Chapter Eight - Her vengeance begins! (4)

The sun had already sunk and the shadows of dusk fell like a drapery when Suet-foong returned home. Earlier, the rain had stopped. A ghostly mist began to crawl around the house, making it look like a mystical bowl of steam. In the living hall, I was in a fidget when I heard her unlocking the front door. I was expecting her to blow her top as soon as she saw me. How wrong I was; she had a big grin on her face instead. However, before I could breathe easy, I realized that it was not a beatific grin. Rather, it looked extremely wicked. Oh shit, this was getting scary.

"So, how was the art fair?" I asked, trying to sound casual as I took a seat at the sofa. "Sold anything today?"

She did not answer; she just looked at me with that same sinister broad smile.

I gulped, realizing that to beat around the bush could mean a quicker end for me. "Look, Suet-foong, about the liquidation of the mayor," I said in a palpitating tone, "I'm sorry I left you out in Plan B."

"Oh, that's okay," she finally replied, rather frostily, and with a devilish glint in her eye.

She was lying - it was not okay. I know women well enough that this is one of the deadly terms used by them when they are thinking long and hard on how we poor men are going to pay for our mistakes.

"But you know in your heart that it had to be done," I stressed, doing my best to defuse the crisis. "I didn't like the idea of you getting hurt should things go wrong back there."

"Whatever."

God - another deadly term! It is their way of saying "screw you"!

An hour later, when dinner was ready, I bit my nails when I saw the two dishes on the dining table: curry fish head and deep fried tofu in red chili bean paste and ginger. They were spicy stuff which I dread - Suet-foong's plot of wrecking vengeance on me had begun!

To be continued ...