Dream meetings (6)

Scratching my head, I spread my hands and shrugged.

"Even I don't know why I've gone along with you," I said, "I didn't quite catch your name in the meeting this morning. I was too busy freaking out over the fact you had the matching ring to the one I bought in the flea market and couldn't get off. I still feel like I'm dreaming."

"Nobody puts a wedding band on their index or middle finger," Mr Wen rolled his eyes at me in exasperation. "It was only right that I put the ring where it belonged after we met last night. I told you I'd take responsibility for you."

"So much information," Xiao Gai breathed with wide eyes.

"Just wait until the others hear about this," Chef Yu added in a dark tone. "Young lady, if you need to get away from him, feel free to come here. We'll help you. You aren't married by law yet. We can still help you escape if you need."

"Chef Yu, are we still friends?" Mr Wen stood up, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Why are you trying to help my wife run away? I'm telling you, she's mine. She already agreed to be with me. No matter where she goes, I'll follow."

Blinking and tilting my head, I contemplated Mr Wen's last remark. Did that mean I wore the pants in our relationship? He would follow me wherever I went? He didn't expect me to follow him?

"Don't even think of it," Mr Wen leaned over and covered my hand with his, his dark eyes trying to bore into mine with his warning gaze. "You aren't going anywhere."

"How about home?" I asked. "When can I go home? I'm tired."

The warning light faded from his eyes and was replaced by a diffuse gentleness.

"We'll have dinner and then go home," Mr Wen reassured me with a pat to my hand. "Excuse me a moment. I'll talk with them outside. Won't be long. I'll get the order finalised."

"I'm really not hungry, you know. I just want to go home and sleep."

His eyes turned into smiling crescents.

"Oh? So eager?"

It took me a moment to understand what his teasing tone meant and when I did, I felt my blood pressure rise and face flush once more.

"If you don't mind, where's the toilet?" I ignored him to ask Xiao Gai.

"Oh. Right this way, Mrs Wen," Xiao Gai said, leading the way.

She was still waiting outside the toilet when I was done. Likely to ensure I wouldn't get lost on the way back. There had been so many twisting corridors.

"Thank you," I said when she bowed and gestured back the way we had come, "but could you please show me the way out? I want to go home. I still have work tomorrow, but he's not listening to me. Could you please inform him?"

"Mrs Wen," Xiao Gai hesitated awkwardly, "did you really marry him willingly?"

"I suppose I did," I looked up at the ceiling and the decorative archetraves. "It's just that it's been a long day and my head is in a whirl. I just want to sleep. You know?"

"Alright. I'll inform Mr Wen," Xiao Gai nodded and gestured in a different direction, leading me out, "but you should still give him a phone call to let him know," she said in a cautious voice.

"I would if I had his phone number," I sighed. "He was in a hurry to get married and we haven't even exchanged basic information with each other yet. I'm seriously doubting my own brain right now. Who gets married to a man she met in a dream?"

Xiao Gai seemed a bit at a loss for words.

"Come again and we'll treat you well," she said at the door, her tone all confused while Maitre d' Ling got up from behind his desk looking confused as well.

"Thank you for the pleasant evening. I'll stay longer another night to enjoy the food."

I hurried away and heard Ling interrogating Xiao Gai.

Once outside, I looked around in bewilderment. I didn't even know where we were. Wandering around, I eventually found the way back onto the busy street I had seen from the window and hailed a taxi. Giving the taxi my address, I got in. Although I was reluctant to use my money, there was no getting home if I didn't even know where I was.

At home, I scowled at my purse as I reluctantly paid the taxi driver my fare and tried to politely thank him for the trip. I felt like he had scammed me. It has been a twenty minute trip and yet it cost over two hundred dollars. What a waste of good, hard earned money.

Cleaning up and showering, I was finally able to sink into my comfortable bed and think a little more clearly before I drifted off. What was work going to be like tomorrow? Surely there wouldn't be a big reaction over the wife of an investing company working as a mere admin assistant? I hoped not.

In my dreams, Mr Wen angrily questioned me for leaving the restaurant like that.

"You were the one who didn't want to listen to me," I sulked. "I just wanted to go home. I was tired. I don't even understand where everything today went so off track."

The more I sulked and complained, the closer he got. When I shrank back from him, half expecting him to beat me when he was towering over me, he paused.

"Are you so scared of me?" he asked in an injured tone. As if I had hurt him.

"Scared? Of course I'm scared," I sneered. "I don't even know you or what you're like. You've been so forceful and overbearing today, who knows whether you're secretly a wife beater?"

"You, of all people should know better than that," Mr Wen snorted, tossing off his dream clothes and pressing his lips to mine.

The dream inexplicably turned from frustrated tension into something else. I couldn't even refuse him. He was so good and knew exactly where to touch me in order to make me melt for him.

I woke panting and wet. Again. Hurrying to clean up, I rushed to work and somehow made it with five minutes to spare. Huang Delin snorted at me and made a little scoffing remark under her breath that I didn't hear.

As usual, I ignored her and went to prepare for the day's work. Nobody mentioned yesterday and the day went as busy as usual, with requests keeping me spinning around the office all day. It was only near home time that I was called into my direct line manager's office.

"Ruan-jie," I knocked as I entered. "You called me?"

"Oh, Xiao Jing, you're here," Long Siruan looked up from her computer at me. "Come in. Close the door and sit. Just give me a few moment to finish this."

Closing the door, I sat in front of the manager who had been like a stern elder sister to me ever since I had started working here. She took a moment to finish what she was doing.

"Xiao Jing, I heard from Manager Lu that you're married? To the Mr Wen from Line Investments? When did you get married and not tell anyone?" Ruan-jie had a gossipy expression on her face.

"Uh..." I didn't know how to explain it to her. I couldn't even explain it to myself. "We haven't gotten the marriage certificate yet. He took me to meet his parents and elders yesterday afternoon. At a memorial hall."

Ruan-jie was taken back by this.

"How long have you known him for?"

"Honestly, yesterday's meeting was the first time," I scratched my head with frustration. "I don't know him but he insists that he's my husband. Do you think I might have lost my memory before or something?"

"That's a possibility," Ruan-jie frowned, examining the ring on my finger. "When you first arrived, your head was always in the clouds and it took a lot of effort to bring you up to speed. You still get lost in your head and you don't have epilepsy, and I know, because I had you checked last year when you suddenly fainted and ended up in hospital. Remember?"

I shook my head.

"I fainted at work and ended up in hospital? When was this?"

"Last November," Ruan-jie shook her head at me with gentle exasperation but without blame. "You're a good worker, but I have to keep a close eye on you because you're such a lostie sometimes. You can't tell when anyone is targeting you. You don't notice when they're abusing you. That time that crazy colleague of ours - remember Yin with the long fringe and mushroom face? He assaulted you once and you just zoned out. Xiao Jing, you really need to go to the doctor and get properly checked out. I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time. Now that you're married and your husband has found you, perhaps he can help. Unless he's the one you've been running away from? Manager Hu said you'd been hiding from him. Xiao Jing, do you have any difficulties that you need help with? Is there any way I can help you?"

Everything Ruan-jie has just said was new to me. It was like she was talking about a complete other person.

"Xiao Jing. Xiao Jing, come back."

Ryan Jie was now sitting beside me and shaking me gently. I refocused my eyes on her. Her eyes were full of concern. As for me, I was full of confusion.

"Your husband called me today and asked me to give you a few weeks off. He said you're going to go on a honeymoon."

"I am? Did he go decide things on his own again?" I scratched my head.

"Don't. Don't scratch too hard," Ryan Jie caught my wrists and forced me to lower my hands. "Look. You've scratched yourself bloody again."

"Again?"

"Again," Ruan-jie shook her head and took down a first aid kit to help me wipe the blood off my fingernails and then dabbed at a few spots on my scalp. "No more scratching."

"Yes, Ruan-jie," I sighed. "I'm sorry. I must be tired. I don't know why, but I feel so tired."

"You've had a busy day today," Ruan-jie agreed. "I can't do a lot to help you, but know that I'm here for you if you need me."

"Ruan-jie, if I've been as much of a nuisance as you've said, why have you kept me working here? Why did you give me this job?"

"So you know you've been a nuisance. Good that you still have this awareness," Ruan-jie gave me a tight smile. "Just take it that I owe that person too much. So much that it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to repay them in this lifetime. So be good. Live a happy and healthy life and stop causing me so much stress and trouble. It's really hard to hide your problems from the higher ups. Ok?"

"I'll work harder to pay you back," I nodded in conclusion which only had Ruan-jie rubbing her face at my reply.

"You've been given a month's leave from tomorrow. You can come back after this date."

Ruan-jie took my mobile phone from where I had placed it on her desk and took my finger to unlock it. She entered the date into my calendar and flicked my forehead while I stared at her with confusion. Her movements were so smooth. As if she had done this many times before. But when? I didn't remember.