Chapter 4

Roger snapped awake when the phone next to the bed began to ring. He looked at the other side of the bed and saw that he was alone. A quick glance around the room and he picked up the phone.

The voice at the other end of the phone spoke quickly and nervously, "Mr. Boring, my name is Irving Thalman. I'm a lawyer for Mr. Ben Chu. I represent him in his real estate ventures. I wonder if you would be free about one this afternoon to sign the papers."

It took a second for Roger to realize what the man had said, "What papers."

"Uh ... for the house of course."

"What house ... what are you talking about?"

The man on the phone seemed to be on the verge of panic, "I'd prefer not to discuss Mr. Chu's business affairs over the phone. I'll explain everything this afternoon. Will one o'clock be convenient?"

"Ok Mr. Thalman, one o'clock it is. I still have no idea what you're talking about."

The man hung up without responding. Roger stared at the phone for a minute before hanging up. He was starved and picked the phone back up and ordered breakfast and a pot of coffee.

He started to head for the bathroom; the phone rang again, "Mr. Boring my name is Donald Phrang. Mr. Chu called me and told me that you need clothes. I wonder if you could give me your sizes and I'll have some things sent up to you."

For the next several minutes the man questioned Roger about his weight, height and clothing preferences and his lifestyle. He told Roger that he would be over around noon with the clothes and then hung up.

Roger started for the bathroom again and the phone rang, "Roger this is Lee. I'm sorry that I had to leave so early this morning but I had several things that had to be done before this afternoon. You were great last night. I almost decided to say the hell with everything that I had to do and just go ahead and wake you up."

"I was wondering what happened to you. I thought that maybe I wasn't that good last night."

He heard her laugh, "No, you were great. If you weren't the best, I'd have to rank you pretty high up there."

"Lee, an Irving Thalman called about a house and a Donald Phrang is bringing clothes over. Do you know anything about these two guys?"

"I know Thalman. He's afraid of his own shadow. If you say boo to him he'll have a heart attack. I met Phrang once. He's a Laotian," the way Lee said Laotian seemed like she was implying that Laotians were way below Chinese, "Don't worry about the clothes. Ben has connections on the docks and I'm sure that he got a good deal on the clothes."

"Will I see you again?"

There was a pause before Lee answered, "I don't think so. As I told you, my fiancé is coming to San Francisco next week and I have several things that I have to do before then. I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful time we had last night. Oh, remember what I told you about refusing Ben. It would disgrace him in the Chinese community."

As he hung up the phone Roger heard the elevator coming up to the apartment. The door opened and a cart loaded with the breakfast that he had ordered was pushed into the living room and was then taken into the small kitchen. The dining room table was set for him and the food was set out for Roger and then the man quietly left the apartment. The man had been pleasant and smiled often but had not spoken a word the whole time.

The breakfast was first class and Roger sat and ate like he hadn't eaten in days. Lee had kept him awake until three in the morning. As he poured another cup of coffee from the pot he began to think of Lee. Was she sent to him by Ben? Was she ordered to stay with him for the night? He didn't think that Lee stayed with him because she was ordered to; she seemed to genuinely like being with him.

The telephone snapped Roger out of his reverie, "Mr. Boring, this is Donald Phrang. I have the clothes that Mr. Chu said that you need. May I come up?"

"Yes, Come on up."

Roger waited as he heard the elevator come up to the apartment. The door opened and one man got off of the elevator followed by four other men, each carrying very large boxes. The man that seemed to be in charge said something to the others in a foreign language and the men began to open the boxes and take the clothes out of the boxes. They carefully straightened them out and showed them to Roger.

"Am I supposed to pick out the set that I want to wear today?" Roger asked.

The man in charge smiled, "I am Donald Phrang. Mr. Chu told us that all of your clothes were destroyed in a fire and he asked us to make sure that we replaced your wardrobe. These are all for you."

Roger began picking up the clothes and looking at them. The dress shirts were by Thomas Pink and Zorieri. Roger knew that these shirts alone sold for as high as five hundred and fifty dollars. As he looked through the clothes he saw that all of them were very high end clothes that only the best shops sold and you had to have a pocket full of cash just to walk into those stores.