I'm taking the flight back from Tokyo to Hanoi on Wednesday night after three hectic days trying to close a deal with the Marubeni Corporation. Unfortunately, it needs more work and I'll be back in Japan with some of my senior team from Vietnam in a few weeks.
After checking in, while waiting in the JAL business class lounge, I'd called my chief of staff, Nguyet, and told her I was on my way back. Since I will be going to Saigon with her tomorrow, I told her to check us into a hotel so I wouldn't have to go home just for a few hours. Nguyet, in addition to running my personal office, also heads up the Business Development function of our firm in Hanoi.
As I've mentioned before, I'm French and I work for a large engineering corporation headquartered in Paris. We have offices worldwide, and I head the Asia-Pacific region. Essentially, my regional office is in New Delhi, India but I've based myself out of Hanoi, Vietnam for the last year or so. I travel extensively to a large number of countries in Asia, and I'm now returning from one of those trips.
My sister, whom I have not been in regular contact with over the last several years, lives in Kyoto, Japan. The previous weekend, I had decided to visit her, so although my business meetings were in Tokyo from Monday, I had come to Japan last Friday and spent the weekend with her, Halina. It had been an absolutely mind-blowing torrid experience; we had met after a number of years and dusted away the cobwebs of our past. And discovered a new love between each other.
And the sex had been beyond anything I had ever imagined. Even now, as I sit gazing out of the window from the relative luxury of my flat bed seat, I can feel a stirring in my groin as the memories come back. I had been sorely tempted to take the Shinkansen bullet train back to Kyoto after the last of my meetings this afternoon, but had resisted the temptation. I shake my head in a conscious attempt to leave the memories behind and concentrate instead on what I need to achieve during my next two days in Ho Chi Minh City.
I'm looking forward to meeting Nguyet in a few hours. She's a very beautiful Vietnamese lady, a divorced mother, and an absolutely irreplaceable member of my senior management team in Vietnam. And we've been part-time lovers as well; actually just one extended night some months ago. She has medium length hair, dark shiny black, that falls straight down to her collar bones in front. She's about 5'2" or 5'3", somewhere in her early or mid-thirties, wears glasses, has incredibly smooth skin, and never wears make-up. She has wonderfully sexy legs that distract me whenever she wears a skirt to office.
Japan Airlines flight number JL751 from Narita lands at Noi Bai International Airport at 10:19 pm local time, four minutes late. Less than ten minutes after touchdown, I step off the aircraft on to the aerobridge and walk to immigration, then pick up my baggage from the carousel, walk past customs and through the exit door at 10:45; all very efficient. I immediately spot Tung, our office driver, and see that he's managed to bribe the police again into letting him park the BMW 750i at the curb directly in front of the arrival lounge.
I light a cigarette and take a few pulls while Tung places my luggage into the boot of the sedan. I'm carrying a paper bag which contains a large box of chocolates and a small blue velvet box with a light pink ribbon around it. I stub out the cigarette and drop it into the curbside ashtray as the driver opens the car door for me. I thank him and step in. Not entirely to my surprise, Nguyet is sitting inside behind the driver's seat. I smile at her, not saying a word. The happiness that lights up her pretty face is clearly visible in the subdued illumination.
When the driver shuts his door, the light goes off and I stretch out my left arm over the arm-rest. Nguyet slips her tiny hand into my palm and I close my fist around it. I turn to look at her face and again, like always, marvel at the oriental beauty of this delicate woman. A slight shiver runs down my spine as I inhale the exquisite aroma of her perfume. We continue to sit in silence as the car quietly goes past the toll gate and heads towards the freeway.
At the next traffic light where we stop, I extract the small velvet box from the paper bag before leaning forward and place the chocolates on the front passenger seat, saying "Tung, this is for your children, don't eat it yourself." He laughs and thanks me profusely as the light turns green and he sets off to the city. With the smaller box now in my hands, I turn towards Nguyet and see her looking at me, the most beatific smile adorning her face.
I slip off the pink ribbon slowly, open the blue velvet box and take out a delicate rice-pearl bracelet that's tinged with a rosy hue. Reaching out my hand again, I take hold of Nguyet's wrist and clasp the bracelet around it. It's a little loose because of how thin her wrist is, but looks very pretty on her fair skin. I hear a small gasp of breath from her and look up to see the moistness glistening in her eyes. She still has a smile, but there seems to be a little pain in her eyes too. I want to lean across and kiss her, use my lips to wipe away the stray tear drop that has just begun to trickle down the left side of her face. But of course I don't.
Fortunately, or so I hope, Tung the driver is unable to see any of this since Nguyet is directly behind him and not visible in his rear view mirror. I sit back straight and look ahead, noticing that we've just crossed the new Nhat Tan bridge. There's a deep emotional feeling coursing through my veins, my heart's beating faster than it normally does. This is strange; I know I like Nguyet very much, we have more than just an office relationship going, but why am I feeling this way. There's a certain heaviness around my chest and my brain seems stuffed with a thick fog.
At Narita airport, while walking to the lounge, I had impulsively stopped at a Mikimoto pearl shop. Trying to drive away the residual memories of my weekend three days ago with my sister, I had pushed myself to think of work and Vietnam. Somewhere, in a corner of my brain, I was missing something. The two and a half days with Halina had made me forget everything to do with my real world; it was like the weekend in a dream, unconnected to anything else.