บท 6: FAMILY HONOUR [3]
"So where can a guy get a little action around here?' he said by way of introduction.
Xian Mei gave him a professional smile. 'That depends on what you mean, sir. There is an abundance of restaurants and bars on the island.'
'That so?' said the man thoughtfully. 'And I guess you'd know all the best ones?'
Xian Mei hesitated. 'I don't go out too often. I work long hours here, and I'm usually very tired at the end of the day.'
'Sounds to me like you could use a little R'n'R,' said the man, leaning in even closer.
'As I say, I work long hours,' said Xian Mei. She focused on the monitor in front of her. 'Do you have a reservation, sir?'
'I do indeed,' said the man. He grinned and leaned back, like a hunter who had failed to bag his target on this occasion but knew it was only a matter of time.
'Could I take your name, please, sir?'
The man pushed out his bottom lip, feigning offense. 'You mean you don't recognize me?'
Xian Mei glanced at him. 'I'm afraid not, sir.'
Next to her, her colleague, Lan, was dealing with the reservation of a young black man wearing a red bandanna. The black man glanced over at Xian Mei's customer and shook his head. 'You giving this nice lady a hard time now?' he drawled in a voice as deep and warm as melted chocolate.
The tattooed man spread his hands. 'I'm just being friendly is all.'
The black man raised one eyebrow. 'There are different types of friendly. I don't think the nice lady likes your particular flavor.'
Xian Mei smiled, genuinely amused. 'It's really not a problem, sir.'
'You see!' said the tattooed man triumphantly. 'Not a problem.' He turned back to Xian Mei. 'I think you and me are going to hit it off just fine.'
Xian Mei smiled but didn't comment. Instead, she said, 'So if I could take your name, sir?'
The tattooed man sighed theatrically. 'It's Carter. Logan Carter. Football star, Logan Carter.'
'Ex-football star,' muttered the black man.
Logan scowled. 'Just like you're an ex-rapper, you mean?'
The black man turned and gave Logan a cool, appraising look. 'We'll see about that, won't we?'
'Yeah,' Logan said. 'I guess we will.'
Xian Mei typed Logan's name into her keyboard and pressed Enter, and immediately his details scrolled up on her monitor, together with a flashing red symbol in the top left-hand corner. Because of her briefing from her manager that morning, she recognized the symbol as the logo for the US National Blood Drive Campaign. Looking up, she said, 'I see you're one of our blood drive people, Mr. Carter?'
Logan nodded. 'Sure am. Helped promote the blood donation campaign, what with being a nationally-known face and all. Had my picture taken giving an itty bit of blood and got an all-expenses-paid holiday in return. Sounded like a damn good deal to me.'
Beside him, the black man said, 'Snap.'
Logan turned. 'Pardon me?'
'I'm in on that blood drive deal too. Gave some blood at a celebrity event in New Orleans. Next thing, I get a call offering me a two-week gig here in Banoi. Pretty cool, huh?'
Before Logan could respond, a voice behind the black man said, 'Double snap.'
Both men turned to reveal an elegant and strikingly beautiful dark-skinned woman in a short, sleeveless, green summer dress. The woman waved her plastic room key, on which was stamped the red National Blood Drive Campaign logo.
'After I gave blood, I didn't even know I'd been entered in a sweepstake till I got a call to say I'd won an all-expenses-paid holiday. Thought it was a scam at first.'
The black man turned to Xian Mei. Nodding at their fellow guests who were still waiting in line to check in, he said, 'Hey, are all these dudes here because of this blood drive thing?'
Xian Mei tapped a couple of keys on her keyboard. 'No, just the three of you,' she said.
'Hey,' said Logan, 'we're like a club. Well, ain't that nice?'
The black man looked at Purna and raised an eyebrow. 'Yeah,' he said drily. 'Maybe we should all get ourselves some T-shirts.'
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