Sleeping Beauty Sleep Walks and Meets the Frog

The opening of the elevator doors created a waft which brought a very familiar scent to Andrew when he was about to step off the elevator closet. He almost bumped head to chest with the person who was about to enter; (his head to her chest) until he recognized the red T-shirt with the rip on the collar. “Why are you wearing my T-shirt?”

Megan took a side-step to avoid the ‘almost’ collision but turned to snub the staff when she heard his question. “Say that again?” But before taking a look at the person asking the question, she was inside the elevator and he was outside.

Andrew turned around and pointed at her chest. “My T-shirt!” He lifted his head and saw a very familiar face.

“Megan?” He blinked his eyes and it was still the same woman. “Megan?”

He repeated but the woman inside the elevator only stared at him with eyes filled with a mixture of shock anguish. Megan stood motionless while looking directly into the eyes of the mail-room staff. It was as if time stood still until she heard him repeat her name for the third time when the elevator doors began to close. As the elevator started descending, Megan pressed the L button and felt her heart plummeting to her feet, all at the same time.

Meanwhile...

Tony was trying to gather up the mess of papers on the King Arthur’s Round Table when Andrew entered the conference room. “Why is Megan wearing my T-shirt?”

“Megan who?” Tony ignored him and continued to gather the papers. Then he spoke with frustration in his voice. “And you had better watch your tone around here. I’m still your boss even though I am your buddy! You don’t want to get into trouble when people start to talk.”

Andrew watched as Tony put away some T-shirts into a shopping bag. “The woman in the elevator, she was wearing my Kool-Aid T-shirt. I’ve been looking for it this whole week!” He grabbed the bag and searched through the items.

“I didn’t know that was your T-shirt!” Tony pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. “I was given these for the job interview!”

“So why was Megan wearing it?” Andrew asked again. “Interview? She was here for an interview?”

“Who is Megan? I only interviewed a Kimberley.” Tony caught the bag Andrew chucked at him.

Andrew narrowed his brows and looked imploringly at Tony. “If she works here, I’m leaving this company for good!” He turned around and charged out of the room.

“Hey! It’s not up to me!” Tony called after him. “You know I have no say here! Empress Dowager is the one making the decision!”

“I don’t care! You take care of it!” Andrew turned the corner and headed down the hallway.

Tony threw his hands up in the air and screamed. “I HATE my job here!”

“Come work in the mailroom then!” Andrew shouted back.

The next morning, Linda noticed a familiar package in the ‘Outbox’ on her desk. Five minutes later, she approached Tony’s office.

“What’s the matter?” Tony looked up and noticed her fretting expression.

“You must have put this in the Outbox after 2pm.” Linda practically shoved the package in his face. “This is time-sensitive and needs to go back to the lab within 24 hours.”

“Oh, really?”

“Can you deliver it? It’s on your way to your morning meeting.” Linda gave a pleading look. “And I don’t want Madam Tang yelling at me.”

Tony smiled. “She won’t yell at you, she’ll only yell at me!” He took the package from her. “But I’ll deliver this for you.”

An hour later, Tony entered Q-Pete Cafe for the first time and was surprised to see the walls of the café painted in rainbow colors. For some reason, he imagined Cupid’s dwelling to be pink and white. He had heard and read about this place since he moved to this town a year ago; but never set foot here until now. He watched as a woman (whom we know as Kalina) walked an order of coffee to a customer in a graceful manner. She turned and flashed him a bright smile.

“Welcome to Q-Pete!” Kalina pointed him to the only empty table by the window. “Have a seat. I’ll be right with you!”

It was then that Tony received a shot of Dopamine. As he made his way to the table, he bumped into the umbrella stand and almost tripped over on the door rug. Finally he managed to settle into the seat. That was when Kalina and the other customers chuckled with inner delight.

“Here you are, Elena! This one is on the house!” Kalina finally placed the coffee down on the table. “Thank you for introducing your cousin, she is now my newest client!”

“Hope you find the perfect match for her!” Elena said and nodded towards Tony. “Better help your customer first.” Just before Kalina turned to walk away, Elena reached out to her and whispered. “I think he’s got the hots for you!”

Kalina turned and glanced at Tony who shied away and pretended to push his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. Feeling caught, he quickly picked up the menu to read.

With her back to Tony once again, she whispered to Elena. “He’s cute! And shy! Let me check him out for your cousin!”

Kalina walked over to his table in her usual graceful manner and greeted him cheerfully. “Hi! Don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

Say something, Tony ordered his brain. A few seconds of staring at Kalina later, no words came from his mouth. Brain malfunction. He couldn’t feel his tongue and wondered why his lips were frozen. He felt like he was at a photo-shoot.

“Cheeseeeeeee?” Oh Tony, you weren’t supposed to think that out loud.

Kalina furrowed her brow. “Cheese?” She scratched her head. “We only serve coffee, tea and cakes here.” She turned to look at her cake display case and offered. “Oh, we have one more piece of cheesecake left, if that’s okay with you!”

Get a grip! Tony told himself. Feeling embarrassed, he lowered his head and managed to say in a low voice. “Yes, cheesecake!”

“Coffee?”

“Yes, coffee!” His head felt so heavy he let it drop downwards as if he was still reading the menu.

“Cream?”

“Black!” Tony managed.

Kalina noticed the Match.Dot.com package on the table and pointed to it. “Were you asked to bring this here? To Cupid?”

He remembered his reason for coming here. “Yes! But not Cupid!” He looked at the note on the package. “This is for Kalina Cheng!”

“Well, I’m Kalina Cheng!” She smiled and offered her hand. “Also known as Cupid!”

The moment Tony took her hand, another dose of Dopamine must have been administered into his system for he could not stop shaking her hand nor take his eyes away from hers. Even after she took the package from him, he was still shaking her hand.

“Umm…you kind of have to let go of my hand if you want your cheesecake and coffee!”

Ten minutes later, Elena walked up to the front of the counter where Kalina was behind drying her dishes. Elena gestured with her thumb pointing over her shoulders. “He hasn’t touched his cheesecake!”

“I know!” Kalina whispered back with an exclamation mark expression. “But he’s so cute to look at. I can stand here and admire him all day. Hmmm.”

Elena made a half turn with her head and snickered in agreement. “Too bad he has an earring!”

“I know!” Kalina agreed and sighed. “They used to say the good-looking ones were all married. Now they are all gay!”

Megan was sitting on the floor petting Bebe who was sitting on the sofa leaning against a cushion that read ‘NO DOGS ON THIS SOFA’ in bold capital letter. If an alien race was looking into her apartment this instance, they would conclude humans were the slaves and dogs their masters.

“Oh Bebe, you’ll never guess who I ran into yesterday. After all these years, he still recognized me.”

Bebe lifted her head to look at Megan. Seeing her master was still dazed out, she made a whimper and licked her master’s face. But when Megan ignored her, the canine used her paw and pushed the side of her master’s head. This was her way of telling Megan to ‘snap out of it’. That was if dog could talk.

Then the phone rang and we fast forward to one week later.

“Kimberley, I am so glad Madam Tang explained how your interview got mixed up last week. I’m so sorry about that.” Tony apologized again as he helped Megan move the last of her belongings into the residence of her new job as a Live-In Estate Manager. Madam Tang wanted Megan to manage one of her Condominium Penthouse in the city for the time being. So her move was not too far from Downtown.

“Mr. Ma, you’ve apologized to me at least five times. Say ‘sorry’ two more times and I will have to forgive you 70 times 7 times! You do the math!” Megan teased and Tony gestured his apology again. “Please stop apologizing!”

Bebe agreed and barked at Tony though she was wagging her tail. Tony took a couple of steps back because he was afraid of the dog, or just dogs in general.

“Don’t be afraid of her. She’s harmless,” Megan smiled. “By the way, I apologize for telling you to go to hell last week. I was really mad after reading those questions.”

“It’s understandable. I don’t blame you at all!” Tony was still being very careful of Bebe as he led Megan into the next room. “This here is your bedroom!”

Megan followed him into a relatively large room, bigger than the size of the apartment she just moved out from. “Wow, this really is a dream job! I get to stay in a room like this and I only have to manage the other workers to make sure they do their job?”

“That’s what it says here. This job is yours for the next 7 years as long as you don’t get married.” Tony handed her the copy of the contract. “Just curious, why did you choose 7 years?”

Bebe barked twice at Tony. It was her way of saying ‘it’s none of your business!’ That was if dogs understood human language.

Tony was startled and put up his two arms as someone was pointing at him with a gun. “Okay! I’ll shut up!” It seemed Tony understood dog language.

Megan chuckled at Tony’s reaction to Bebe. Then she cleared her throat before giving him an answer. “I have my reasons.”

Hours later, Bebe was lying on her own doggy mattress in the corner of Megan’s room waiting for her master to come out of the in-suite shower. Her attention was perked when she heard some keys jingling from the living room. She lifted her head when she heard the turning of the door knob and then she got herself into a sitting position upon hearing the opening of the front entrance door. She got up and walked quietly with her four legs, like a horse galloping down the corridor. Sometimes she forgot she was a dog. When she spotted the back of the man as he was closing the door, she paused and pushed her lips back to show her sharp-edged vampire-looking teeth.

After locking the door, Andrew froze when he heard a loud snarling noise coming from behind. Slowly, quietly, and carefully, he turned his body around. His eyes grew wide with fright when he saw a black carnivorous looking animal charging towards him.

Just when Bebe was about to lunge at him, what was Andrew going to do in response? Of course the ‘S’ word that any average normal human being would do. Like scream.

But Andrew being Andrew, he SNARLED back ten times louder and lunged towards the dog with claw-shaped fingers. Well, Andrew was not the ‘average normal’ human being. Bebe thought he was a werewolf and got spooked; so much so she stuck her tail between her two hind-legs, made a whimper, turned around and dashed right back into her master’s bedroom. She timed her escape well. Just when Andrew was about to run into the room, she used one of her hind legs and slammed the door right in front of his face.

“Hey, don’t you go hiding in the room!” Andrew warned before turning the door knob. When he swung open the bedroom door, Megan stepped out of the shower and came straight into her bedroom. She screamed on top of her lungs for she thought she was looking at a psychopath.

Immediately, Andrew stepped outside and shut the bedroom door.

Note on Chemistry of Love – Dopamine – The Drug Hormone of Love

Oh yes, this is the chemical that gives the ‘Cloud 9’ feeling after the first eye contact, the first touch, the first hand holding, the first kiss and of course, the first uh…you know. (If you don’t, you may be too young to be reading this novel…just kidding.)

This neurotransmitter is very addictive and is responsible for the clinging and jealousy part of love. It keeps us wanting and anticipating for more. Since this is a hormone, it is important to have a good hormone replacement therapy. (This is my own two cents worth of advice … you know, so you don’t fall out of love.)