Eles Trocaram as Chaves do Quarto — Chapter 6 Seven Thirty

Chapter 6 Seven Thirty

The agreed time was seven thirty in the morning. No one stayed in the other person's room until full daylight. Chen Hao woke at ten past seven. Gu Wanning had her back to him. Her shoulder blades were clear in the dimness. Her hair was spread on the pillow. He looked for a while and did not touch her. His body remembered the night. His penis was hard with the morning. He got up, dealt with it in the bathroom, washed his face, and only then, back at the bed, called her softly.

"Wanning. Ten past seven. I should go."

She turned. Her eyes were still a little swollen. When she saw it was him she pulled the quilt to her chest first. "All right. Before you put on the shirt I threw over the chair, look at it. That's Lin Zheng's. Yours is by the suitcase."

Chen Hao found his own clothes. There was a little of her perfume on the cloth, and more of the smell of last night's sweat after it had dried. He dressed, and poured a glass of water and set it by her hand.

"Are you all right?"

"All right." Gu Wanning sat up. Hair covered half her face. "The insides of my thighs will ache. That's normal. You didn't hurt me. When you go back, tell her you missed her too. Don't report only the good part."

"I know."

He paused at the door. Gu Wanning looked at him and did not offer a goodbye kiss. Chen Hao himself felt a goodbye kiss would be too much like a married couple. He only nodded and opened the door. The corridor was empty. The door opposite opened at the same moment.

Lin Zheng came out. The two men met eyes in the ten-meter corridor and both stopped. Both heads of hair were a mess. Neither collar was straight. Chen Hao spoke first, very low.

"She cried. Later she said it was only crying, not stop. She asked me to tell you she's all right. If you want to ask her yourself, her words are the ones that count."

Lin Zheng's jaw tightened, then let go. "And Wanning?"

"She said she's all right. She told me to take the truth back, including that I missed my wife."

"Then go back and say it." Lin Zheng turned sideways and left the way clear. "Don't finish the debrief in the corridor. These are their rooms, and ours."

When Chen Hao went in, Xu Siyi was sitting on the edge of the bed putting on a sock. She saw him. The sock in her hand stopped. Neither of them rushed at the other. Lin Zheng passed Chen Hao, went into his own room, and the door shut. In 1208 there were only the two of them.

Xu Siyi smelled what was on him. Her face went white for an instant, then recovered. Chen Hao smelled the soap Lin Zheng had left in this room. One corner of the sheet was badly creased. Jealousy came up from his stomach, sour and hot. He stood in the doorway and said the hardest sentence first.

"I slept with her. She came twice. I came too. We used a condom. I stopped once in the middle, because she told me to say so if I was close. While I was doing it I thought of you. When I came I thought of you too. She told me that when she came she had thought of Lin Zheng. I'm telling you now. And you?"

Xu Siyi threw the sock back on the bed and walked to him barefoot. She did not hit him. She did not smile. She lifted a hand and straightened his collar. Her fingers stayed on the collar a long time.

"I did it. I came too. Twice, or maybe once that was very long. I cried. He stopped and held me. He didn't go on until I said I wanted it again. He wore a condom. He didn't push my head. I felt better than I expected, so I felt guilty. Seeing you now, the guilt is still here, and so is wanting to touch you. You have her smell on you. I hate that smell. And I can't pretend I don't have his smell on me."

Chen Hao's eyes heated. He put his forehead to hers. Their noses touched. Neither of them was breathing steadily.

"I'm jealous," he said.

"So am I. We shower first, separately. After we shower we sit down and finish the twenty minutes. We don't make a second decision inside the jealousy."

Hot water reddened skin. Chen Hao stood under the spray and washed her perfume and Gu Wanning's perfume down together. Halfway through he felt ridiculous. Smell could be washed off. The shapes the body remembered could not. When he came out Xu Siyi was dressed. Her hair was still wet. She sat at the small table. The rules were still on it. With the hotel pen she had written a few lines on the back.

"I want to add one," she said. "No exchange in the daytime today. The four of us can go out together, or walk separately. No one kisses or puts hands on anyone outside. I need to see that you are still my husband, not only someone else's guest at night."

"I agree."

"And another. In the debrief we don't ask who was better. If you ask, I'll answer, and after I answer both of us will be hurt. I won't ask either."

Chen Hao nodded. "I almost wanted to ask. I'm not asking now. I'll only say what I feel. When I see this bed I think of him inside you. That picture makes me hard, and it makes me want to break something. The two things are together. I don't know what to do with them."

The tips of Xu Siyi's ears went red. "When I heard you say she came twice, my stomach was sour and my legs were soft. I have both too. We eat first. If our hands shake at the table, they shake. We don't compete at the table over who is more generous."

Breakfast was on the second floor. The sea view was a little farther than from the room. On the plates were eggs that had gone cool and porridge that was still hot. The four of them arrived almost together, and almost together hesitated in the doorway. In the end Gu Wanning sat first and pulled out the two chairs opposite.

"Sit," she said. "We're all still here. No one ran in the middle of the night. That counts as good news."

Lin Zheng poured soy milk for each of them. His movements were still steady. Only when he poured for Xu Siyi did he pause half a second longer. Xu Siyi saw it. She did not dodge, and she did not push the cup back. Chen Hao saw that half-second. His spoon made a pit in the porridge.

Gu Wanning broke the silence first. "Lin Zheng and I talked about the daytime rules. We agree there's no exchange today. The body needs rest. The mind needs it more. If anyone wants to meet alone this afternoon, it can only be in a public place, and they tell their own spouse. Whether we go on tonight, we say after dinner. No vote now."

"I wrote the same thing." Xu Siyi showed her the back of the paper.

Gu Wanning read it and gave it back. "Your handwriting really does look like a contract. I like it."

The liking was said lightly. It still made Xu Siyi's eyes hot. She lowered her head and drank the porridge. The steam reddened her eyes further. Under the table Chen Hao touched her knee with his. She touched back. That small exchange made him want to cry more than any deep stroke of the night before.

Halfway through the meal, tourists at the next table were talking loudly about tickets for the pier. Lin Zheng said, suddenly, "The wind is strong today. The beach will be cold. If we're going to Badaguan, morning is better. In the afternoon the light goes hard."

"Even a walk, you look at it like a site," Gu Wanning said.

"Occupational hazard." He looked at her. In the look was something Chen Hao recognized, because he had it when he looked at Xu Siyi. Not possession. It was: I still choose you. Chen Hao kept that look. He told himself that if they went on tonight, he would bring that look back, and not only someone else's warmth.

After the meal the four of them separated in the lobby. They agreed to meet at eleven at the hotel entrance and go to Badaguan. In the hour apart, Chen Hao and Xu Siyi went back to the room and did nothing. They lay on the bed, clothes in order, hands clasped. Xu Siyi put her face to his sleeve and smelled it.

"There's still a little," she said.

"The kind that doesn't wash off."

"Mm. Can you kiss me? Only the mouth. Don't go down."

Chen Hao kissed her. The kiss was slow. It did not have the strangeness of last night with Gu Wanning, and it did not have the perfunctory quality of certain nights in their marriage. Xu Siyi's lips were dry. She bit him lightly once, then let go.

"Still here," she said.

"What's still here?"

"We are. Just now I was afraid I'd kiss you and find it gone. It's still here."

Chen Hao held her tighter, chin against the top of her head. Outside, the sea flashed, like a piece of metal the wind had turned over. He did not promise forever. He only said, "At eleven I still go downstairs with you. If we go on tonight, it's a going-on we've talked about. If, in Badaguan, you suddenly don't want it, pull my sleeve. You don't have to explain in front of people."

Xu Siyi closed her eyes. "The sleeve. I'll remember."