I printed out several pages of property details for him, and for a few minutes we chatted about his firm. Then he said, 'By the way, thanks for sending on to us that letter from the Chinese lad last year. I was the culprit who fobbed him off with a mini-cab firm's telephone number. Bit of a mean trick, I admit. Can't speak for the others, but with me it's not just the sex. I really liked him. The others have been teasing me about it ever since. I would have written back to him if I'd known there was a prospect of me moving down here, but at the time there seemed no point in encouraging him. You can make your life a misery, pining away in Newcastle for someone who's living down South. The others take the piss out of me for being too romantic. It is stupid, when you think about it.'
'Don't you have Chinese men in Newcastle?'
'Yes, but none that are interested in me.'
'When Cheung came to the hotel after your last visit I wasn't sure who it was he wanted to get in touch with, but he was obviously smitten by one of you. He's Darren's boyfriend now, has been for quite a while.'
'Missed my chance then.'
'Seems like it.'
An e-mail from Southern France arrived with the disappointing information that Andrew, who the last time he rang had progressed as far as Tunisia, would not after all be back for the party. He was not a fan of e-mail, and must have persuaded someone at his hotel in France to send it for him.
On Saturday afternoon and evening we prepared the food, covered it, and laid it out in the dining room. We put out wine, spirits and cans of beer and cleared the few remaining furnishings from the lounge to make it ready for dancing. Breakables and my personal papers from downstairs were locked away or moved to the second floor for safety, making the basement rooms a quiet area for people to escape to or use as a route to the garden and fresh air.
Cheung took Darren off to visit one of his female cousins who made him look amazingly Chinese by dying his hair jet black and making up his face with mascara, eye shadow and gentle touches of colour. By seven o'clock everything in the hotel was ready and the four of us hung around in the kitchen waiting for the first guests to arrive. Fascinated by Darren's changed appearance, Tom and I could not stop looking at him.