Cheryl Tan - Sarong Party Girls

“Rubbish! You just got here,” Sean said. “Now settle in,” he added, tapping my backside again!

I made sure to slowly sip my second drink, which was as strong as the first and had no lime so—babi, the alcohol tasted even stronger.

Sean was telling some story now—something from his time as a hotshot foreign correspondent in Manila or some shit. Only Su Fen was asking him any questions—the other girls were just half-listening but mostly giggling here and there. I guess they were super high. His wife seemed a bit mabuk too—judging from how rosy her fat cheeks were—but she didn’t say one word. She just sat there, only smiling a very tiny bit but still looking quite serious. If I had to guess, I would say that she’s a lawyer or some banking exec. She just had that perfect “don’t blow smoke up my arse” look.

At this point, all the girls started laughing, even the Mabuks. Sean’s story probably reached the punch line or something. So I laughed along also. After we all finished, there was just silence. Maybe now was a good time. I bottoms-up the last third of my glass and started to say I have to go but Sean—my god, he really noticed everything—said, “Lydia—Jazeline’s done. Make her another one, OK?” And before I could say anything, his wife just got up and did it.

“Well…” Su Fen said. “Is it time?”

Shamini and the Mabuks, who I guess had gotten their second wind after all that pretend laughing, said, “Ooh, yes!” So Su Fen got up again and disappeared into what’s probably the dining room door, and came back with a big white cardboard box. The Mabuks quickly cleared the coffee table, brushing all the shells and seeds onto the floor so Su Fen could set the box down and take off the lid.

The girls all got off the sofa and the beanbags so they could crowd around the table and start pulling things out of the box. I couldn’t see anything at first because they were all crowding around, but one by one they started holding things up, looking at them and then setting them aside on the coffee table. I wasn’t quite sure what they were at first but the more I saw, I understood.

Sex toys!

Shamini pulled out a set of what looked like handcuffs ringed with small red feathers, Serene waved around a long black stick that suddenly started making a buzzing sound when she pressed a button, Vidya started opening small vials of lotions, dabbing some on her wrists and smelling them. There were several masks, some sort of board game and a set of large dice with words instead of numbers printed on each side.

I looked around the room to see where Sean’s wife was in all this. What could she possibly be thinking?

Lydia was standing by the bottles of alcohol—she had already finished making my drink but she wasn’t bringing it over. Instead, she was just standing there, leaning against the table of alcohol, slowly sipping a shot of something, just casually staring at everything with a bored, patient face. Obviously, she’d seen this before.

But surely, she could stop it?

The girls were squealing louder now, taking more and more things out of the box.

“What shall we start with this time, Sean? The dice?” Vidya said, taking off her cardigan, pulling the rubber band out of her ponytail and shaking her head a few times so her long wavy hair fell to her shoulders.

“Yah! Yah! The dice is always a good icebreaker,” Su Fen said. “Especially for newcomers!”

Newcomers? Lumpar lah!

I looked back at Lydia, who downed the rest of her shot and firmly put down the glass, grabbed my drink and walked back over. Good—it was high time the woman came over here to set her husband and everyone else straight.

Lydia walked over and handed me the glass, not even looking at me. Then she sat back down on her beanbag and cleared her throat loudly.

“Just pick one lah,” she said. “Tomorrow is a working day—let’s not go too late this time.”

Walao! Guniang here was feeling a bit paralyzed, I have to admit. This kind of thing, I could never have imagined. KTV girls, yes. Prostitutes, yah, I can imagine. But this? Professional girls from my own office? With the foreign editor and his backside-face lawyer-banker wife? My god.

Just then, Sean said, “OK, come, come, come—wifey said, ‘Let’s go!’ ” And he patted my backside again, harder this time.

Guniang jumped up right away. “Sean, I’m sorry—but I really think I have to go,” I said.

I couldn’t even look at any of the other girls or Lydia as I ran out of the door. As I was putting on my heels, Sean was suddenly standing next to me. He looked a bit confused.

“Jazeline—are you OK?”

“Yah—I just… I just need to go home,” I said.

“I’m sorry—I thought…” he said. “Well, this is just a bit of fun we have around the office sometimes… it’s a rather select group, actually. And it’s nothing very serious—just lighthearted games, really. I don’t just invite everyone over. And I had assumed that, well, you seem to go out clubbing a lot and have a lot of fun, and well, I had just heard some things and…”

“And? And you thought I would be interested in being part of your sex-toy New Times harem?”

Guniang here was getting a bit angry now. Which is not bad, I thought—better than losing it inside there around all of them. I thought I had been damn patient all night already. But after everything that happened over the past week, guniang here honestly was losing patience with everything.

At this point, I could see Sean’s eyes change a bit. He straightened up and said, “Should I call you a taxi?”

“No, no need,” I said. “The main road is nearby. I can just walk. Thank you though. And thank you for the drinks. Please also say thank you to Lydia for me.”

Before he could talk again, I quickly started walking to the gate.

“Jazeline?”

“Yah?” I said, turning around just as I opened it.

“I hear congratulations are in order, by the way,” he said. I could see him smiling. “When are you moving to circulation?”

Whole day long I was sitting at my desk, thinking about how to bring up the box of sex toys.

Not to Sean of course, but to Albert. I had managed to avoid Sean all day—which wasn’t hard because I’m sure he also wanted to avoid me. I did see Su Fen once or twice though and each time she not only didn’t quickly look down or avoid me—bloody hell, that girl is really not shy! Instead, she just stared at me, blinked once and then walked away.

Every time I tried to talk to Albert though, he just either rushed right past me and said he had a meeting to go to (even though I know it’s lies—hallo, I am the one who keeps his schedule after all) or really must go to the loo. After about the fifth time he did that, I figured out that he must be avoiding me too.

But like that, how? This was the first time guniang really needed his advice, man. Plus, what was this about circulation?

I decided to use my lunch break to kaypoh a bit.

Once Albert had safely disappeared to his business lunch in the financial district, I headed straight over to the next building—the decrepit old one where no one in the newsroom, except Albert, ever went. To the right of the lobby, which looked like it was still firmly in the 1970s, was a big sign: CIRCULATION.

A Malay receptionist greeted me the moment I pushed open the door. “Good afternoon, miss!” she said in a cheery singsong voice. “How can I help you?”

“Oh, I’m here from the news side,” I said, flashing my New Times pass. She smiled and nodded. “I just wanted to look-see a bit,” I added. “Can?”

“Of course, of course,” she said, waving me in. “Just go right in.”