To Sam’s surprise,  P’Tine’s mysterious fiancée showed himself.

= = =

It was not like Sam wasn’t curious about P’Tine’s fiancée. He just couldn’t get the right timing to ask about it, it was a private topic after all. P’Fong was not talkative about private stuff, so Chirat didn’t know anything either. To his surprise,  P’Tine’s mysterious fiancée showed himself.

One day when Sam was carrying a pile of files in his arms and opening P’Tine’s door with his elbow, the landline rang.

P’Tine was nowhere in sight, maybe he went to the pantry room, or toilet. Sam put the files down and rushed to get the phone.

“Tiiiiiiiineee!” The screaming nearly made him dropped the phone.

“Uh…”

“Why didn’t you return my call? We must book the wedding venue NOW! You have no idea how urgent this is! And we haven’t decided on the flowers and cakes! And your tuxedo hasn’t finished yet! Oh my god we’ve got so many things to do! If you keep being so laid-back, your perfect wedding is going to fly away and GONE like P’Dim’s drone!” The high-pitched male voice shouted, making Sam’s ear buzzed.

“Uh, P’Tine is not in the office right now, may I take your number so he can call you back…?”

“Huh? You’re not Tine? Alright, tell him it’s Green. He’d better make time to have dinner with me tonight, I have so many things to discuss with him. Kob khun krab. Bye.”

Before Sam could say anything, the phone was hung up. Judging by how passionate that guy was with the wedding, could that be P’Tine’s fiancée?

“Someone called?” P’Tine walked in, looking tired. The mug in his hand smelled like coffee.

“A man called Green, he wants to discuss about the wedding with you.” Sam answered.

“Oh.” P’Tine sighed and scratched his head. ”I’ll call him back.”

It should’ve been a good timing to ask about P’Tine’s fiancée, but P’Tine looked too sad, so Sam kept his mouth shut. P’Tine seemed kind of upset these few days, he sighed from time to time; his eyes were sometimes distant and empty. Sam was wondering, but now he felt like an idiot. P’Tine must had been stressed out by the wedding planning. And his fiancée sounded like a loud and impatient guy, a gentle guy like P’Tine must’ve suffered a lot.

Sam worked overtime today. P’Tine was going to have dinner with the Green guy. Sam’s sister followed Ctrl-S’s tour to Kuala Lumpur. He’d rather get some work done than going home alone. Although his sister was annoying and noisy, now that she wasn’t staying with him, he felt a little bit lonely.

When Sam went downstairs to get dinner, he ran into P’Tine and his fiancee.

He didn’t intend to peek, but he couldn’t help his curiosity. Green was a small and fair-skinned guy. He ran to P’Tine with a big smile on his face, screaming happily. He grabbed P’Tine’s hand intimately, and they both hopped on a white car.

P’Tine sat at the back seat, but Green sat at the front passenger seat, shouting ”Let’s go, P’Dim!”

The white car was gone from Sam’s sight.

Sam suddenly felt so alone. He considered calling his sister, but gave up the thought quickly. He had nothing interesting to tell her.

When Sam came back to the office with his dinner, he ran into P’Fong who was just about to leave.

“You work overtime today?”P’Fong asked, putting his jacket on.

“Yeah, it’s busy recently.”

“Tine left already?” P’Fong looked at the dark office next door, ”I was going to ask him to drink with me.”

“P’Tine is having dinner with his fiancée tonight.” Sam shrugged. But P’Fong’s reaction was weird. He frowned like he couldn’t understand Sam.

“That’s impossible,” said P’Fong.

Could it be P’Fong didn’t know that P’Tine had a fiancee? Not likely, they were very close.

“It’s true. They are going to discuss about the wedding. I saw them got in a car and left.”

“But that’s impossible, he’s not even in Thailand.” P’Fong still looked baffled.

“Does P’Fong know P’Tine’s fiancee?” Sam felt like something was wrong.

“Of course.” P’Fong raised his brow. If Tine were here, he would say that it was Fong’s ”I figure something out but I’m not telling you yet” face. Sadly Sam wasn’t familiar with Fong’s various micro facial expressions yet.

“His name is Green, right?” Sam asked. ”I saw him picked P’Tine up.”

P’Fong’s mouth twitched.

“I forgot my phone,” said P’Fong, and ducked into his office in a blink and closed the door.

A second later Sam heard him laughing behind the door.

= = =

Sam’s sister came back from Singapore. Ctrl-S continued their tour in Taipei, but she ran out of her annual leave and couldn’t follow them there. Sam took the afternoon off to pick her up at the airport. He got a information as a thank you.

“I met someone in Sarawat’s Wives in the Singapore concert.” Sam’s sister said while buckling up. Sam started the car and drove slowly out the airport parking lot.

“The fan site with secrets you mentioned before?”

“Yeah. Oh, here’s your gift. Take it.” She searched her purse and tucked a jar in his hand.

“Kaya? This is all you got me? One small jar of Kaya?”

“Isn’t it your favorite? Anyways, I met a Thai girl named Fang who is working in Singapore. We talked a lot when waiting in line. I told her Sarawat goes to his lawyer very often, and asked her if she knew anything.”

“What did she say?”

“She said—she went to law department of Thammasat University– she didn’t know if Sarawat was suing someone, but she will ask her junior in cheerleader club who was the club president after her. But she wouldn’t tell me more than that.”

“Don’t bother. I’ll just ask P’Tine about it if you really want to know,” said Sam. “He may not answer me, though.”

She talked passionately about the Ctrl-S concerts in the rest of the drive.

= = =

P’Tine was getting more and more gloomy. It was not obvious, but he smiled less and wasn’t his bright and talkative self. Sam didn’t know what to do. P’Tine also looked at his phone more frequently than usual. According to P’Fong last time, P’Tine’s fiancée was not in the country right now. Was it a long-distance relationship, then? P’Fong told him he got it wrong, that Green was just a friend who helped with the wedding.

“No, not a long-distance relationship. You’ll know eventually.” P’Fong laughed so hard he shed a tear.

Sam didn’t forget to remind P’Tine to eat. Once P’Tine replied with a smile that Sam was being very sweet, so Sam told him that it was the guitarist of Ctrl-S asked him to do it. P’Tine somehow looked touched and amused at the same time.

“You’re very lucky to have a client who cares about you so much.” Sam commented.

“Oh, Sarawat is not my client. He’s Fong’s. I’m not representing him.”

“But…” Well, Sarawat and P’Fong did look like they know each other well. ”Why……”

“Because it’s important to keep a clear head in our profession, and Fong is much calmer than I am. As a lawyer of a public figure, you can’t get riled up and sue everyone who said something bad on twitter, right?” P’Tine shrugged.

It occurred to Sam later: If Sarawat wasn’t P’Tine’s client, why did he have lunch meeting with P’Tine so often?