Queen of Love

“Did she step through a time machine?” Terry Tsao asked her friend, Cindy, whose eyes bulged at Mari’s old-fashioned rave wear. “Amazing.

“What is wrong with her hair?” Wendy blurted. “I haven’t seen neon fringe in ten years!”

Aya met her sister at the end of the bar. “You went all out, I see,” she said.

Mari shimmied in her halter top and shorts. “You like it? My husband almost had a heart attack when I headed out.”

“I can’t believe you rode the train from Saitama like that.”

“Oh, hush. Of course I wore a jacket over it.”

“So? Where’s the jacket?”

Mari shrugged. “That nice man from the bar downstairs said he’d hold on to it for me. What! He’s gay, right?”

“I bet you were a sight to behold to all of those gay men partying downstairs.”

“You would be right! I’ve never turned so many men’s heads in my life!”

“Again, they were probably all gay.”

“Ki ni shinai, mou. The point is the thrill of the attention!” Mari raised both arms in the air. Her side-boob chub spilled out of her top, while her C-section scar displayed gloriously above her shorts. Aya didn’t know how Japan’s most confident mother ended up in her family, but she was grateful to have Mari there during a night when most of the attention was on Genevieve. Not that I have a problem with that, but hey, getting to invite someone is always a bonus! She had invited others. Namely, her old college friends whom she occasionally met up with. None of them could make it that night. Probably for the best, seeing how packed Mango’s was. It hasn’t been this busy since we first opened.

Naturally, everyone wanted to meet the woman who looked like she had been to a party or two in her day. The language barrier didn’t mean a damn thing after the first round of drinks were consumed and the conversations were so shrill and loud that nobody could hear what anyone else was saying, anyway. By the end of the night, Mari had been Christened “Mary” by all of her new friends, and she ran away with it.

“Mary! Like in the Bible!” she exclaimed to her sister, who had stayed sober for most of the night – unlike Mari, who was already on her second drink and dancing to the old school J-pop playing over the speakers. “This is my favorite song!”

Although Mango’s wasn’t a dance club, the tables and chairs were pushed up against the wall so Mari and her new friends could dance together in small circles. Genevieve entertained them for two minutes before hiding behind the bar. “Are you going to come join us?” Genevieve asked, her arm slinking around Aya’s waist. “Make sure you have some fun.”

Aya pulled her into a hug that included a kiss on Genevieve’s throat. “I’m having plenty of fun watching you hang out with your friends.”

“Come on…” Both of Genevieve’s hands tugged on the collar of Aya’s button-up. “You’ve been back here the whole time, acting as my manager instead of my girlfriend. I can go back to Taipei and hang out with them whenever I want. Why don’t you come and join us? At least come dance with me.”

Aya sighed. “How can I say no to those puppy dog eyes? You do them so well.”

“You called them kitty eyes the other day. So which is it?”

Aya could never resist tugging on the hoop in Genevieve’s collar when they were like this. As they came closer to kiss, whistles sounded a few feet away.

“O-hoho,” Terry cried as she slammed herself onto a stool. “Front-row seat! Shu-fen! Come watch with me! You can tell me how good they’re doing it!”

When Nyla arrived to smack her girlfriend on the shoulder, Aya put two and two together. “I’m guessing her name must be Shu-fen.”

“Yes, and Terry is Yi-hsuan, if you want to scare the crap out of her.”

“Ooh, like a clairvoyant party trick. That reminds me.” Aya pressed her fingers against her temples and closed her eyes. “Xiu… Ying.”

Genevieve’s mouth dropped. “Excuse me?” she whispered. “Where did you hear that?”

Aya stepped into the back room, where she grabbed a mailer envelope that had been addressed from Singapore to a “Ms. Genevieve Liu Xiu Ying.”

“You can’t hide all your secrets from me forever.”

Genevieve attempted to snatch that out of Aya’s hand. Aya held it high above her head, but Genevieve was tall enough to make a comedic jump and grab that almost made her crash against the bar. Perhaps she was slightly inebriated.

“I could have told you that,” Nyla said. “Liu Xiu Ying is fun to say.”

“It’s so modern sounding,” Terry continued, although she shot Genevieve a bereaved look. “Even though you’re like… forty.”