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The sky was black, but lit by a faint flurry of stars. The air was crisp and chilly, but smelled of jasmine. At Xintiandi, Lana met her friend Shelley. The two sat at an outdoor bar & grill. Soon they were joined by another couple: Matt, a good-looking marketing director from Boston and Kim, a voluptuous blonde from Vancouver.
“Did you guys see the debates?” Shelley asked.
Matt responded, “Yes, I’m rooting for —”
A stranger suddenly appeared and asked, “Hey, are you guys American?”
“I’m Canadian,” Kim replied.
“I’m British,” Shelley answered.
“Lana and I are American,” Matt said.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Tomas Diaz.”
“Where are you from?” Lana asked.
“Rio de Janeiro,” Tomas responded while taking a seat next to Lana. “I’m a journalist.”
“What are you writing about?” Lana inquired.
“Relations between China and Russia,” Tomas replied.
Lana nodded and said, “That makes sense. Russia is now China’s largest supplier of crude oil.”
“Yes, since April, almost 930,000 barrels per day were sent to China.”
“The conflict in Ukraine has brought China closer to Russia,” Lana continued.
“Hey, you really get this,” Tomas noted while sliding closer to Lana.
Matt, Shelley, and Kim listened politely, but looked bored.
Tomas was about to whisper something in Lana’s ear when a booming voice shouted, “Hey, man why don’t you get a little closer?”
Matt, Shelley, and Kim were now fully alert. They looked up and were startled to see a tall, athletic man.
“What’s it to you?” Tomas demanded.
“Look pal I don’t own her, but have some respect,” Aaron responded.
“Respect?”
“Yeah, give the woman some space.”
“Do you want to take this outside?” Tomas challenged.
“We are outside,” Aaron replied nonchalantly.
Shelley burst into giggles, as the two men scowled at one another.
Lana turned to the slender Brazilian and implored, “Please don’t worry about him.”
“Who the hell does he think he is?” Tomas asked while almost shaking.
“This guy isn’t worth your time,” Matt advised.
Kim leaned in towards Shelley and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, “What is it with Americans?”
Shelley laughed and remarked, “Yeah, everything is always about force.”
Tomas looked over at the women and asserted, “I’m not American. I’m from Brazil.”
Kim nodded and said, “We weren’t talking about you.”
Shelley looked at Aaron and teased, “Yeah, we were referring to Rambo.”
Everyone was distracted by the tension between Tomas and Aaron. Thus no one noticed that a stranger had surreptitiously slipped a message into Lana’s purse.
Aaron looked at Shelly and joked, “You didn’t have a problem with Americans the other night.”
Shelley blushed.
Meanwhile, Lana got up and attempted to sneak away but Aaron clasped her elbow.
“Are you out of your mind? Let go of me!” she demanded.
Shelley shrugged and turned to chat with Tomas, who appeared more relaxed having downed a glass of wine shared by Matt and Kim.
“We need to talk,” Aaron insisted.
“I don’t need to do anything,” Lana declared.
She grabbed her purse, waved a quick goodbye to her friends and headed towards the street. She anxiously ran towards a row of taxis.
Aaron followed and asked, “So what was Kuwait like?”
Lana stopped for a second because she was surprised by the question. However, she quickly regained her composure and retorted, “How would I know? Hot? We fought a war over it, or didn’t you watch the news in the nineties?”
“Ha, ha ... nice try, so how’s the weather in Malaysia?”
“What do I look like, a weather app?”
Lana attempted to slide into the taxi when Aaron said, “Natalia Canaan, we need to talk.”
Startled by the mention of her name, she whispered, “So you’re the sender of the notes?”
“Notes? What are you talking about?”
“The note I found in my locker,” Lana explained.
“Do I look like a guy who would leave a note in your locker?”
“Um, uh” Lana stammered.
“No! Now get in the car. We need to talk.”