“Oh, honey, Genevieve doesn’t break up with anyone. She’s a tragic queen of an ill-fated kingdom. She waits to have her heart broken. She’ll string you along until you can’t take it anymore. I love her to death, but she’s so terribly predictable like that. Genevieve wants desperately to fall in love and have a fairytale ending. She’ll never tell you that, though. Her pride has been stunted enough over the years. You should ask that ex of hers all about it.”
“You mean Nyla?”
“That’s her name, isn’t it?”
Aya didn’t mention Nyla was still in town, as far as she knew. “If you’re not seriously thinking about buying anything, at least tell my boss it’s not because of me.”
“How many times do I have to spell it out for you? I’m trying to help you, not sabotage you! Aiya, how bad is my reputation, anyway?”
Nobody but your girlfriend seems to actually like you. Far be it from Aya to explain that to Wendy, though. “I appreciate you going through all this trouble. Guess I’m not sure what’s in it for you.”
“Fine. You want to call me out as a bitch who does nothing selflessly? I’ll tell you why it behooved me to haul ass out to Tokyo even though nobody wants foreigners around here.” Wendy inhaled a deep breath. “Genevieve getting good press and maintaining her amazing relationship trickles down to me, too. She’s the damn queen of her corner of Singapore. Her parents were such big deals that when they died, streets were closed for their funeral procession. My own mother was in mourning for two months. Like full-on funeral dress mourning. You would have thought Mrs. Liu was her sister instead of someone she had brunch with once a month. I can still hear my mother saying, ’Wa, I hope little Genevieve will survive this terrible phase of her life.′ Everyone in my middle school wanted to be like her. She was a fashion icon all the way until now. During the few weeks we dated, I thought I had it made. Turned out we were so incompatible, though. She didn’t like my kinky style. Well! There went impressing my mother.”
“Wait, you guys dated?”
“Don’t get hung up on that! I’m trying to tell you that, from a purely selfish perspective, my life is easier if Genevieve continues to curry good favor in all of our circles. That means old people. Old people with money. Our parents’ generation still pulls most of the puppet strings when it comes to jobs and marriages. So, we play their games. Which means people like me sneak around and boost the reputations of the people we’re associated with.”
“This sounds incredibly complicated.”
“Of course it’s complicated,” Wendy scoffed, “but I also like Genevieve. She’s prissy and insufferable sometimes, but what friend isn’t? We have a lot in common, her and me. As long as she’s doing good, there’s hope for me to do well, too. So, I’d like her reputation to remain intact. I think you’re the best person she’s dated in a long time, in terms of people I think can handle her without losing their head. Don’t let the weird talk about you being Japanese get to you. It’s a national sport to gripe and moan about something back home. Be grateful they’re being lazy about it being your nationality and not something terrible you actually did.”
“Even though it was my phone that got hacked? Those were my pictures I took.”
“Hoo, I know! Good shit, too. I would have never guessed you had some abs poking out of there, girl.”
Aya suppressed an eye roll. “So you looked?”
“Of course I did! I knew you weren’t comfortable enough to get naked in public in Paradise, so that was my chance to see what Genevieve was dancing with. You know…” Wendy tossed her hair over her shoulder as she turned around. “Lisa is a real slut for swinging. You guys let me know if you’re ever up for some real fun the next time she’s allowed back into Paradise. We will be there with cymbals on our fingers.”
“I have no idea how to take any of this. Are these compliments?”
“From Wendy Fucking Ahn, they are!”
Wendy said a fond farewell to the men in the living room but was saddened to inform them she was not interested in purchasing at this time. After she showed herself out, Aya joined her coworkers in the main room and said, “You know, for a woman with the last name Ahn, she sure is a storm.”
Kenji scratched his name.
“It’s from the ‘peace’ character,” Ishida explained to him.
“Oh. Oh.”
Aya snickered. “Unless we look at it from a Japanese perspective…”
Ishida clasped his hand on her shoulder. “We don’t go calling prospective clients cheap, Sugiya-san.”
“That woman is definitely cheap, though.”
Kenji almost spat out the water he drank from his bottle. When Ishida patted him on the back to help him cough up the water in his throat, Aya suggested they have a relieving snack at the family restaurant across the street. It would be her treat since she was the one who had called the client cheap.
Besides, she wanted some noise. The more it drowned out her thoughts, the better.
The last thing she expected to see when she returned home the following night was yet another postcard propped against her front-door handle.
“If you have some time, I’ll be at the lesbian bar one block away from Mango’s. I’ll buy you a drink.”
This time, Nyla actually signed her name, both in English and in Mandarin. Aya recognized the characters as “virtuous“ and “fragrant.” Not two meanings she would have associated with Nyla, but she had been learning a lot about Genevieve’s circle lately.
Fine. She would go. Not like she had anything better to do on that boring Thursday night.