Lu slams down a red Draw Two with the kind of decisive force that makes Sun’s eye twitch.
She draws two cards from the deck, her jaw clenched so tight I can hear her teeth grinding from across the coffee table. The pile in her hands has grown to ridiculous proportions. She’s holding at least half the deck at this point, maybe more.
We’ve been waiting for hours. That’s what happens when your wife’s friend decides to hold you hostage in your own apartment. Eventually you run out of ways to occupy the silence. I asked Lu if he wanted to play cards with me, figuring it might make the time pass faster. Turned out the only game we both knew was Uno.
Lu was quiet at first. Stoic. Just playing cards with mechanical efficiency while Sun Wei paced around my apartment making calls and speaking a language I don’t know. But after one game, something shifted. Lu started talking. Not a lot, but enough. Small comments about strategy. A dry observation about my luck. Then actual conversation. Questions about my job, my apartment, the photos on my wall.
The guy’s really grown on me in the past few hours. There’s something oddly comforting about being held hostage by someone who genuinely seems to care if you’re bored.
Sun joined the game after Lu insisted. She’d been watching us for twenty minutes with this expression of barely contained irritation, like she couldn’t believe her intimidating muscle was playing a card game with the hostage. But Lu kept gesturing to the empty spot on the floor, and eventually she sat down with a theatrical sigh.
Now she looks absolutely livid.
“This game is so fucking stupid!” Sun throws her cards face-up on the table, the pile scattering across the surface.
I try not to laugh. I really do. But a sound escapes anyway, this quiet snort that I immediately regret.
Her head snaps toward me, eyes blazing. “What’s so fucking funny, you suicidal freak?”
The insult should probably bother me more than it does. Instead, I just shrug, keeping my voice casual. “You’re just not very good at losing.”
“Not good at losing?” Her voice rises with each syllable. “NOT GOOD AT LOSING? I don’t fucking lose, Caleb! I don’t lose in real life! This game is stupid and beneath me! It’s complete bullshit randomness with no skill involved!”
She gestures wildly at the scattered cards. “There’s no strategy, no planning, no actual competition! It’s just luck and colors and hoping you draw the right card! This isn’t how anything works in the real world!”
“You’re still losing though,” I point out.
“BECAUSE IT’S A GAME FOR CHILDREN AND MORONS!” She sweeps her remaining cards off the table entirely, sending them flying across my living room floor. “I have built an entire career on being better than everyone else. I don’t fail. I don’t lose. I don’t accept defeat because accepting defeat means you’re weak!”
Lu’s posture shifts beside me. “Taking a loss without grace is unbecoming of someone in your position.”
The silence that follows is absolute.
Sun Wei’s head turns toward Lu with mechanical slowness. Her expression transforms into something dangerous, something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up even though I’m not the target.
“NEWS FLASH, IDIOT!” Her voice cracks like a whip. “I ONLY GOT THIS FAR BECAUSE I HATE LOSING THIS MUCH!”
The words echo through my apartment. Sun’s chest heaves with rapid breaths, her fists clenched at her sides. Lu just sits there, absorbing the outburst with that same stoic expression he’s worn since they broke into my apartment this morning.
Then he takes off his sunglasses.
I’ve been trying to see his eyes for hours, but he’s kept them hidden behind those ridiculous shades. Now I watch him fold them carefully and set them aside. His eyes are dark brown. He studies Sun’s face with genuine consideration.
“Hmmm.” The sound is low, contemplative.
That’s it. Like he’s reconsidering everything he thought he knew about the woman standing in front of him. Like her confession just recontextualized their entire professional relationship.
The key rattles in my front door lock, and we all turn toward the sound.
Alyssa bursts through the doorway wearing a backpack, and her eyes find me immediately. Her entire face lights up with radiant joy. Before I can even register what’s happening, she’s sprinting across my apartment.
“Baby!”
She crashes into me with enough force to knock the breath from my lungs, wrapping her arms around me in this full-body tackle that nearly sends us both toppling backward. Her mouth finds mine instantly, desperate and hungry, kissing me like we’ve been separated for months instead of hours.
“I missed you so much,” she gasps between kisses. “So fucking much.”
She’s kissing my cheeks, my jaw, working her way down to my neck where she starts sucking on the skin hard enough that I know it’s going to leave a mark. I’m acutely aware that Sun and Lu are watching this entire display, but Alyssa doesn’t seem to give a single fuck about our audience.
“Alyssa.” Sun’s voice cuts through the moment, sharp and impatient. “Please just give me what I want so I can fucking go.”
Alyssa pulls back from my neck, laughing breathlessly. “Oh yeah.” She grins, this sheepish expression crossing her face. “Sorry, once I see Caleb I go a bit crazy.”
She slides the backpack off her shoulders and unzips it with practiced efficiency. Her hand reaches inside and pulls out a thick manila folder, the kind that looks heavy with documents. She holds it out to Sun without even looking at her, her eyes still locked on my face like she can’t bear to look away for even a second.
Sun takes the folder and opens it immediately, flipping through the contents. I watch her shoulders drop slightly, tension bleeding out of her posture. A sigh of relief escapes her lips.
“Excellent work as always, Alyssa.”
I stare at the folder in Sun’s hands. Then at Alyssa. The pieces click together in my head with sudden, crystalline clarity. The work emergency at Raytheon. The way Sun called her one of their “best.” The manila folder that just made Sun visibly relax.
“What’s in the folder?”
Lu’s hand lands on my shoulder. The weight of it is surprisingly gentle for someone who could probably crush my collarbone without trying.
“It’s safer for you not to know.”
There’s something almost protective in the way he says it. Not threatening. Just careful. Like he’s trying to keep me from stepping into something I can’t step back out of.
“But…”
Alyssa spins toward me, cutting me off mid-word. Her green eyes lock onto mine with sudden intensity.
“You live for me, remember?” Her voice drops into that maternal tone that makes my chest tighten. “No more questions. No more suicidal ideations.”
She takes a step closer, and I watch her bottom lip push out slightly. The pout is so deliberate, so perfectly calculated, that it should be ridiculous. Instead, it’s just so… cute. Disarmingly so.
“Please don’t push this, baby...”
“Okay.”
Her face transforms instantly, that radiant smile spreading across her features like sunrise. She bounces slightly on her heels, this barely contained joy radiating off her in waves.
Sun Wei is already moving toward the door, the manila folder tucked under her arm like it’s the most casual thing in the world. Lu follows her with that same economical movement, not hurried but purposeful.
“Hey.” Alyssa’s voice stops them both. “Is Caleb going to be in trouble for skipping work?”
Sun waves her hand dismissively, not even bothering to turn around fully. “I already took care of it.”
Just like that, she’s gone. Lu pauses in the doorway. He turns back, reaching into his jacket pocket, and pulls out my phone. For a second I think he’s going to toss it to me, but instead he walks the few steps back and places it directly in my hand. His dark eyes meet mine, and there’s something almost apologetic in his expression.
“Take care,” he says quietly.
Then he’s gone too, following Sun out into the hallway.
The door closes. I’m standing there with my phone in my hand, Alyssa pressed against my side, and absolutely no idea what the fuck just happened.
I give it a moment, letting the silence settle. Alyssa takes my phone from my hand and places it on the coffee table with deliberate care.
I decide to ask my burning question since we’re alone now. “Alyssa, are you selling state secrets to the Chinese government?”
She freezes. Her eyes go wide, pupils dilating with pure panic. I watch her head swivel around my apartment like she’s searching for something, anything to deflect with.
She lifts her shirt.
No warning, no preamble. The fabric goes up and over, taking her bra with it in one smooth motion, and suddenly her breasts are right there in front of me. Massive. Perfect. She starts shaking them, this deliberate bouncing that makes them sway.
“Don’t you want to touch them, Caleb?”
I stare at her tits for a moment, processing the sudden shift from state secrets to seduction. Part of me wants to laugh at how transparent this is. The other part is just the same tired I always am.
I shrug.
Because I really just don’t give a shit what she does. It’s not like anything matters. The Chinese government, state secrets, whatever’s in that manila folder, none of it changes the fundamental emptiness of existence. If she wants to distract me with her tits, fine. If she wants to answer the question, also fine. The outcome is the same either way.
My hands move, reaching out to grab them. She makes a surprised sharp little gasp like she genuinely didn’t think it would work.
“Yeah, baby...” Her voice shifts back to that breathy tone, but there’s relief underneath it. “You don’t need to be asking silly questions like that.”
I squeeze gently, feeling the weight of them in my palms.
“Also, it’s racist you assumed they were Chinese.” She adds.
I pause, my hands still cupping her breasts. “Were they not Chinese?”
“They were…” She pushes her chest forward, pressing her tits more firmly into my hands. “Come on. Let's go to the bedroom, baby.”