What We've Done

Chapter 3

Still grinning with Elouise's touch, her lips, Henry opened the door to the five-roomed house he shared with four other Chinese men, one of whom being his closest friend. They each had their own room, but shared a communal kitchen and three bathrooms. There had been a living room once, but long before Henry had moved in it had been transformed into a game room, complete with cards and a mahjong table.

It was late enough for dinner, and he could smell someone cooking something up in the kitchen. After removing his shoes and unbuttoning the top button of his wrinkled shirt, he walked in to see who it was and what they were making.

The first sight he laid eyes on was the clothes back of his friend, George, standing over the gas stove and mixing something around in a wok. Beside him stood a woman, and unlike him, her back was completely bare, body only covered by a knee-length black shirt.

He gasped without quite meaning to, causing her to turn around with eyes wide as a baby dear. He turned his head away as quickly as possible. "God George! Have some decency!"

George rolled his eyes- he was a few inches taller than Henry and, admittedly, slightly more handsome. His eyebrows were always shaped in the expression of mischief, his lips crafted in a perfect frown. With a broader chest and a physique from a more physically gruelling job, he often caught the eyes of even the most closed-off girls.

"God Henry," he mocked in less skilled English, "stop being such a prude." Removing his own shirt, he draped it over her shoulders with a wink and a motion that told her to button it up. "Sorry about him, baby. He's a bit of a dope when it comes to the finer sex."

Henry sighed, keeping his eyes squeezed shut. "Can I look now?"

"Go ahead."

Henry opened his eyes slowly, turning back around to face George.

"Now I'm going to get burned by the oil," he complained in Mandarin, a slightly different dialect than Henry had grown up with. As a result, Henry heard an accent no matter what language he spoke in. "You happy?"

"Very," he replied, giving a forgiving smile to the girl who now stood awkwardly against the counter. She wasn't Chinese- most of the girls George brought home weren't. "Is this another one of your-"

"Girls?" He answered in English, smiling sweetly at the woman wearing his shirt. She smiled back. "Of course," he switched to Mandarin, "she's pretty, isn't she?"

Henry nodded, continuing to speak in Mandarin. "Guiren, you really shouldn't be bringing prostitutes here. The police will arrest all of us, no matter if we're doing it or not."

"That's why she's my girl, not a prostitute."

"Oh yeah? How long is she your girl for?"

"Just tonight," George gave him a mischievous grin, then turned back around to take whatever he was cooking off the heat. "Why are you home anyways? I thought you worked late today."

"I was on a date," Henry bit back a smile, watching as George turned back around, searching his eyes for any sign he was joking.

"You're serious?"

"Dead," he replied, sitting down in one of the chairs set up by their makeshift dining table. He cupped his hands in front of him, staring at them to try to figure out exactly where she touched. "It was lovely. She was lovely."

"What's her name?"

Henry looked back up at George. "Elouise. Elouise Anderson."

George nodded, but he turned away from Henry. His back was tanned with the last of the summer sun, his shoulder muscles flexing as he reached up for bowls. "And you really like her?"