Page 49 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Kriya

When I came out of the Sanson office, Charles was there.

I spotted him at once, amid the crowds of central Hong Kong. He was leaning against a lamppost, dressed in a cream linen shirt, light brown trousers, boat shoes, and sunglasses. He looked like something out of a magazine, probably Monocle, untouched by the heat of the Hong Kong summer.

If you’d asked me before I saw him, I would have said I had mixed feelings about the idea of seeing Charles again. I’d archived my WhatsApp chat with him, so I wouldn’t keep going back to look at his last message.

But in the moment, all I felt was uncomplicated pleasure. It was like seeing an old friend unexpectedly, among a crowd of strangers.

“Charles!” I went up to him. “Look at you. You look so cool!”

Charles’s ears went pink. He took off his sunglasses. “Hi.”

I gave him a hug. He allowed it, a little awkwardly. He smelled incredible, which made me feel both horny and sad.

I squashed down both sensations.

“I didn’t know you were in Hong Kong,” I said. It was odd he hadn’t mentioned it when I messaged him. Maybe something had cropped up at work. “What brings you here?”

Charles looked embarrassed.

“Well,” he said. “You.”

I gaped. He squirmed.

“Really?” I said.

“Loretta said I should give it a shot. I wanted to talk to you, and what I have to say is better said in person.” He squared his shoulders. “You mentioned having a coffee, on WhatsApp. Could I take you up on that? Are you busy now?”

“Er, sure. I don’t have any plans for the rest of the day.” I paused. “Though I might go for yuenyeung instead. Do you know where’s good for lunch around here? Something local.”

Charles reflected. I’d forgotten how furious his face got when he was thinking.

My chest squeezed. I wanted to protect him from anyone who might ever be mean to him.

“There’s a famous cha chaan teng not far from here,” he said. “It was one of my recommendations. Shall we go?”

“It’s a date,” I said lightly.

We started walking together, close enough to hear each other over the noise of the traffic and the bustle of the crowd. Not quite close enough to touch.

“Is it?” said Charles, not at all lightly.

He glanced at me before looking away. “I came here to tell you, I—I really like you. I’d like to explore—I mean, it would be good to—I mean, we could try dating and see how that worked, if you were open to that.

Really dating, I mean. Not just what we were doing before. ”

“Oh,” I said.

My tone must not have been very encouraging. Charles looked worried.

“It’s fine if you want to think about it first,” he said.

“That’s not it,” I said. “It’s just… I thought you weren’t interested. You know, you were put off because of the distance, or because I breached privilege, or all of the above.”

I laughed, though it wasn’t a joke. I had passed a couple of jet lagged nights since arriving in Hong Kong, dwelling on all the possible reasons why Charles had decided he didn’t want to see me again.

“No. I could understand your concerns about the Helen Daley case,” said Charles. “The firm’s decided not to act, by the way. I wasn’t sure if your contact would have told you.”

“He mentioned it.” I hesitated. “I think I stopped short of breaking privilege. I told him as little as I could, but they already knew it was coming. I’m sorry if it made any trouble for you.”

Charles shook his head. “It wasn’t an attractive case.

Farah was keen to have a good reason to push for us to step away.

The documents your contact sent us were helpful, in that regard.

” He paused. “I’ve thought about how I would have felt, in your position.

I’m sorry I wasn’t very supportive, especially given you took the work on as a favour to me. ”

“Well, you offered the work as a favour to me. I could see your point too. Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s the right thing to do.” It was an observation that applied to more than ethical dilemmas about work. I said, “Sanson are going to make me an offer.”

“I thought they would,” said Charles. “Congratulations. Are you pleased about it?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to take it. But it means I’ll be in Hong Kong for the next two years, at least. Possibly longer, if it all works out.” I looked at Charles, wistful. “I like you so much, Charles. But I don’t know if I can do a long-distance relationship, at this point in my life.”

“About that…” Charles cleared his throat. “I’ve set up a meeting with the Head of Litigation at Swithin Watkins’s Hong Kong office. I’m seeing him tomorrow. We’ve spoken before. He knows I’ve got an interest in the region. It sounds like there may be an opportunity.”

I came to a stop in the middle of the pavement. A Chinese auntie almost crashed into me, but swerved off, grumbling in highly profane Cantonese.

“You’d move here for me?” I said.

Charles took my arm to shift me out of the way of the people streaming down the street.

“I’ve thought about moving back before,” he said. “You know, my mum’s here. And my dad.” He grimaced. “But so are my half-siblings. It would be good to be able to spend more time with them, and the food’s better… But it would mostly be for you, yes.”

He looked nervous. “I hope that’s not too much. Loretta said to work up to it. I probably should have let you have your yuenyeung first.”

“It’s OK,” I said. Warmth filled my chest. I reached out and took his hand.

Charles looked up, startled. After a moment he smiled. His fingers curled around mine. His palm was warm and dry.

We were waiting at the cha chaan teng for our pork chop buns, holding hands under the table, when it occurred to me to ask. I said:

“So what happened with Arthur? Did he get asked to resign?”

“I assume so. I only saw the announcement that he was leaving,” said Charles. “They kept it to a line in the internal newsletter. The last email about a partner departure ran to five paragraphs, so that said something in itself.”

“He’ll probably pop up again.” I made a face. “It’s a good thing I’m getting out of the London legal market.”

“You don’t think you’ll be going back?”

“Not for another job in the City. I owe Arthur for one thing, at least,” I added. “If it wasn’t for him, I might never have found the courage to leave. It was overdue. The job wasn’t right for me.”

“You think the Sanson role will be a better fit?”

“I hope so.” I told him about my meeting with the GC, who’d been as nice as Rosalind had promised.

Reassuringly, my impression was substantiated by a chat with the woman who’d held the role I was being recruited to fill.

She was moving on promotion to Sanson’s Paris headquarters, but she was full of convincing enthusiasm about the GC and the Hong Kong team.

“She had some good insights into the challenges of working here, too. But they all sound like things I can live with,” I said. “I guess I’ll see.”

I hadn’t really thought about what moving to Hong Kong would mean for Charles. To be fair to me, I hadn’t known that was a prospect until half an hour ago. But I thought about it now.

“Do you have any concerns about it?” I said. I glanced around the restaurant and lowered my voice. “Given the political situation, and so on.”

Charles looked sombre. “I did think about that. I know a lot of people who’ve left. But my mum wants to stay. So long as she’s here… I’d like to make it work.” He took a sip of his milk tea. “What are the next steps with Sanson?”

“They’ve said I should get the formal offer by email some time today.

It’ll be an expat package for the first two years.

If I want to stay in Hong Kong after, they’d probably look to move me to a permanent local contract.

But coming in as an expat means I’ll get relocation costs and a housing allowance for two years.

If I give up my lease in London, I should be able to save quite a lot—enough to cover my parents’ home loan for a couple of years.

That means I could take a break from working, potentially. ”

Charles was watching me with an expression I recognised from his client calls: intent, his brow furrowed with the effort of absorbing and retaining information. “What would you do, if you took a break?”

“In the longer term, I’d like to move out of the private sector, if I can. Focus on work that’s more about helping people. I thought maybe I could do a Master’s, something that would help me pivot. I’ll have to do some research, talk to people.”

“I know someone who left the firm to become Head of Legal at a charity,” said Charles. “I could put you in touch with her.”

“That would be good,” I said. “Thanks.”

Charles stroked his thumb over mine. Zuri’s voice echoed in my head: It was more like you were boyfriend-girlfriend roleplaying being colleagues.

I’d have to text her later, and prepare to get roasted at the next group meetup. Part of having friends was accepting that sometimes they were entitled to say, I told you so, and there was nothing you could do but take it.

When we came out of the restaurant, I said:

“I’m staying at the Marriott, funnily enough. Do you want to check out my hotel room? It’s got a great view.”

I watched, charmed, as Charles turned deep red from his hairline to the V at the collar of his shirt.

“Yes, definitely,” he said. “I’d love to. But, um.” He checked his watch. “Right now I’m due to—I was wondering if—I mean, you can say no. Don’t feel you have to, if you aren’t comfortable doing it.”

“What is it?”

“I was wondering,” said Charles, “if you’d be up for coming to meet my mum.”

I gave Charles’s hand a little tug so he’d lean down, then kissed him. I expected him to give me a peck before drawing back: we were on a busy street in Central. Instead he slid his arms around me, deepening the kiss.

I ran my hands along his back, feeling the linen crinkle over warm flesh and solid muscle. He felt like home.

When Charles finally pulled away, he was breathing heavily, mussed and dreamy-eyed.

“Maybe we could see her another time,” he said. “I could text her to push it back.”

“Charles! No. We can make out later,” I said. “Let’s go see your mum.”