“Uncle, send me to
As I saw my auntie at the lobby, she immediately rushed and pulled me along without saying anything else.
“What happened to you?” I instinctively asked this question when I saw my mother on the hospital bed.
“Its just some old illness, it has occurred again, I would be fine,” my mother looked surprisingly calm as contrast to my anxiousness.
“When I was about to go to the toilet, I realised she was not at her bed, and she was on lying on the floor. After a while, she came round but she could not really walk properly and I sent her to the hospital,” my aunt finally explained.
“Aunt, thank you so much for taking care of my mother. Its better that you go home to rest, I would be staying with my mother,” I showed my gratitude to my aunt as I waved to her to tell her to go home.
“Sorry, mother, I had neglected you. I was too busy with work that I had not seen you since I put you at aunt’s home,” I felt guilty for my negligence.
“My dear daughter, don’t worry too much about me. You just concentrate on what you are doing. But my concern is that working late nights everyday might take a toll on your health too. I hope you can be able to do something else in here. A day job or something,” my mother smiled faintly at me as her eyes seemed to express concern about my daily lifestyle.
I did not utter a word. I did not know what to say. I just wanted my mother to recover as fast as possible. As I held my mother’s hand, I rested my head near the edge of the bed. As tiredness set in, I slowly dozed off and went into the dream world.
“Hey, wake up. I would need you to leave for a while,” a female voice shook me up as I woke up.
I looked up drowsily as I saw a nurse smiling at me. I looked at the time. It was three in the afternoon. I left the room and waved good bye to my mum.
On the way home, I was reflecting about the incidents that happened last night. I looked at the hand that slapped Chris. I felt I was in the wrong by slapping him. He had a choice of who he wanted to be with and since we had not seen each other for so long, I should not have treated him when I saw him for the first time after so many years.
“I need to seek advice from you,” Belinda’s serious tone together with Carol’s anxious look greeted me at the gate of our home.
“Mr. Fang, our agent, talked to us last night. We wanted to find you but you left abruptly. Mr. Fang said that the amount of flowers and lady drinks are way below the quota for the week, he told us that since we are new. He would hope that we can do better in the coming weeks, you have always been the top among all of us in getting the most flowers and lady drinks, could you teach us how?” Belinda continued.
“Tonight, I shall help you,” I smiled at Belinda and Carol as they were delighted with my reply.
“Hi, how are you?” I went over to greet Marcus, a regular customer.
I was holding Belinda and Carol’s hands as I led them to Marcus’ table. I sat opposite Marcus as Belinda and Carol sat beside Marcus. I used my eyes to hint to them to take good care of Marcus.
As we played dice games, Marcus was eyeing at Belinda as he put his hand on her lap. Belinda held his hand and smiled at him. I looked at the watch and realised that we had only ten more minutes left.
“Marcus, can you buy us lady drinks or not?” I stood up and bend over to ask Marcus.
Marcus smiled as he agreed to buy us three lady drinks each. I gave Marcus a light peck on the cheek and the both of them followed suit too.
“We have to get ready to dance,” I left as Belinda and Carol followed behind me. As I greeted the regular customers, I introduced Belinda and Carol too.
“For the past few days, you have always been walking around and only sitting on a few tables that the customers had given you flowers when you are dancing. Follow what Kelly and I do. We go around every table to greet and to talk to them for a while before moving on to the next table. You would definitely be known to more people,” I whispered a piece of advice to them as we were walking about.
As the night progressed, we were having fun as I went around with the two of them to almost every single table. I realised that Belinda was quite passive but she seemed to attract more customers as they tended to talk to her more but Carol was aggressive as she always tried to take the initiative to engage with the customers.
“Hi, it’s me, I am sorry about last night,” a familiar voice came as my shoulder was tapped.
“I did not expect to see you again!” I exclaimed as I was surprised to see Chris again.
“I am very sorry about last night. I hope that I did not hurt you too badly,” my voice became meek as I felt awkward seeing him again after the incident last night.
“I was very surprised about what you said and did last night, but I never blamed you for that. You were concerned about me as a friend, but I do agree that you have a very nice figure. Most men would fall in love with you on first sight,” he seemed to be hinting on something indirectly.
“Would you fall in love with me on first sight then?” my question seemed redundant as I realised that I was asking a ridiculous question only after I finished asking.
He did not utter a word as he poured a glass of whiskey for me and we drank together. The embarrassment seemed to have erased after the first glass as we exchanged smiles.
“If you all are creating any new dance moves, you can give me a call. I can come down and take a look and give you all some pointers. For an old friend, I don’t charge a single cent,” his offer ended with a slight laughter.
I shook hands with him as I indicated to him that I had to move on to greet other customers.
As I scanned the area, I saw Belinda looking at my direction. She seemed to be indicating to me to go over. A customer sitting beside her had his arms all around her.
“Hi, my name is Vanessa. How can I address you?” I looked at him as I tried to introduce myself.
“Hi, my name is Mark. He is my friend, Edward,” he introduced himself. His right arm was around Belinda’s waist as his left hand was holding her hand and putting them on her lap.
Mark ignored me straight away after he introduced himself. Edward and Carol was playing dice games as I looked at Belinda trying to indicate to her that everything would be alright.
“Would you go to my apartment after work? I can buy you more lady drinks,” Mark’s eyes were all over Belinda as his eyes settled on where her cleavage was.
I saw a tray of lady’s drinks on the table. There were about twelve of them. As there were three more shots of tequila left on the tray, I took them out.
“Cheers! Let’s drink up,” I took up one shot glass as I served the other two shot glasses to the both of them.
“Belinda, the manager wants to see you,” I faked a serious tone as the three of us gulped the liquor down.
As I led Belinda out of the table and outside the workplace, Belinda seemed to be stressed.
“Mark suddenly grabbed my hand without any reason while we were playing games. I did not know how to react but just played on then he started to hug me and put his arm around my waist. There were customers who did that but the way he treated me, I felt very uneasy,” Belinda tried to explain.
“It’s alright. That’s why I tried to help you just now. Most importantly is that you can meet to the quota for this month if not you might have to leave for another place. Belinda, you have to be more outgoing to stay in this line. You are attractive but you are not able to make use of your attractiveness to the fullest,” I consoled her as she seemed to be on the verge to tears.
“I don’t think that its only just work that is giving you pressure. You seemed to behave a bit differently for the past two days. We cannot stay outside for too long. I talk to you when we finish our work for the day ok?” I seemed to be able to read her mind.
As we went back, I saw three familiar faces from far.
“Hi pretty girl, where have you been?” Gilbert popped the question as his dimples came out with a huge smile framing his face.
I smiled at him and saw Leo and Alex behind him. Alex seemed to try to look away as I turned my direction to face him. I introduced Belinda to them and sat with them.
“When are you going to rest for this month?” Alex’s question was unexpected as I off handedly could not reply his question immediately.
“I think I may be free next Monday. Why?” I thought for a while as I looked at the calendar in my phone.
“I was thinking of taking you out for dinner if you are free on that day,” I expected him to ask me along those lines as it was common for customers to ask me out for dinner dates on my off days.
“Sure, I am free on that evening and I am fine with anything,” I smiled at him as he seemed a bit nervous. I let out a small giggle as he looked surprised that I agreed.
As we drank, I took Belinda’s hand and left for other tables.
“Why do we leave so fast? We have not even sat for more than ten minutes,” Belinda scratched her head as she gave me a curious look.
“They don’t buy lady drinks. It’s no point to stay so long since we have many other customers on the table. Mr. Fang is near the bar area. He would not be happy with you especially if you sit on their table for quite a long time and they did not buy anything for you,” I whispered into her ear, not wanting anybody else to hear what I was telling her.
As we went around, Belinda and Carol was satisfied. The amount of lady drinks and flowers that they had on that night was more than the combined amount over the past few nights.
As our workplace closed for the night, we waved goodbye to every customer still seated at their tables. It seemed like a very long night and we were dog tired. Even though it was a short walk from our workplace to our home, we took a much longer time to walk back as our tired legs reduced our pace by a notch or two.
“Vanessa, can we go to the living room to talk?” I came out of the bathroom as Belinda was standing at the corridor.
End of part 6
What did Belinda want to say to Vanessa? Look out for part 7.
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