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Re: Fifteen
Cidney emptied the leaking batteries from my torchlight and replaced them with new ones before shining the light at me with a smile.
Cidney : Do you love your country James ?
I laughed…
James : Why do you ask ?
She shrugged her shoulders.
Cidney : Sometimes I hear you complaining together with Tan and Sue.
James : hahaha… true… I complain about the rising cost of living, I complain about why houses are expensive, I complain about taxes, I complain about Abdul…I complain…
Cidney : Haha.. ok… ok… stop it…
3 Minutes later I thought it was only right that I answered Cidney
James : I love my country Cidney…... no matter what state she may be in.
Cidney : Same same… I love Thailand too… but I don’t like the people who’s in charge.
I laughed again as she flashed me her sweetest thai smile.
11.00pm
Cidney went to take a shower after we’re done packing and I went in the moment she’s done.
11.20pm
Cidney and I cuddled up on my bed and we fell asleep.
24th April 2011
Sunday
12pm
It was the last person I expected to get a call from on Sunday especially when there was no plans made in advance.
My phone was flashing Beng Soon’s name as I watched Cidney wade around in the swimming pool.
She had wanted a tan and I was too lazy to accompany her to the beach so I suggested heading to a neighbourhood pool.
We came to the one in Hougang since I needed to run an errand for my mum. I did only 2 laps before I decided to just take a break.
Swimming wasn’t really my cup of tea.
We only managed to get one bench as it was pretty crowded on a Sunday.
I picked up the phone and asked Beng Soon what’s up
Beng Soon : Eh are you with Cidney ?
James : yah, why ?
Beng Soon : Need to talk to her about work urgently. She’s not answering her call.
I told him she’s swimming in her white bikini, of course she was not answering her phone.
James : Want to see or not ?
Beng Soon : Eh, James… don’t joke now, this 1 serious.
Beng Soon sounded a little worried and I asked him what was the problem.
He told me that one section of Cidney’s project had a problem.
She requested a mockup of a prototype, it was something she designed herself.
It was something simple, a wall hung bookshelf.
Now, Cidney’s bookshelf is actually quite simply designed, nothing more than vertical and hortizonal planks of wood being stacked together.
The thing was she made a play with the arrangements.
She wanted the openings to be of a certain proportion and it resulted in some pretty wide spacing between her vertical support.
Imagine this is the typical spacing between the support
i-------------i--------------i---------------I
Cidney wanted something like this
i----------------------------------------------------------------i-----------------i
Now, Beng Soon told me on the phone that he did advise her against doing it because if you put something heavy on it, the plank would buckle.
Beng Soon : I told her liao. People put books, sure a lot , sure heavy. She insist want.
I told Beng Soon that actually it’s a small matter, just a broken piece of plank, how much would it cost ? He could easily replace it.
Beng Soon : That stupid shelf is not the problem. Your girlfriend wanted to proof to me can work.
He went on to tell me that during their meeting on Friday, Cidney asked his workers to stack tiles on the shelve and leave it over the weekend to test the strength.
James : Wah. She’s so on ah ?
I was about to tease Beng Soon when he told me the location of the shelve.
My smile automatically left my face as I looked at Cidney trying to push herself out of the pool.
They did the mockup in a small library corner with an entire glass wall separating it from the staircase well.
The tiles broke the shelf, hit the floor and cracked several pieces of tiles.
And by a pure stroke of bad luck, the entire glass wall cracked, leaving one large diagonal streak across.
I digested the news as I watched Cidney walked towards me , brushing the water and her hair from her face.
She turned heads, of course she does.
I saw a few uncles checking her out, her tight young body covered by so little.
I saw a few daddies with their kids, they were supposed to supervised and watch their children swim around in their pyjamas as part of the lesson but instead their gazes were on Cidney.
And Cidney was trying to hurry over to me side, to the large towel she brought.
The moment she arrived, she quickly wrapped herself up, shutting out the eye of so many men envy of me.
I don’t know why.
The more she wanted to protect her modesty, the more I wanted to expose her, the more I wanted to share her.
She is shy, only willing to bare it all for me, the man she loved.
In her eyes, only I get to touch her, only I get to have her.
My mind suddenly thought about Selene and I realised that I needed a break from her. I need time to slowly regain my lust and plot a new course of action for Selene but in the meantime, I needed something to distract me.
I needed to keep my mind occupied.
Cidney gave me a questioning look and I mouthed and told her it’s work.
I offered her the chair and excused myself, walking a distance away to continue the conversation.
I asked Beng Soon what his thoughts were and naturally he was thinking about money and the time schedule.
He told me that he’s running on a tight budget for that job for obvious reasons and for this he could just let it go.
I took a moment to think before everything spun around and fell together into place.
Suddenly I visualized everything as a chessboards and the people around me were like pieces I could move around.
Weird, I know, sometimes I don’t even know how my mind works.
I saw Cidney at the opposite end of the river taking the spot where the general sits and me trying to maneuver my way across.
I immediately asked Beng Soon about the worker whose due to go back in June and asked if he was still around.
Beng Soon : Yes. Why ?
I told him to ignore Cidney’s return call and text her that he made a mistake and called the wrong person.
She should not find out about this news until the next day.
I told Beng Soon to think of an excuse and schedule a unplanned meeting the next day, insists that Cidney go down to the site.
James : Make it at 4pm.
Beng Soon : ok. But what is going on ? what are you trying to do ?
I told Beng Soon to get the same set of 3 workers to site and make sure only they were there.
I finished up the rest of the explanations and I could tell Beng Soon caught my drift and he too was excited.
I told him that I’m having my in camp training for the next 2 weeks but I will think of a way to be out tomorrow and meet him on site.
25th April 2011
Monday
12pm
Immediately after booking in I went to my officer and told him that I needed a few hours off.
I left camp at 1.00pm after lunch.
I remained in my uniforms and I called Beng Soon to check if everything was ready.
He told me it’s all set and Cidney will be heading over at 4pm.
I mentally moved my cannon chess piece across the river, positioning it at a safe distance.
I took a cab to the site and saw the damages and thought of the best way to bring out what I wanted to potray.
Beng Soon had ask Cidney to site on the pretext that he needed her to approved some of his stuff and it’s pretty urgent.
I reminded Beng Soon that it was critical that Cidney remained on the ground floor until the right time.
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