Chapter 8
“So today you are going,” Chanda said forlornly over breakfast. They were eating fish and red beans at a small café near Chanda’s apartment. She was wearing her earrings and they caught the light, turning it into rainbows that danced across the table top.
Chris could barely eat. The thought of going home filled him with intense dread. While he didn’t really care for the dirty third-world grit of Phnom Penh, he couldn’t imagine going back to the loneliness and isolation of home. “I can’t imagine living without you,” he said.
Chanda smiled softly. “But it is necessary.”
“I want to marry you. I want to get you a visa, and have you live with me,” he went on.
Chanda looked down at her food to hide the joy suffusing her face. “I would like that,” she said finally, keeping her tone simple.
“Are you sure?” Chris peered at her, surprised at how calmly she took his proposal. “Is this what you want?”
“It is what I have wanted since I joined the site. Now that I know you, I know that you are the one I want to go to America with. I deleted my account; I won’t speak to any other men. You are the one that I want,” she replied. She reached across the table and clasped his hand. “I will marry you.”
Chris beamed. “OK. I will get to work on the visa arrangements. I heard that it can take a very long time.”
“That’s fine. I just want to be with you.”
Chanda had to go to work and couldn’t accompany Chris to the airport. They held each other for a long time before she left. Chris tried to stay strong and not betray his overwhelming emotion as he left her. “I pray that you don’t change your mind,” he said as they finally parted.
“I won’t,” she swore.
“I love you,” Chris said urgently.
She smiled and clasped his neck a final time. “I love you too.”
“Quit your job,” he went on. “I will send money. You will live like a queen until I can send for you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t quit my job.”
He sighed. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
“It is not that. I simply must work. I don’t know what will happen so I must continue making money.”
He nodded. “Fine. I will still pay your bills. You know that I don’t want you at that place, though.” He picked up her hands, broken and calloused from strenuous labor. “You deserve to have soft hands.”
She shook her head. “What will I do with myself if I don’t work?”
“You can stay on the phone with me all day,” he attempted pathetically.
She giggled, then grew serious. “I love you, Chris Stryker. I can’t wait to join you in America.”
“I will send for you very soon,” he promised.
He stared after her as she walked away. She kept glancing over her shoulder to wave at him.
The flight home filled Chris with sorrow. He already missed Chanda’s face and her sweet nature. Being in her presence consoled his misery and made him feel lighter than air. The old woman seated next to him tried to talk, but he couldn’t listen. He just wanted to think about Chanda.
“So how was your little love fest in Cambodia?” Carlos teased the minute that Chris returned to the barn the next morning.
“Are you sure she’s really a woman?” teased Derek. “I heard some of those Cambodian boys are really pretty.”
Chris swatted at Derek. “Stop it, guys. I have jet lag and I don’t feel like taking this today.”
“Oh, he’s sensitive about it,” Derek laughed. “She must have been really something.”
“It must have been a good time,” Carlos said, clapping Chris on the back.
“Guys, please speak about Chanda respectfully,” Chris demanded as he started to saddle up his favorite herding horse, Dark Knight.
John looked up from the stall that he was mucking. “Proud of you, man.” He nodded shortly. “You need somebody.”
“Are you seeing her again?” Carlos asked. This time his tone was more pleasant.
“I’m marrying her,” Chris replied.
All of the men glanced at each other. Then they went back to work, unsure of what to say. They had never seen Chris in love. But he seemed different, as if he were haunted by some sort of happy ghost. He seemed like a changed man. Even through his jet lag, he glowed with a spacey sort of happiness that the hands had never noticed in him before.
As soon as the work of the day was complete, the hands invited Chris to join them for some beers. But Chris declined and went into his house to take a nap. When it was time, he Skyped Chanda. She looked tired and worn from work, but she managed a huge smile for him.
“I am so happy that you came,” she told him. “I miss you so much.’
“I miss you more than you know. It is so empty here.” He spun the camera around his room. “I can’t wait until you are here. You will make this place so much more like home.”
“And we will make love every day,” she murmured silkily. “I still think about the things we did.”
“Oh, I do too. I can’t stop replaying this visit in my mind. It was a beautiful experience.”
“It was. Today I ate without you. I was so sad!”
Chris blew a kiss at her. “I need to get to the office and do some paperwork, but I can’t concentrate. I just keep thinking of you! The men that work for me were teasing me and I couldn’t take it like I normally do. I just want you here.”
“Have you looked into the visa yet?” she asked.
“I have. I’ll start the process tomorrow. They say it can take up to a year, so I think I need to take a few more trips to Cambodia.” He winked. “Would you like that?”
“Of course! My place is so dreary without you.”
“I am sending some money now,” Chris said. “Perhaps you can find a nicer place while we wait. And I want you to treat yourself, too. Get your hair and nails done and look like a million dollars. You already do, but I want to spoil you.”
She giggled. “Do you think I should get some lingerie for you?” She showed him her body and the new nightgown she was wearing. It was the powder blue silk one that he had bought her while there.
“If you model it for me, of course,” Chris teased. “There, I sent you the money to PayPal. You should get it right away.”
Her phone went off and she checked it. “Yes, I got it. Thank you so much.” She looked a bit shocked. He had sent more money than she earned in a year.
“Treat yourself with it, all right?”
“I will. And I will get a sexy piece to model for you,” she assured him. “Good night, my love.”
Chris spent the rest of the day pacing his house, unsure of himself and of what to do. He couldn’t think straight without Chanda. Finally, he decided to go to the bar in town. Usually he avoided socializing there since everyone regarded him with scorn, but today he needed a beer to take the edge off. And he didn’t want to drink with the guys who worked for him, since they all seemed to want to ask him questions about his trip and his new wife.
The “Hole in the Wall” was literally a hole in the wall. Chris stepped through the door and was enveloped in air conditioning, the dank smell of stale beer, and the sounds of laughter and the hollow clicks of pool cues striking pool balls. “Sweet Home Alabama” played on the jukebox and some drunk man was singing along at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, the din all ceased when Chris strode up to the bar.
“What can I getcha, hun?” The bartender was new, some skinny girl with blonde hair and short shorts carrying several beers between her fingers.
“A Coors Lite,” Chris muttered, overtaken by shyness now that he felt dozens of eyes fixed on him. He set a crumbled twenty on the counter and the bartender took it.
“That’s three fifty,” she said, punching it into the cash register. The drawer made a "cha-ching" as it opened and she hastily counted out the change. She set it in front of Chris, and he pushed it back toward her. “Oh! Well, thanks.” She smiled at him glamorously as she turned to fetch his beer from the cooler behind her and the noise of the bar resumed. “You must be big cheese around here. What’s your name?” she asked as she popped the cap off and let it cling down to the floor.
“Chris,” he said simply.
“Chris Stryker,” a man sitting near him at the bar spoke up. “He’s the town’s billionaire.” Then he gave Chris a grin and slapped him on the back. “How are you doing, buddy? Long time, no see.”
Chris managed a smile. Sometimes locals tried to be nice to him and let the past go. He appreciated it, even though he didn’t connect with anyone from around here. “I’m great, Dan, how are you?” He took a swig from his beer.
“Billionaire, huh? I’ve heard about you,” the bartender said, shaking her hair back to show off her firm breasts and long neck. “I’m Leslie.”
“Nice to meet you, Leslie,” Chris said politely.
“Leslie is a nice gal,” Dan said, raising his whisky and Coke to her in salute. “She is living with my niece.”
“Oh. And what made you come here?” Chris realized that he didn’t feel like small talk, but this was what he had come for, after all. He might as well indulge for a beer or two. Then he would go home. He might as well spend the evening playing guitar or watching a movie, since Chanda was asleep.
“Just needed a change, since I’m from Lubbock,” Leslie replied. “I just broke up with somebody and I know Jess so she offered me a place to stay.”
“Cool,” Chris nodded. Why did conversation flow so easily with Chanda, when it never did with anyone else? As a kid, he had been very outgoing, and as a young adult, he had spent many nights laughing and drinking in the Hole in the Wall. But now it felt like his throat was fused shut and he had nothing interesting to say. Since Jake had died and the whole town had blamed him, he had drawn into himself, cutting off social interaction.
“Well, anything for you, Mr. Billionaire,” Leslie said flirtatiously, leaning forward to show off her cleavage as she delivered another whisky and Coke to Dan.
“Thanks,” he said. Now he was determined to finish his beer quickly and get out of here.
But the minute he reached the bottom of his bottle, Leslie already had another one out for him. “I heard you have a beautiful ranch,” she went on. “I’d love to see it sometime.”
“Sure,” he responded awkwardly. He thought about Chanda, alone in her apartment in Phnom Penh, and how she probably trusted him. The idea that other women might approach him while he waited for her had not occurred to him, since women here all avoided him like the plague and his various online relationships had quickly fizzled out.
“Sounds good.” She winked before going to wait on some new arrivals at the bar.
Chris finished his second beer quickly. And Leslie already had a third one out. “I’m good,” he told her, holding up his hand and shaking his head. “I need to get home.”
“Oh, c’mon, man. When a pretty lady is opening you a beer, you don’t say no,” Dan chided him.
“Actually –“ Chris started to protest that he had a woman already, but Leslie had already set the beer down and winked at him.
“This round is on me. Stay for a while. Relax. I’d love to get to know you better,” she insisted.
Chris sighed. All Dan had to do was tell this woman that Chris was a billionaire, and now she was stuck on Chris like a fly to honey. How could he politely yet firmly get rid of her? Being hit on by a gorgeous blonde stranger was the last thing he expected to have happen today.
“Not much about me to know,” Chris told her.
She snorted. “Oh, I’m so sure. What’s it like being a billionaire?”
“Pretty boring, honestly.”
“Do you have your own jet?” she asked.
“I have a little Cessna.” He shrugged. “No need for a jumbo jet. I don’t travel much.” Then he thought about what it would take to get one so he could go see Chanda more easily. The international laws might make it a nightmare, but he was willing to do anything to see Chanda’s doll face and be close to her warm body in bed again. Even just eating at skuzzy sidewalk cafes with her was magical.
“I always wondered what I’d do if I won the lottery,” Leslie went on. That triggered a discussion, with everyone at the bar chiming in with what they would do.
Chris decided to tune the conversation out. Living with so much money had made him numb to it. He lived like any other guy, buying cheap beer and keeping his bills paid. The ranch was expensive to run, so he didn’t like to be frivolous. He had only recently put in a pool, an expense his father never wanted despite his massive wealth. The money that Chris had was not really earned; it came from his family, despite his aunts and uncles who put in their best effort to get all of the inheritance. The family claimed that Chris didn’t deserve it.
Suddenly, the talk about the lottery inspired everyone to take shots. Chris reluctantly accepted a shot glass full of Patron Silver. “Here’s to winning the damn lottery!” Leslie cheered, before downing her shot. She slammed the shot glass on the bar and grinned at Chris. “How did that feel, honey? Want another?”
“I’ll just stick to beer from now on, thanks.”
“All right,” she rolled her eyes. “You’re no fun. Stick around here, though, and I’ll make you a fun man.”
After several more beers and more vapid conversation with Dan and Leslie, Chris was ready to go home. The bar was getting progressively wilder, with Leslie egging everyone on to have a good time. Even the Bar-back kept taking shots. “What do I owe you?” he asked Leslie.
“Nothing, cowboy,” she told him, smacking her gum and shooting him another wink which she undoubtedly thought was sexy.
“Fine, then.” He handed her a hundred dollar tip. “Keep it all.” He slid out of his seat.
Leslie caught up with him by the door. With a coy giggle, she pulled a piece of pink paper out from between her breasts. The paper was damp with her sweat and reeked of her musky perfume. Chris unfolded it to see her number scribbled across it in curvy script, with her name enclosed in a heart with an arrow shot through it. “I’m off in an hour and a half. Wanna scoop me up, cowboy? We can go for a wild ride.”
“I can’t,” Chris told her.
“And why’s that?” Now her eyes acquired an aggressive hardness as she leaned into him, filling his nostrils with her perfume. Chris could now see how her makeup was caked onto her face and how she wore far too much fragrance. Sweat circles were forming in rings on her tank top under her armpits. The bar was pretty warm, even with the air conditioner on blast.
“I have a girlfriend. I’m going to marry her.”
Leslie snorted. “I’m very discreet, hun, don’t worry a thing about that. You just give me a call, OK?” Then she slunk away, shaking her hips excessively as she meandered away from him.
Chris tossed her number out in the big trash can out front before hopping into his truck. He didn’t want to insult her, but now he was not sure if he ever wanted to come back to the Hole in the Wall Bar.