Fiction: THE RECKONING (4)

In which John cycles across town to rendezvous with someone he knows nothing about. (excerpt from an unpublished novel with the working title, MY OLD CHINA: A Delicate Friendship)

I pedal fast, I pedal hard. I can hardly wait to see what awaits me at the Formosa as I glide down a sleepy, leafy thoroughfare in the university district. I’m making good time as I head to the western edge of town. I also happen to be working off a hangover from last night’s wine. Huamei’s revelation about there being another person in her marriage was drama enough for one dinner date, so I never did get the directory details I was hoping for about the person she arranged for me to meet.

When I tried to touch on the topic, asking her, only half-jokingly, if my date was a svelte female comrade-in-arms, a returned student from abroad, or a steamy temptress who wanted to take po’ white boy up the elevator, she glared with disbelief, then rolled her eyes.

I guess she was telling me to drop the sexism, and any unrealistic hopes I might be harboring about the tryst at the Formosa. Or maybe she just didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

We were both swimming in uncharted waters now.

The wine, wh…