Katerina Hartono
These mid-week drinks with Nina and Damar usually stretch out until the bar closes. When everyone is free from early morning meetings or other commitments the following day, they would move to another bar nearby that stays opens until the wee hours of the morning. This is not one of those nights. Kat has an 8 am conference call with her client in Sydney. I should get home and try to get some sleep, she thinks as she rummages through her bag looking for her car keys.
While searching her handbag under the hazy street light, her thoughts wander. There is something about that guy at the bar that bothers Kat. And it’s not just that he has been watching her all night (between sipping his drinks and chatting with the bartender). Despite the fact that she was sitting with her back to him, she could tell that he was watching her every move. She could feel his eyes following her. It’s as if he had been observing her all along.
Kat has never seen him before, no matter how hard she tries to remember every face that she has ever seen. His gaze is actually kind and friendly, Kat thinks; no, it’s magnetic. There is something about him that feels familiar, and Kat cannot figure out what it is.
Normally, Kat would have been offended or at least feel uncomfortable when a stranger stare at her the whole night. She has been in that kind of situation before; usually, she would walk up to the person and politely ask if they have any problems with her. She would then tell them that it is impolite and inappropriate to stare at anyone, regardless of the reason.
But not tonight, she isn’t. She is actually enjoying it, living moment-by-moment, sending casual flirtatious codes to be deciphered and responded. Not that she’s interested in committing to any man. Kat’s top priority is to make a good career for her independent self, dating men are not even on her list.
Maybe I’m imagining it.
Kat shrugs off the thought, He obviously did not respond to any of my courtesy laugh, hair flips or casual smiles directed at him.
I should stop watching too many Korean romantic dramas. I’ve invested too much time and it has brought me nothing but a false fantasy that one day I would meet a tall dark handsome man at a bar. Hah! The irony. All men are manipulative creatures anyways.
Instead of her car keys, she finds a rather peculiar book. It is the size of a paperback with plain dusty white cover. “Urup” is written on the cover in pearly white glossy print. When she flips the pages of the book, she stops at a page that seems to be the title of the book: “Book 1; A journey to discover Purpose”. Kat keeps flipping through and she notices that some pages are empty, while others are filled with texts and sometimes scribbles and drawings. She cannot really see them clearly under the dim lights of the parking lot. It has been a long day and after a few drinks with Nina and Damar, Kat is not really in the mood for reading.
Kat is certain the book belongs to someone else. Firstly, there is no way Kat would pick up a book with a peculiar title like “Urup”, what the f- does it even mean? Secondly, Kat has little interest in self-help books, she thinks it is written only for the pathetic low self-esteem people who don’t know how to be successful. Kat is not one of them. She is highly successful and she has reached a high point in her career. And besides, she has not picked up any book to read for pleasure for a long time now.
It must be somebody’s book from work, maybe my assistant accidentally misplaced it in my bag after lunch today, she thinks. Maybe somebody confused her bag with his or her own. Which is hardly true, because Kat always carries bags that are particularly unique and she changes them regularly to match to her outfit. For Kat, a bag is not just a carry-all to put all her daily necessities; it is a statement. And nobody can wear a bag like Kat wears hers. Whether it’s Chanel, Prada, or the casual Kate Spade, there is no way anybody would confuse her statement bag with his or her own.
Kat searches through her bag again, still clutching the book whilst carrying the bag on her arm.
Ah, ha!
She finds her keys and unlocks the car. With her hands full with all the stuff she carries, she ends up shoving the book onto the backseat and decides to just leave it there until somebody claims to be missing a book. She is far too tired to think about it now.
Sleep, she thinks as she starts her engine, I will get to sleep soon.
This is an excerpt from “Urup”. As we go through the final editing, I will share work in progress (even though my editor would probably kill me :)) and the tiny jumps of joy and despair (!) that I experience along the process with you.
Let me know what you think, review, or simply green-heart it. I would be humbled to receive valuable feedback from you. You can find earlier version here .
