his lemon water.

            “I couldn’t disagree on you with that,” I reply with a small smile etching on my lips. Another round of dishes are being served which makes us both raise our brows. Exactly how many dishes have ma ordered?

            Throughout the entire sets of meals, silence encompasses us. I have nothing nice to say to Robert, and neither does he, but somehow, I feel comfortable with that. Sometimes I’m too tired to do small talk—or deep talk—perhaps. Robert gobbles his food quietly but with such poise and finesse, as if his parents also enrolled him at a school for meal etiquettes. He looks gracious and fluid with his movements which binds me into his spell.

            When we finish eating, we both let out burps and chuckles. Robert isn’t so bad at all, and maybe, just maybe I’m fine with marrying. Still, I don’t know him that much. The only details I know about him are through Google searches. He hasn’t spoken any deeply personal experiences to me. But I don’t want to be overwhelmed with all information about him, though.

            “Do you want to go somewhere after this?” he asks, a hopeful look encompassing his features. I can’t say no when he looks like that, and it slightly melts my heart with his facial expression.

            “Sure,” I answer, nonchalantly. His eyes ask permission to hold my hand and I nod wordlessly. Unlike John’s hand, his hands are soft, as if he has never done any rough work throughout his life. It just shows how pampered he is in life, and so do I. Why do I feel guilty thinking about it? That I’m born into this life? I shake the thought away before it matures.

            We walk at a slow pace to the parking lot. He revs the engine to life. My phone vibrates, and it’s ma who is texting me. She asks me if I’m enjoying the date so far, but I do not reply, as I have no answer to that. So far, Robert is enjoyable to be around, but I’m not going to get ahead with my thoughts on who he is.

            The drive is short and after fifteen minutes, we arrive at Luneta Park. “Why’d you take me here?” I ask him.

            He leads me to an empty concrete ground and pats it to sit beside him. “This is where I usually think my thoughts for the day, self-reflecting what I can do better for tomorrow. I guess I want to do it with you, this time. It gets lonely sometimes.”

            “Oh.” His body is warm when I sit beside him. “Why?”

            “I guess I want to verbalise my thoughts. Or perhaps get to know you in general. Honestly, who knows?”

            “We barely know each other,” I deadpan. I hear him chuckle like I’ve said something hilarious.

            “Does it matter if we know each other or not? Sometimes, we’re most vulnerable to people we barely know.” He sounds like a philosopher when he says that. This time, I let out a small laugh from my throat.

            “What do you want to say, then?”

            He guffaws, as he doubles over his stomach. I raise a brow, wondering what is even funny, but I let him continue, the sound of his laugh like music to my ears. His baritone is gorgeous, like the sound of ground unearthed on a rainy day. I don’t know if I even make sense anymore.

            “What?” He has been laughing for a full five minutes.

            “It’s just… Is this how you talk to someone?” he asks, crinkles marring his eyes.

            “I don’t know,” I shrug. “I don’t talk to a lot of people. Janet, my younger sister, usually.”

            “Oh, I remember her. She’s the one who arranged your birthday party.” I cringe when he mentions that. I have buried those memories in the deepest depths of my mind, because I don’t want to remind myself how utterly horrible the experience was. I cried on that birthday, and I barely even cry at all. Only ma and pa can inflict that grave pain on me.

            “I hope I haven’t said something wrong,” he adds, in a worried tone.

            “Oh, no. Don’t worry, you haven’t struck a cord at all.” But tears are almost falling from my eyes. God, I’m such a mess.

            “I’m sorry that you cried on your birthday. I saw you with your boyfriend, and I saw you cry and he hugged you. You have a good boyfriend, Matilda. I’m just glad you found your forever person.”

            That makes me choke on my breath. He doesn’t know John is paid to be my boyfriend, to be my escort. I hope he doesn’t see through my expressions. “I guess I’m happy I found him.” It isn’t exactly a lie. I’m really relieved Janet has pushed me to pick John. He has saved me from my birthday, and I really enjoyed his company.

            “What about you Robert? Have you ever been in love?” I remember asking John this question which may have struck a cord on him. I wonder why he seems so guarded with that question. I wonder if someone has broken his heart in the most terrible way.

            “Yes,” he admits without hesitation, but he has a deep look on his face, like his mind is miles away. “We met in college. We had a pretty great and healthy relationship. We even planned to marry after we graduate.” He stops, his voice slightly in pain.

            “You can stop if you don’t want to share.” I place my hand on top of his to reassure him.

            “Are you worried about me?” he jests, wagging his brows.

            “You sounded like you were about to cry.” I let out a huff.

            “Cheer up princess, I was just messing with you. I’ve moved on from it completely, but the pain is slightly still there.”

            “What exactly happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

            “She was in an arranged marriage. I asked her to elope with me, but I guess she didn’t want to disobey her parents or else, she’ll get disowned. I loved her so much, and I would do everything to make her happy. I guess she didn’t love me the same way I did for her.”

            “Breakups suck.” He lets out a light laugh.

            “True. Do you love John?”

            “I don’t know. We recently met and we just started dating. I don’t know how long should we be together to consider it as me falling in love with him.”

            “My advice is that you should follow your heart. Sometimes, the mind cannot comprehend the depths of our emotions. If you think you love him, then you do love him.”

            I smile at him. “You sound like a love guru just right now.”

            “Careful there, Ms Lim. I’m quite the heartbreaker.”

            “The heartbroken heartbreaker.”

            “Seems like a nice ring to it. Maybe I should use that as my brand from now on.”

            The night sky growls. We both look at each other for a brief moment. “We should probably get going before the sky cries,” I tell him.

            “You have such a nice way with words, Ms Lim.”

            “You make me sound like I’m a poet. I guess your situation made me a bit poetic.”

            “A poetic tragedy.” His eyes look melancholic but it disappears in a split second. “Let’s go home Matilda. I also have work early in the morning.”

            “CEO duties.” We both chuckle as the first raindrop hits us.