[sfh2110]

"Starbucks?" I asked.

She cringed. "I think we've all had enough of the stuff. There's a place I found near my place where they brew their own, and the dessert is pretty good too."

My eyes lit up. "You know me best man. Let's go."

I have a real sweet tooth, something less typical among men. When I first went to China, I had a cup of bubble tea everyday for at least three months and ended up gaining a lot of weight just from all the sugar and milk.

She parked back home and we walked a few blocks to a quiet, cosy cafe owned by another young couple who did everything on their own using ingredients from all over the world. C ordered a drip coffee and a lemon tart while I got my usual latte and a cheesecake.

"This cheesecake is the BOMB! They can sell this in Singapore easily for twice the price," I gasped. It was hard to come by proper dessert in this part of China; most of the stuff is extremely mediocre. If Starbucks was something I wouldn't even touch in Singapore, I visited Starbucks almost everyday here in China; that's how bad it is sometimes.

"Try your coffee," she grinned.

I put my lips over the straw and was won over even before I started to sip; the aroma of the coffee already hit the back of my nose even before the cold latte hit my tongue. If the coffee comes through so well even in a latte, this place is a definite gem.

"Wow...you're going to find me here really often," I laughed, going back to my cheesecake.

"You want to try the lemon tart?" she quipped, pouring more boiling water into the filter paper funnel of her drip coffee.

"I'll pass," I squirmed, "I don't like sour stuff. More for pregnant women like you..."

She glared at me again. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

I thought I might have just let the bitch out of the closet. "Well...all that preparation for fertility might have added a bit here and there I guess," I wondered aloud, tilting my head slowly from side to side with a forkful of cheesecake in my mouth.

She raised her fork at me menacingly. I poured more boiling water into the funnel.

"Don't worry lah. All added where people cannot see. Still very chio," I grinned cheekily.

That seemed to push the bitch back into the closet. An enjoyable chat ensued, but the heavens didn't seem very happy. Heavy rain started to fall as we finished our coffee, and we didn't have an umbrella with us. This isn't like Singapore either, where there were sheltered walkways everywhere.

"You don't mind walking through the rain right, Singaporean?" C said. I often walk through the rain in China as it was often quite light, although it could rain for a very long time; I also told my colleagues often that rain was nothing to us, especially having served NS.

"Yeah I don't mind. You don't want to wait it out? I can go home on my own," I said.

"It's okay, I'm free anyway. My parents are out on holiday and my husband isn't around," she replied matter-of-factly, "we walk back to my place and I can send you back."

I shrugged my shoulders and agreed.