The Weekend. (Blinding lights and all that.)

Aor stays for a while that night to talk, drink and relax. An evening with good wine and good company always a welcome respite. Yui enjoys listening in on Aor and my business talk. Everything now in a holding pattern until the shipment arrives. It’s late by the time Yui and I go to sleep. Aor arranging for another of her seemingly endless list of friends and connections to come and take her home to her son. Only Yui has to be up early in the morning but once again seems to suffer no ill effects from just a handful of hours of sleep. Bouncing awake and alert as if she’d slept for days.

For the rest of the week, nothing much happens. Yui goes to work and them home to me every night. Her libido is as insatiable as it ever has been. The pair of us supplementing nightly lovemaking sessions with morning ones too. For her part, Yui is loving the attention and having me completely to herself while Piya is not here. A fact noticed by Mother Superior Constance when I drop by Yui’s school on Friday to pick her up.

St Magdalene’s School for Girls had broken up for its long summer break and Yui had asked if I could come by her work and help her take some of her things home rather than leave them all there during the hot summer months. The students had all finished the day before, the senior class a fortnight after their exams, so it was Yui’s last day before her break also.

I was helping Yui carry a load of boxes to my car when the tattooed nun found us walking down the halls.

“And here is the man at the centre of our fair lady’s world,” the nun says to me by way of greeting.

“Good afternoon Mother Superior,” I say putting my load down for now. “I’m just lucky she keeps me around honestly.”

“Oh nonsense,” the nun says with a playful scoff at my words, “Miss Yui has been positively glowing all this week.”

“Thank you, Mother. I wouldn’t say I’m glowing, just happy that’s all,” Yui adds.

The head of the school shows her kindness and affection towards the little teacher by reaching out and taking her forearms in hers. “I know you miss your dear friend but they say a flower blooms much brighter when it gets all the sunlight.”

Yui smiles before trying to agree with Mother Constance, “must me all the fertilising I’m getting too!”

I do a double-take at Yui’s comment before she lets out a loud gasp at the potential double meaning of the words she just said.

“Oh, Mother Superior! I never would have meant it like…”

The nun cuts her off with a full-throated belly laugh as she near doubles over. Wiping tears from her eyes she pulls Yui in to hug her and give her a kiss on the side of the head. “Oh, my dear! Anybody but you and that would have been pornographic. Never change. Never change!”

I can’t help but laugh and agree with her. Despite her overactive imagination and sexual curiosity, there is no way Yui would have said anything but the most innocent of intended comments. Saying goodbye Yui and I regather the boxes and continue on to my car. From the school, we head back to Yui’s house where her mother has prepared dinner for us. Dinner conversation with Yui’s father an update on the performance of The Loft since he signed the loan over to Holly and Jessica.

After dinner, I thank Yui’s mum for the lovely meal and attempt to do the washing up but am sworn off it. I have my work that night at the club so should be making my way there. Yui walks me to my car as her mum begins the tidying up. We stop and embrace by my driver’s side door.

“Will I see you after work again?” I ask.

“Mum wants me to take her to the markets in the morning to get all the fresh Asian vegetables. You think you can go a night without me? Might give one of the others a chance with you for once,” Yui tells me playfully.

“I’ll just put it in the group chat and see who wants to come over, shall I?” I tease back.

“You bloody would too,” Yui laughs. “Did you want me to get extra for you too? Your fridge could do with having some healthier things in it.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t know how to cook them.”

“I sure you can organise plenty of Thai cooking lessons,” Yui finishes before leaning in for a long kiss goodbye.

At The Loft I am introduced to the new manager Holly and Jessica are trialling this weekend. A tall Irish guy in his early 30’s by the name of Dermot. Jessica has him following her just as I did when I was first learning how things ran there. With those two running effective running things tonight, Holy and I can take a bit of a step back and just act like normal staff for the night. Holly sorts out the bar allocations so that it’s just the two of us together in the quieter bar that Dawn is normally put in. Dawn more than capable of working any of the busier spots. It gives us a chance to goof off and take it easy.

The night goes smoothly. Our bar is just busy enough to keep things flowing but not enough that we have to push ourselves to get things done. Holly and I sneak a couple of beers behind the bar as we work which makes things just that little bit more fun.

It’s getting on towards the time the club should be closing. Holly is a gun behind the bar and has the place broken down and spotless with ages to spare. I don't really have much to do when a familiar face comes rushing up to the counter, eye mostly closed with a very serious and stern look on her face. I recognise her as Lini Long, the girl Lawan was having some dramas with at an 18th birthday party The Loft hosted.

I go to say hello but before for I can the girl asks me, "do you sell food here?"

"Hey, ah, yeah we do normally but the kitchen closed ages ago," I tell her. The kitchen staff long gone after cleaning up after the dinner service was finished.

She purses her lips at me and walks off quickly without another word. Strange...

Almost before I can do anything else, another girl from that party comes up to the bar. Fantasia. The one with the bright eyes and adorable smile, although her eyes are looking pretty red and her smile is kind of goofy.

"Hey, Roo. Lawan said we could get food here," she says in a mellow voice.

"Hi Fantasia. I just told your friend we stopped serving food for the night a long time ago."

"Oh," she says dreamily before wandering off.

I'm not all that surprised when Fantasia reappears soon afterwards, this time with Lawan as well as Lini and the birthday girl from before Fon.

"Hey Lawan," I say when Piya's little sister makes her way to the bar.

She looks happy with a big grin on her face but sounds annoyed when she says, "Roo! Why won't you give us anything to eat?"

"Yeah. Lawan said you would feed us if we came here," Fon adds.

“I keep telling you all that our restaurant shut hours ago. It’s nearly 2 in the morning,” I say just a touch exasperated.

The four Asian teens form into a huddle as I look to Holly for help with what’s going on. She’s laughing at the whole situation so I throw my hands up in the air.

“What?” I ask.

“We’re almost closed anyway, you might as well go now and deal with them. Grab Dawn too if you want,” Holly tells me with a knowing look on her face.

“What’s got into them?”

“They’re teens…,” Holy spells it out for me, “they’re baked…. They’ve got the munchies…”

“Ooohhh,” it all becomes clear now.

Coming around from behind the bar, I tell Lawan who seems to be the de facto leader of the bunch of stoned girls to go and find Dawn and I’ll meet her there in just a few minutes. I grab my jacket, keys and wallet from the staff lockers and head back out to where Dawn had been working. She sees me coming and storms over to me annoyed.

“They’ve been eating pot brownies. They’re all high! What are you going to do about it?” Dawn complains. I think she’s more annoyed that she had to work and missed out on having fun with her friends than their actual behaviour.

“Go get them something to eat of course. Holly said you can knock off and come with us so go grab your stuff and let’s go.”