A Match Made in Heaven (Huang Yan Ting) c1

AMMIH – Chapter One

Qiao Ren stared at her front door key hole, and reflected about her run of bad luck.

On a typical Wednesday night, she’d shower, and start working overtime on w.a.n.g Gui law firm’s client cases by ten.

Except on this Wednesday night, she was in no mood to work. Her boyfriend of four years, Zheng Tu Hao dumped her after reuniting with his first love. Although their parents had met, and they’d discussed marriage, she didn’t put up a fight to cling onto their relationship.

She believed Zheng Tu Hao had his reasons for dumping her. Regardless of the reasons, it’s better to agree breaking up sooner than later to heal faster, and get back to a peaceful life. But her heart didn’t play along with logic. If it wasn’t a weeknight, she’d drown her sorrows.

Her hot neighbor, Xiao Yang, popped into her line of vision.

It’s always humid mid-June. Xiao Yang was wearing a short sleeved light blue cop uniform. She checked out his abs under his sweaty shirt, his toned stomach, and his long legs. He had a pretty face to go with his hot body. She envied his big round eyes, straight nose, and juicy lips. Too bad his personality was a turn off. He was stern, and a big sn.o.b.

Xiao Yang’s left hand dug into his pants pocket for his keys while his right hand fought to untie his tie knot.

‘Xiao Yang, no night shift tonight?’ she asked.

‘Um,’ he said.

She and Xiao Yang weren’t close. But they’ve been neighbors for four years so she could tell from one word out his mouth whether he was in a bad mood. Combined with his cigarette scent, he was definitely in a bad mood.

‘You look stress,’ Qiao Ren said, opening her front door, ‘you should get some rest.’

‘Good night,’ Xiao Yang said.

Inside her apartment, she wasn’t offended by Xiao Yang’s standoffishness. Their neighbors gossiped about the fourteen homicide cases he was working on. She’d be anti-social too if she was overworked on that many homicide cases.

She heard Xiao Yang closed his front door then she walked to her bathroom, showered, and worked till three in the morning.

The following days, she showed up at work on time like nothing was wrong with her life.

It wasn’t until the following Sat.u.r.day night that she was free to catch up on sleep. That Sat.u.r.day she slept all the way to Sunday afternoon. Now that her mind was free, she relived her heartbreak, and called her best friend to meet up at a bar.

At the bar, she didn’t register how many shots she drank. Before she knew it, she was crying, and venting all the way home from the bar.

Her front door looked unusually hazy. Suddenly she felt a bout of nausea, she dropped to the ground, and threw up some of the alcohol she drank.

Xiao Yang returned home from his shift in time to see Qiao Ren pa.s.sed out, and she reeked of alcohol outside his front door. All he wanted was to get rid of her, and sleep.

‘Qiao Ren, if you don’t stand up,’ he said, patting her shoulder, ‘I’ll take you to the station for disorderly conduct.’

Instead of being intimidated by his threat, suddenly Qiao Ren stood up, staggered, and glared at him.

‘Do you have jurisdiction to arrest me?’ she asked. ‘What crime did I commit? Where’s your ID? Show me your ID right now or I’ll report you for impersonating a police officer.’

Qiao Ren followed up with her threat by throwing up all over his uniform. She dropped back to the ground, and emptied her guts onto his front door.

He always had a good impression of his neighbor Qiao Ren. She had a pet.i.te face, round eyes, long eyelashes, and looked harmless. She was a workaholic attorney, but made time to help out their neighbors, always wore business suits, and appeared to be trustworthy.

He did a double take on the drunk Qiao Ren dressed like a hobo, her messy hair tied back in a ponytail, and she reeked of alcohol. He was wrong about his impression of her, her true color was someone reckless under her professional image.

‘Move,’ he said, ‘you’re obstructing my way.’

Qiao Ren suddenly stood up again, and looked at him like he was a thief.

‘How did you get my key to open my door?’ Qiao Ren asked.

‘This is my door,’ he said, opening his door.

Qiao Ren’s slender body slipped under his arm, and she slithered into his apartment before he could close his door.

‘Breaking and entering will get you a three year jail term,’ she said. ‘Return my key, leave, and I’ll pretend I didn’t witness anything.’

He waved away Qiao Ren’s accusing finger, and circled around her into his apartment.

‘Take another step,’ she said still in her drunken state, ‘I’ll call the cops.’

‘I’m a cop,’ he said, throwing his tie onto the sofa.

‘Cop…’ she said, bolting to the bathroom.

He heard Qiao Ren throwing up in his bathroom. He knew she’d be in there for a long time. He took off his soiled uniform, walked to his bedroom, changed underwear, and walked to the kitchen to drink cold water from the fridge. He ate the leftover sandwich to line his stomach, and stopped hearing sounds from the bathroom.

When he opened the bathroom door, he found Qiao Ren sitting legs stretched out, back against a wall, and sleeping.

‘Qiao Ren,’ he called, flushing the toilet.

‘Mum… make me sweet and sour ribs…’ she mumbled.

He wanted a peaceful sleep, but the drunk woman in his bathroom was dreaming of food. For a split second, he contemplated locking her up in his bathroom for the night.

Lucky for Qiao Ren, she was his neighbor. He searched her pockets for her key, and stopped when he heard metal clanking down the toilet pipe. She must have chucked her key down the toilet.

He frowned, hunched over, and he carried Qiao Ren to his bed. His neighborly obligation complete, he showered, and slept on the sofa in the living room. Three consecutive days, and nights of no sleep, made him too tired to think about anything like turning on the air-conditioner and turning off the alarm in his bedroom.

In the morning, Qiao Ren woke up from the humidity, and loud alarm. She stretched her arm, but couldn’t find her alarm on the bedside table. She opened her eyes, she had a splitting headache, but realized it wasn’t her bedroom. She checked her pockets, no money was missing, but she lost her phone.

She got out of the unfamiliar bed, and was relieved the bedroom door wasn’t locked. She immediately recognized the person sleeping on the sofa in the living room was Xiao Yang. Last night’s events played in her mind, and she was mortified that she’d mistaken Xiao Yang’s apartment for her apartment… G.o.d, she’d broken her professional image she’d maintained for four years in front of him.

Lucky Xiao Yang was asleep. She tiptoed to the bathroom to wash up, and try to resemble a sober person. She was happy to find her missing phone on the bathroom floor.

Ten minutes later, face washed, messy hair brushed and tied up in a tidy ponytail. She heard footsteps from the living room, which meant Xiao Yang was awake. Satisfied that her reflection in the mirror looked sober, she put on a cheery smile, and opened the bathroom door.

She didn’t expect Xiao Yang standing outside the bathroom door, and he a.s.sessed her looks from head to toe.

‘Xiao Yang,’ she said, maintaining her cheery smile, ‘I’m sorry about last night. I drank a little too much. It was kind of you to let me stay the night. If our neighbors found me sleeping in the hallway, they’d call my mum. Thank you, I owe you one. I’ll take you out to dinner.’

‘You don’t have to,’ he said, turning on the tap, and rinsing his toothbrush. ‘I’m too busy working. By the way, you chucked your key down the toilet.’

‘Key?’ she asked. ‘Oh, Xiao Li from downstairs has a spare key to my apartment.’

‘Um,’ he said, brushing his teeth.

‘I should go,’ she said, ‘and give you back your apartment. Thank you again for taking care of me last night.’

She knew when she wasn’t wanted. But she took one step out the bathroom, and turned around to face Xiao Yang.

‘Do you want noodle soup from downstairs?’ she asked. ‘I can bring up a bowl for you to eat breakfast.’

‘No,’ he said.

She didn’t want to press her luck, and left Xiao Yang’s apartment. Outside his apartment, she suddenly remembered her mum’s observations of her neighbors when she moved into her apartment four years ago.

‘Qiao Ren, there are many suitable bachelors in your building,’ Tan Yan Fang said four years ago. ‘You should make small talk with anyone you fancy. Except your neighbour, Xiao Yang. He’s hot eye candy, but he’s a cop. He has a dangerous line of work, and on call twenty-four seven. And you’re busy building your career. It won’t work out between you, and him. The busy hours apart would drive a wedge in that doomed relationship.’

Even without her mum’s constant nagging, she’d have concluded a relationship with Xiao Yang would be doomed from the start. Their personalities were water and fire, he was too cold, and she was a warm person. They weren’t suitable to be friends, let alone lovers.

The person who was holding a spare key, and standing in front of her front door had a familiar pair of eyes that exchanged a shocked look with her eyes. She breathed in and out. If she wasn’t dreaming, it meant the familiar pair of eyes belonged to her mum.

End of Chapter One