by John Muir
CHAPTER 13
THE GIFT
VIP Hotel, Cagayan de Oro.
Instead of a smiling waiter with a tray, T.A. was facing one of the prettiest women he had ever seen. Her black hair was in a page boy style around a face that was not fully Filipina, suggesting a strong trace of Chinese or Japanese in her ancestry. Her height was barely to T.A.'s shoulders. The jet black dress had single narrow straps over each shoulder and fell to a not too revealing V-cleavage around small but nicely proportioned breasts. She was carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. A small black purse was under one arm.
"I'm sorry," said T.A., "I was expecting someone else."
His remark caused a surprised look on her face.
"No, no," T.A. went on. "I meant I thought it was the waiter with my food. I'm sorry, which room were you after?"
"Loom 308," she replied.
T.A. noticed the confusion between the l's and r's, but he knew what she meant.
"Yes, this is 308. But I'm the only one here. Who were you looking for?"
"Yamada San told me, see Mr T.A. Give him massage for stiff neck with bottle of wine with his compriments."
T.A. thought very briefly about Ueda's grin, then, he tried to think where the woman's accent was from.
"I'm sorry. Please come in."
The woman motioned her head to a large plastic shopping bag on the floor. It advertised 'Plaza Fair'.
"A gift from Yamada San," she said.
T.A. stood back and let her enter. As he stepped out to pick up the bag he made a quick embarrassed glance up and down the corridor. Thankfully it was empty. He then re-entered the room.
The woman had already set the glasses and wine on the table.
"You look at your plesent now," the woman said.
T.A. self-consciously set the bag down on the bed and opened the top. A thin tissue wrapping was on the top and he pulled that out before pulling out the garment beneath. It was dark blue. When he had pulled it fully out he realised it was a lightweight satin dressing robe.
"Rooks good," commented the visitor.
"And expensive," replied T.A.
"I lun a nice bath for you. Then you wear your plesent before I give you massage."
"Thanks. Oh, you haven't told me your name."
"Becky." With that she removed her shoes and moved toward the bathroom.
T.A. turned to watch Becky go. It was not so much moved, but more of a glide. Her black dress was just below the knees and her legs were a nice slim shape. Her buttocks were small and firm. T.A. thought they were just a nice handful. The waist was nicely in proportion to what seemed just right for her body size.
He quickly reassessed her height again. Maybe barefooted she was only tall enough to reach his armpit.
Within seconds, T.A. heard the bath-water begin to flow. He was unsure of whether to undress now or wait until the bath was run and undress in the bathroom where she could not see. He decided he would wait. Then he remembered his money pouch strapped over his stomach and under his pants. Quickly removing it he dropped it behind the bedside table. 'No sense in taking risks,' he thought.
After a few minutes, Becky came out of the bathroom.
"You not undlessed yet?"
"You're a bit bossy," said T.A., "but tonight I'm too tired to fight."
"Good."
Becky walked up and began to unbutton his shirt. He went to step back and changed his mind.
"Lemember, too tired to fight," she said looking up into T.A's eyes.
As T.A. looked down into her dark brown eyes he felt himself being totally drawn into them. He would submit fully.
"Ooh, nice and haily." she said.
After she removed his shirt then his trousers, she stroked his chest and the tops of his legs, running her fingers against the grain of his hair. With the shudder that it sent down his body, he did not have to look down to know he was already showing signs of excitement.
With his underwear still on, she led him into the bathroom. The bubbles from the hotel supplied bubble bath were higher than the edge of the bath.
She removed his underwear with care so as not to stretch his erection the wrong way.
T.A. tested the water temperature with his foot. It was perfect. He lowered himself into the bubbles and laid his head back on the end of the bath. Many of the bubbles flowed over the edge and onto the floor tiles.
Becky folded one of the spare towels and put it under his head as a pillow.
T.A. let out a deep breath as he let himself totally relax. He closed his eyes when Becky wiped the sweat drops from his forehead with the face flannel.
A loud knock on the door made him jump with shock.
"Damn. I'd forgotten about dinner being delivered." He started to get up and out of the bath.
"I can ret them in," said Becky.
T.A. thought about it. The hotel rules were prominently displayed in every room regarding the hotel policy about entertainment of women in the rooms by guests.
"No, I'll get it. You stay in the bathroom."
He wrapped a large towel around his waist, closed the bathroom door behind him, and opened the door to the hallway.
"Good evening sir," smiled the waiter balancing a large tray on the outspread fingers of his right hand. He passed T.A. and immediately set the tray on the table. He paused to receive a tip. T.A. remembered he had dropped his money behind the bedside table.
"Sorry," T.A. said. "I'm wet, and my money's in my case. I'll fix you up later."
The smile quickly faded from the waiter's face. "That's all right sir."
T.A. closed the door behind the waiter and reopened the bathroom door. Becky's head was barely visible above the bubbles. Her clothes were neatly folded on the top of the bathroom dresser.
She looked at him and smiled.
"I think tonight is going to be very good for me," said T.A.
"I will make it good for you," Becky replied.
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The phone by the bed rang loudly and T.A. sat up quickly. He looked around the room and tried to think where he was. His body was reluctantly awake but his consciousness did not want to follow suit.
He looked around the darkened room while the phone persisted in its demand for attention. Finally his brain kicked in as he remembered where he was. He picked up the phone.
"Yes?"
"This is reception sir with your 8:00 A.M. wake up call as you requested."
"O.K., thanks," and he hung up. His mind could not recall asking for a wake up call.
He remembered Becky and turned to look at other side of the bed. It was empty. Throwing his legs over the side of the bed he walked to the bathroom. Her clothes were gone.
He began to wonder if he had only dreamt her. Opening the blinds he saw the dark blue dressing gown, still untried, the empty wine bottle and glasses, and the eaten dinner.
He remembered Becky eating more of his dinner than he did. Almost as if she had not had a decent meal in days. Then her squeals as she ate all of the dessert. She did exist, and now she was gone. T.A. didn't even know where he could contact her.
Sitting back on the bed; the memories of the previous night came flooding into his mind. He started to wish Becky was still here. He thought briefly about asking Yamada how he could contact Becky, and thought that perhaps it might not be polite to do so.
He quickly showered and went downstairs for breakfast. He took his second cup of coffee into the lobby just before 8:45 a.m. He asked reception for his security box and removed cash sufficient for what he considered he might limit himself to spend on jewellery. He returned to his lobby seat and had barely finished his coffee when the non-English speaking Iti walked through the front door.
Iti spotted T,A., and walked towards him. He bowed and extended two arms on top of which was a large brown paper wrapped parcel.
"Dozo," said Iti.
"Arigato," replied T.A.
Iti bowed again, turned and walked out the way he had come.
T.A. headed strai
ght back to his room and opened the parcel. It was the middle brown suit, and both pairs of trousers. He put on one of his two non-iron dress shirts, now slightly wrinkled, and the one and only tie. He was amazed at the perfect fit of both the trousers and the jacket. Recovering his money pouch from behind the bedside table, he fitted that under the suit trousers. No bulge could be seen even though he now had more money packed in it in readiness for his gold jewellery jaunt. He was still parading himself in front of the mirror when he heard the knock on the door.
T.A. opened it, not surprised at the presence of the expected visitor.
"Good morning," said Ueda smiling. "I hope you slept well."
"Very well thank you," replied T.A. deciding not to mention the previous night’s events in case Ueda was not aware of what had been arranged, although that was unlikely.
"You look as well dressed as Yamada san," commented Ueda. "Perhaps this little gift from Yamada san will complete your wardrobe."
With that Ueda reached into his barong pocket and pulled out a small case which he opened revealing a pair of sunglasses. Ueda handed them to T.A.
"Hey, these are Raybans," said T.A., immediately putting them on. "Are they genuine?" T.A. immediately realised he should not have said that. "I'm sure they are; it's just that I've become too suspicious in Manila after being offered fake Rolex's."
Ueda nodded and turned to leave. T.A. followed.
As they passed reception one of the clerks called out, "thank you for staying at VIP sir."
T.A. wondered what that was for and followed Ueda out of the front door. Iti was standing at the backdoor of the Nissan Patrol parked immediately outside the front door to the hotel. The Nissan windows were so darkly tinted, T.A. could not see anyone inside.
Iti opened the door and let T.A. in, immediately followed by Ueda. Iti then made his way to the front of the Nissan and sat in the front to the right of the driver.
T.A. was surprised to see Yamada on the wide front facing back seat inside the Nissan. Yamada patted the seat to his right, which T.A. took. Ueda sat on the forward rear-facing seat opposite Yamada and T.A.. Then he slid into the centre of the seat.
"Good morning, I hope you had a good sleep," said Yamada. He spoke to the driver in Japanese who immediately pulled out into the traffic.
"Yes thank you very much." T.A. hoped the emphasis he had placed on the 'you' was not rude. He then noticed Yamada was dressed casually in barong and jeans.
"My arrangements for this morning fell through, so I took the opportunity to go for an early swim at the beach."
T.A. could not remember any good swimming beaches nearby.
"How does the suit fit? It looks very good on you."
"Perfectly."
"Excellent. I know I have a good tailor in my shop. Just as I thought, I can see the one you're wearing won't need any adjustment. I took the liberty of collecting the second one on the way here." Yamada picked up another parcel and handed it to T.A.
"Thank you very much."
"I have told the driver to take us to my pawn shops. So you can sit back and relax for a while. It will take us over an hour to get there."
T.A. must have looked surprised.
"It depends on the traffic. If we get a good run it will be less."
"Where are your shops?"
"Three are in Marawi, but I'm going to buy one or two in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro soon."
"I thought they were in Cagayan, I didn't know we'd have to go all the way to Marawi."
"Oh, I'm sorry; I thought I'd told you. But never mind, it's no bother, we'll be back by late afternoon. Besides, there are still many things I want to ask you about business in Australia and New Zealand. So we can pass the time easily."
T.A. was a little annoyed at this unexpected out of town trip. Though he was sure, after experiencing the bargain buy on the suits, he would not be disappointed with the pawn shops either.
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