Her Night Off

Nina’s night off was Tuesday.

This made Tuesday the most important night of Paul’s week.

At the bar, Nina was attentive because attention was part of the job. On Tuesdays, she met him without lady drinks, without a bar fine and without the Mama-san watching the clock.

Paul considered this proof.

“She spends her free time with me,” he told his friends. “That’s how you know it’s real.”

It was real, in the limited sense that Nina genuinely preferred Paul to working.

He took her to dinner, paid for groceries and drove her to a late-night pharmacy. Sometimes they went to the beach. More often they ran errands she could not complete while sleeping through the day and working all night.

Paul imagined dates.

Nina appreciated transport.

Neither interpretation was entirely false.

One Tuesday, Paul planned a surprise weekend in Krabi. Nina listened, then explained that she needed to visit her daughter in Phang Nga.

Paul froze.

He knew about the daughter. He had simply stored the information in the part of his mind reserved for background details.

“So you don’t want to go with me?”

“I have one day off.”

“Exactly.”

That was the disagreement.

Paul believed her free time was valuable because she gave it to him.

Nina knew it was valuable because it was the only time that belonged to her.

She went to Phang Nga.

Paul spent Tuesday at her bar, where another woman remembered his name and asked why he looked sad.

He bought her a lady drink.

By midnight, Tuesday had become part of the business again.