Kylie Chan - White Tiger

Later in the afternoon the door slammed and Simone yelled, ‘ Is Emma here ?’

I went out to find them taking their shoes off at the front door, Simone and Mr Chen together. He hadn’t taken his sword, he’d left it on its hooks near the front door. Simone carefully put her little shoes in the shoe cupboard, then did the same for her father. He watched her with delight, then smiled at me. He looked right into my eyes, and for a split second those gorgeous dark eyes hypnotised me; then Simone charged to tackle me, nearly knocking me over.

‘Hello, Emma!’ she yelled. ‘Are you here all the time now?’

I bent and picked her up, warm with pleasure at the thought of being full-time with her. ‘Yes, sweetheart, I’m all yours.’

She threw her little arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek. Then she rested her forehead against mine and looked seriously into my eyes. ‘Good.’

She wriggled out of my arms and took my hand. ‘Have you seen everything?’

‘Yes I have, Simone. Leo showed me around.’

She screwed up her face. ‘I’m hungry .’

‘Dinner will be soon, Simone, don’t ruin your appetite,’ Mr Chen said from the doorway where he was watching us with amusement. ‘Did Leo tell you about meals, Miss Donahoe?’

‘No, sir.’

‘When I am home at dinner time, we’ll have a family dinner together—me and Simone, you and Leo. We can discuss what we’ve done during the day. Is that acceptable?’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Will I be able to go out occasionally? I’m supposed to be having dinner with some friends this evening. I usually go out on Saturday night.’

‘Of course. We don’t want to impinge too much on your private life. If you want to have dinner with someone outside, of course, go.’

Louise didn’t bring a guy along for me for a change. She seemed to know every unattached male in Hong Kong and constantly set me up. Sometimes it worked and I would spend a few months in a pleasant casual relationship; sometimes it didn’t and I was left to my own devices. Either way suited me just fine. I couldn’t keep a relationship in Hong Kong for long anyway; people were always coming and going.

We all drank far too much and stayed well past our welcome in the Thai restaurant in Wan Chai, but we continued to order food so the staff tolerated us.

‘You should go and see Miss Kwok,’ April said. ‘You should have talked to me if you were unhappy there. She’s very upset that you left.’

‘Of course she’s upset.’ I sipped my beer. ‘She’ll lose half the kids without me working there.’

Louise’s blue eyes sparkled. ‘Don’t go back to working for that bitch, Emma. You can do better.’

April was offended. ‘Don’t be mean. Miss Kwok is a nice person. She’s very rich; you should respect her.’

‘You’re just saying that because your fiancé’s related to her,’ Louise said. ‘She doesn’t even pay you to fix the computers at the kindergarten.’

‘How is Andy anyway?’ I said, attempting to change the subject.

‘The wedding’s all planned—we’ll have it with my family in Sydney.’ April was obviously happy. ‘I’m looking forward to it. My family is so pleased. Andy’s family are very wealthy. Very prestigious.’

‘God,’ Louise said under her breath.

‘When is it?’ I tried to appear interested, but I agreed with Louise. Andy was always perfectly polite to us but there was something about him that I just didn’t like.

‘Next month.’ April leaned back and smiled with satisfaction. ‘It was easy to get a ceremony on a good day in Australia. The date will be very auspicious.’

‘God,’ Louise whispered again.

April didn’t seem to hear her. ‘I’m going to the temple tomorrow to get the…’ she hesitated, searching for the English word, ‘blessing from the ancestors.’

‘Which temple?’ I said, interested.

‘The one in Pokfulam.’

‘The one in the cemetery?’ Louise said.

April nodded.

‘Can I come along and have a look?’ I said. April shrugged. ‘Sure. Not much to see, though, just tablets. Ancestors and stuff.’

‘What time?’

‘After yum cha. About twelve, one.’

‘Can I meet you there?’

April nodded, then leaned forward and rapped her fingertips on the table. ‘You should go back to Miss Kwok, Emma. She says she needs you at the kindergarten. Go ask the fortune sticks. They’ll tell you that you should stay with her.’

‘I already have a new job.’

‘But you only resigned yesterday,’ April said. ‘She moved out today,’ Louise said. ‘Fastest damn thing I’ve ever seen.’

‘You’ll be live-in?’ April said. ‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Live-in nanny.’

‘You can do better than that, Emma. Go back to Miss Kwok.’

‘You kidding?’ Louise said. ‘Nearly forty thousand a month, living with this gorgeous rich dude? I’d do it in a second.’

‘Strictly professional.’

‘Yeah, right.’

‘Forty thousand a month?’ April said, shocked. ‘Yep,’ Louise said.

April scowled. ‘Everybody will think that you are more than nanny if he pays you that much.’

‘I don’t care,’ I said.

‘Geez, you’re definitely the most cold-blooded chick I’ve ever met, Emma,’ Louise said. ‘Don’t even care.’

‘Don’t be mean,’ April said. ‘Emma is a lovely person.’

I raised my beer. ‘Oh, no, April, I think I’m the most cold-blooded chick I’ve ever met too.’

Louise snorted with amusement. ‘Sure you are. Look at how you adore his little girl. You have a soft spot for kids, Emma, don’t deny it.’

‘This one is special,’ I said, studying my beer. ‘She always worries about everybody else. She was really concerned that other children were missing out because I was spending all my time with her. She felt guilty about hogging me.’

‘Yeah, she’s a perfect little angel.’

‘In this case, I think she really is.’

It was very late when I arrived back at the apartment building on the Peak. I hopped out of the taxi and it reversed away down the drive. I walked up to the gates, waved to the security guards and they opened the pedestrian gate for me.

I saw the lights and turned. Another taxi pulled up. A smart-looking young European stepped out of the car, and Leo came out the other side. Leo stopped when he saw me, then walked up the drive to the gates.

I held the gate open for them. Leo didn’t say anything, just nodded to me and went through.

‘Hi, I’m Emma, a friend of Leo’s,’ I said to the young man.

‘Hello.’ He held his hand out and I shook it. He was quite good-looking, tall, blond and slender. Looked to be in his mid-thirties, about the same age as Leo. He had a definite American accent. ‘Rob.’

Leo walked in front of us and opened the ground-floor door to the lift lobby.

We all entered the lift together.

‘You live here too?’ Rob said.

‘Yep, I’m the nanny.’

Leo gazed at the numbers above the lift door without saying a word.

‘It’s really humid,’ Rob said.

‘Yeah. Summer’s here, all right.’

‘You been in Hong Kong long?’ Rob said.

‘About four years,’ I said. ‘But I never get used to the humidity in the summer.’

‘Are you English?’

‘No, Australian.’

The lift doors opened and the three of us entered the lobby of the eleventh floor. Leo unlocked the gate and opened the front door for us. We went in and removed our shoes at the front entrance, then walked together down the hall towards the bedrooms.

I stopped at my bedroom door. ‘Nice to meet you, Rob. ‘Night, Leo.’