Casey and Jeremy met at the Merlin Hotel in Jalan Treacher. The coffee house was almost empty. A waiter hovered near their table waiting for their order.
“Coffee,” they both said, anxious to get rid of him.
“Just coffee? Anything to eat? We have specials today. Durian cakes made just this...”
“Just coffee will be fine.”
The waiter closed his note pad with exaggerated slowness and leaned over to rearrange the coffee cups and cutlery already laid out on the table. Casey looked at Jeremy and broke out in a wide grin. She waited until the waiter left, and then shook her head in amusement.
“I thought he would never leave us alone.”
He returned her smile; but he was preoccupied; he seemed to be looking at her, yet she felt he was not seeing her. He had called her to set up the meeting.
“I am leaving for Rome in two days time. My time here has run out, so I have to go back to the old grind,” she said. Please, she pleaded in silence, say you do not want to see me leave.
“I called to ask you what happened,” he replied. He seemed not to have heard her say she was leaving. He was wrapped up in his own thoughts and distracted from all things except for the one thought on his mind; An Mei. She had not answered anyone’s calls.
Hurt and embarrassed, Casey replied quickly. “Of course! We went to Kemun and it was while waiting for Hussein to join us that, out of the blue, An Mei announced that she did not wish to go on with the farce and that she wanted to be out of the situation she was in. I can’t blame her. No matter whether Hussein has lied or not about his actual relationship with Shalimar, the future seems bleak for An Mei. The thing is I did not say that to her. In fact, I did not say much at all. I just let her talk it out of her system and, it would appear, that talking has enabled her to make a decision.”
“Do you think she will stick to her decision? She has made similar ones before and each time he has been able to talk her out of it.”
“An Mei is very, very hurt. She is also very proud. I think, this time, she has been pushed too far. If he had run after us as we were leaving, she might have had a change of heart. But not now; not when he publicly let her go.”
Jeremy said nothing.
“Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t think that she was only trying to make a statement when she stormed out. She genuinely wanted to end it all. Even then, if he had run after us, he might still have stood a chance,” continued Casey. “It was very painful for me to watch her vacillate; one minute she believes in Hussein and was making excuses for him, then the next, she was uncertain, even suspicious.”
“It hurts me too,” Jeremy said.
Casey looked up sharply.
“Only because I care for her; she was a daughter to my mother,” he said quickly, conscious that he had to explain himself.
“Of course,” said Casey. Her eyes did not leave his face.
“What was your impression of Hussein?” asked Jeremy. He was anxious to shift attention from himself.
“Obviously, I have little to report on Hussein. I did not have time to observe him, except that he is changed, at least in his dress and manners. Not the rebel he was in Oxford. On the contrary, quite a conformist.”
Jeremy shrugged. “It is not important now. I know enough. You are quite right. He conforms; and that is why he is such a fast rising star. He is just made out to be a symbol of dynamism because he has the ability to talk. But what he says is all planned and mapped out for him.”