The meal was great. The only thing I ever had that was comparable to this was perhaps the dinner my mom used to cook. But that was a long long time ago. So long ago that I almost had forgotten.
With two glasses of wine, I started to feel warm and a bit high. This has been a wonderful night! Even without the 60 dollar pocket money that I will get, I say, this is definitely worth it!
Watching Hand, Prada and Grace eating with their sun glasses on, I wanted to laugh. I wondered how they were able to see their food. I guessed other people might feel the same, since from time to time, I saw people from other tables look at us curiously. I did not care. I am sure the gang was too cool to care either. They simply threw jokes at each other, and sometimes at me, as they ate.
When we all finished our food, Hand asked me, "desert or another round of booze?"
I said "booze". Hand then had the waiter open another bottle of merlot for us.
Having a sip of her wine, Grace spoke to me, "Jack, do you really enjoy staying on the street?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I particularly enjoy it, but it is easy, " I said, "and couldn't be easier."
"But, maybe with SOME effort, you might enjoy a better life?"
That actually got me thinking. I could not remember when was the last time I actually made an effort on something.
As I was trying to make an intelligent answer, Hand tapped the table with his fingers, "Attention, ladies and gentlemen, " he whispered, slowly, "here, comes our target."
A group of ten-ish Asian people walked in and sat at the long table next to us. Among them, there was a cute skinny girl wearing a thick pair of glasses, perhaps a university student having worked too hard; there was a sporty-looking girl with short hair dyed in pinkish red, who seemed fairly westernized; there was, wow, a hot babe in a low-cut V-neck dress, green and sleeveless; there was a slim young woman wearing a traditional Chinese dress and a classic Eastern smile but unfortunately also a pair of glasses with a black frame that looked really heavy; and there was this elegant-looking neatly dressed lady, who, strangely, held in her hands two bottles of pickled red peppers.
After checking out the women one by one, I moved my eyes to the guys in the party.
Immediately, I recognized the guy who came with Hand last time and brought me to the movie. He still wore a pair of glasses. His hair grew longer and looked softer and thinner, which, according to a theory I overheard, was a sign of belonging to the higher class of the society. I seemed to remember that his name was Yong Bao.
Then there was this guy who I sat with last time in the movie theatre. His eyes seemed smaller than I thought. But I supposed they were just like this before and it was perhaps my memory that was inaccurate, or else, how could they change? I could not see whether he still wore that shinny pair of leather shoes, but surely he did not wear the dress suit this time, instead, he had on him a sweater with outrageously bright and colourful patterns. Hey, buddy, if all you want is to be impressive, you made it!
There were a couple of other guys. What caught my eyes was an older but tough looking guy among them, muscularly built, like a cowboy or a Kungfu master. That made me concerned. I asked Hand, "you sure we wanna do this?"