002 New York City

The apartment was still as empty as she had left it two months ago, and Jess felt a wave of loneliness as she entered the living room.

So quiet, it was almost nauseating, she suddenly felt sick.

But she ignored the sensation, and she didn’t remove her heals. Instead she just dropped her bays where she stood, and walked across the floorboards. Each step echoing through the large empty room, and down the full-length windows that looked over the New York City skyline.

“Fuuuuuk,” she yelled, through the vacant rooms. A long pronounced vent vibrating far too long. One the neighbours would have heard, if she didn’t own the empty apartment next door also.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She bent her knees toward the floor to balance on her heels, and brought her hands to her face.

She had failed. More pathetically then she had ever failed before.

The mobile rang, interrupting what an outsider might have labelled as, ‘her moment.’

She reached for it from the smallest piece of her matching luggage set.

It was Leslie, and she sure as hell was not ready to explain the distraction that had occurred in Japan. She wasn’t prepared to hear the word “fail,” in a sentence that included her name. Instead she threw the phone across the floorboards. It bounced once, twice, then landed safely facing up. Still flashing for attention.

She gave in. “Leslie,” she answered.

“My darling Jess, you must be home.”

Jess didn’t reply. Instead she looked at the roof in frustration.

Leslie continued. “So. If you’re already home, then that must mean that our little agreement has taken,” he searched for the words, “taken a beating, so to speak.”

The comments were followed by laughter, and not from Leslie, but from others somewhere in the room with him. She wondered where the room was, and if Ian was there.

“I couldn’t find him,” she started, the first thing that came to mind – but Leslie knew that already.

“Even with the maps, the directions and the assistance of my staff? Now that, I find hard to believe, not with your skills Jess.”

“Your staff,” Jess started with an angry tone, but then reverted back to caution. “Themselves are not so easy to locate. And when they are, sporting an umbrella with a ridiculous “Hello Kitty” logo embezzled on it doesn’t do much for my cover.”

“Now listed here you little bitch,” Leslie quickly changed his tone. “You don’t ever take a swipe at my staff, my directions or my maps. Even with all your training and your so called…physical attributes, don’t you go thinking for a second that I won’t tear into your New York, Sydney or Berlin mansions and rip your fucking arms off.”

Jess didn’t blink.

“That’s right princess,” Leslie continued. “I know all your homes, even that cute little bungalow in Thailand you bought last year. Your money is in the same drowning boat as your skills, and I only I can rescue you.”

“I’ll find your man,” Jess replied calmly.

“Damn right you will.”

“And then you will leave us alone, for good.”

“I’d say that’s a definite possibility.”

“It’s not a possibility you arsehole, it’s a fact.”

“Careful my dear,” Leslie took exception to the tone then changed his mind. “We have a deal don’t we?

“Damn right we do,” Jess reached for her notebook from her luggage. “The subject has moved then?”

“Hong Kong,” replied Leslie. “You fly out tomorrow.”

001 Travel story

Peter crosses the floor with three beers in his hands, squeezing through a non-descript pack of blondes. On the way to the table, he glances left and Jess is dancing with a couple of guys.

It's only 10 o'clock but it feels much later. It always does.

At the table, Joe has started his story.

'So we're talking about the vending machines but it was so hard to understand her cos her English wasn't too good. I don't even really know her name. It sounded like Injun or Engine or something.'

'Joe's talking about the Korean girl he met in Japan,' Cheryl explains to Peter as he puts down the beers.

'So yeah, we were talking and she tells me that it's her last night in Kyoto so I thought I'd better get a move on. So I ask her where she's going and she says Osaka. So I was, like, "Damn! I was just there". But we got talking more and she tells me she's sick of the cities already. And she says "I'll probably end up making a trip to Nara from Osaka to look at temples instead of staying in the city all week."

Peter glances over at Jess again and she's still dancing with the boys. They make brief eye contact and she sticks her tongue out at him. He smiles.

'… and she was working on some volunteer program thing in Fukuoka…'

'Dammit man,' Peter cuts in, 'so did you get to do anything with her or what?'

'Naw man. She left the next day. And when I asked her if she wanted to meet up in Nara she says that she's meeting a friend. I assumed she meant a guy. And so she says sorry and so left.'

Cheryl asks 'So that's it? Did you get her number or email or whatever?'

'Facebook…' added Peter.

'Nah she just left. But that's not the end of it. So I thought maybe I'll just go to Nara, right? And maybe I'll just bump into her.'

'So you stalked her is what you did?'

'Naw…well maybe a little.'

Cheryl is shaking her head. Peter feels restless. Then some guy bumps him and says 'Sorry, thought you were Ian.'

'So I go to Nara when she said she was gonna go. And all day I'm at all the touristy places, right? Cos, I mean, where else would she be going? All the temples and stuff are in this one giant park. And I'm all looking around and everything. But I don't see her. I mean, the temples were all really nice and all but I don't see her at all.'

'So that's it?'

'Naw! So I go back to Kyoto where I was still staying and I'm walking around looking for dinner and it's raining and everything, and there she is. I see her. She's trying to avoid all the puddles on the road and she's got this Hello Kitty umbrella and she's totally by herself. No "friend" in sight.' And Joe actually makes quotation marks in the air with his fingers.

'But I don't know what happened. I just kinda froze. I followed her up a street but then I went into one of the shops to make it not so obvious. And when I get out she's gone. I tried going into some of the other shops in case she went inside but I totally lost her.'

'That's a crap story, Joe,' Peter says.

'Are you sure that's what really happened?' says Cheryl. 'You didn't actually tap her on the shoulder and then went to dinner with her…'

'…and then ended up in one of those love hotels with her?' Joe finishes her sentence.

Cheryl laughs and finishes off her beer. Behind her, that guy is still looking for Ian.

'Maybe you should stick to your original story,' says Peter. 'I think I'm gonna go check up on Jess.'

And he gets up and walks over to Jess.