I have been rather busy lately and have not managed to find the time to write as much as I would like, but that's life I guess. This tale was written for a friend and is not the second instalment of my planned series of "A Life as a Royal Sex Slave" which I'm still working on. Still, I do hope that you enjoy it...
It was well after 10 pm and I had just cleared Hong Kong's packed customs hall. My mood seemed to mirror the city that was wreathed in a thick blanket of fog. The cab I was travelling in turned down another street and more of the city's damned garishly neon lights seemed to tower and glare weakly, tuning the very air into a glowing multi-coloured fuzziness.
All this seemed to add to my growing headache, and I felt irritable. Over twenty hours of flying in cramped aircraft and lengthy flight transfers at packed airports, filled with grouchy people and screaming kids seemed to do that to you. I just knew that my mood was unlikely to change any time soon.
I'd kill for a decent cup of coffee and none of that airline piss would do for me, I thought to myself.
"God, I'm getting too old for all this travelling bullshit!" I muttered under my breath, while I tried to work some of the journey-induced kinks and knots out of in my exhausted body. Quite by accident, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a halo of beckoning lime-green.
A neon sign advertising what I so desperately craved amongst the many thousands of suggestive, multi-coloured, flashing adverting boards. I can't even remember what the exact name of the place was. Probably didn't look properly anyway or I was just simply too tired to take it all in. All I saw was that the place was called 'The Incredible Coffee Cove' or something like along those lines.
"Stop the cab!" I instructed my driver. My hotel was less than a block away, but I had a real strong hankering for a decent cup of coffee that needed to be satisfied now. After peeling off a wad of Hong Kong dollars and issuing instructions for my luggage to be delivered to my destination, I grabbed my laptop and crossed the busy road to get my liquid fix. I could almost feel the tension drain from my weary body as I sniffed the welcoming, distinctive aroma as I stepped from the road and onto the sidewalk.
The place was full but I was fortunate enough to find a table stuck away in the back. The coffee bar was softly lit and muted piano music competed with the murmuring buzz of the crowd. Seated and with my order placed, I fired up my old PC, hoping to finalise a few details before my planned meeting early the following morning.
Smiling my thanks to my friendly, petite waitress, my steaming mug of java arrived before the machine had finished booting. Looked like my trusty old computer was showing signs of old age too. Scoffing at the irony, I slurped a mouthful of the scalding liquid and sighed in satisfaction. I started to feel a little better about life.
I took a moment to reminisce about how I had had a dream when I was younger. It was more of a desire, really almost a passion that had consumed me to such a degree that I had never married, settled down or had any kids. I had wanted to become a luthier and make guitars. Not just any old trash, but highly sought after, hand crafted musical instruments.
That was thirteen years ago now. With a little luck and heaps of hard work I had achieved most of my goals. But the travelling was really starting to get me down. Maybe that was just another sign of my age?
Mind you, business was also getting to me lately. The industry just wasn't what it used to be when I had first started out. I had been toying with the idea of selling the company and retiring to some tropical beach and opening a dive shop or beachfront bar or something to keep me busy and sane.
Only problem was I was looking at forty-one fast approaching and the world at large would frown upon me for being a lazy, burned out beach bum with no ambition. Wait, I lie: I knew deep down that I couldn't hope to make enough money from the sale of the company and still hope to survive for another thirty to forty years at my accustomed level of lifestyle. Maybe it was just a midlife crisis.
I took another sip of coffee. Ah fuck it! What was another nine years or so of toil, I reasoned. What was the difference between retiring at forty or fifty? I just had to make sure that I had enough time left to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Ah well...
My machine had finally finished suffering from its age-induced Alzheimer's and managed to get itself up and running. About bloody time too! I thought that I've got to get a new machine while I'm in the wonderful land of technology, gizmos and electronics. My fingertip was hovering over the touch pad when the damn thing decided to get its revenge on me and blow up.
Well maybe not blow up as such, but it certainly seemed that way at the time. It just sort of sparked like a long forgotten cheap 80's disco, then fizzed and puffed a fatal telltale whisper of dying electronic smoke. While this was happening, I felt something incredibly hot splash into my lap and I shot out of my seat as the screen winked out for the final time.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, are you alright?" I heard.
"Fucking brain dead arsehole, why the fu..." I choked back my heated words as my eyes fell upon the angel that had wrecked my tired old computer and drenched me. No, wait, angel wouldn't be an accurate enough description. Goddess. Yep, goddess would be the word I would use to describe this vision before me. God almighty, I had never seen such an achingly beautiful woman before and only recently just turned into a woman too, by the looks of things.
I must have really looked a sight. A travel weary forty-year-old man, clutching and tearing at his steaming wet jeans with his dick burned to a cinder, all the while trying to look ever so cool and make it seem like this sort of thing happened to him all the time. Strange how a beautiful woman can have that effect on a man.