Chapter 21

For eight days, Shanghai was home for Sasha and Lionel. They lived in their own personal and private little love bubble in the city in which they had met for the first time, even though they had not known until after they had already left.

“Ooh! I love you,” Sasha had finally told him, to his unbearable delight, on night number two, sitting next to each other in a little glass alcove in Cloud Nine, hundreds of feet about the streets of the city of Shanghai. He could have sprouted wings and flown across the sky when he heard her say it, and indeed he might have attempted to had there not been several inches of unbreakable glass between him and the sky on the other side. He was ecstatic. He reached his arms across the table and kissed her right then and there. “Thank you,” he said. “I love you, too. I love you so much.”

After that night, Sasha said “I love you” to him often and his love for her grew each time he heard her say it. She told him she loved him every time she felt the love rise up inside her and warm her soul, and then she felt it grow some more each time she spoke it to him. It seemed to her that he too grew somehow, each time he heard her say those words and she wondered if he had thought the same thing happened to her when he said “I love you” to her.

One night, she watched him silhouetted against the glass by the cloud of light that rose up out of the city, and was overcome. She determined to nurture and care for this growing love in such a way that it would only keep growing and deepening. For the very first time, she felt that she need not be afraid of love, need not be afraid to love. With this man, she knew she could safely let her guard down and open herself wholly to the journey. He would take care of her love. He would cherish their love. As she looked at him, she realised also that she truly wanted to live this love completely and fully, come what may. She was going all the way in, wherever “in” turned out to be. She was as stunned by the realisation as she was by the fact of her acceptance of it. But she sincerely felt in her soul that “in” was going to be a beautiful place.

She put down the book she had been reading, got up out of the armchair and walked over to tell him.

“I love you, Lionel,” she said. “I am happy that I love you.” She could swear she felt him expand just a little bit more and become bigger in her arms.

“I love you, Sasha,” he answered back, “and I am beyond happy that you love me.” She wondered if he felt her grow too.

Each day on Shanghai was a workday for them both. She went out on her appointments and meetings to negotiate with suppliers and shippers and so on, and he worked in the hotel while she was gone. Each night after work, they went to dinner somewhere and sometimes went walking on the Bund, or along the streets exploring the older parts of the city. Even though he had visited Shanghai so many times, he had never been walking on the Bund, or anywhere else, for that matter. He had never really been that kind of visitor to Shanghai. He had always been there for work, and nights had mostly been spent in restaurants and bars and nightclubs. Sasha had found a couple of art exhibitions and he had gone with her and enjoyed them. This time was very different, and he found he liked it very much. He was enjoying the new and unfamiliar experiences partly because he was having them with this woman he was so happy to now have in his life. He was up for pretty much anything with her, just as long as he could keep her in his life and he could stay in hers.

When he had decided to return to Shanghai to meet her, he had not been altogether confident that it would go well. On the flight over, he had still felt some doubt and uncertainty, but he was determined to go all in, do everything he could think of that might convince her that he was a serious man who was seriously in love with her. Her response to his arrival had removed every shadow of doubt.

They had, naturally, decided to “consolidate their living arrangements” as Peggy had so very politely put it. Sasha had given up her room and moved into the suite. Lionel had reserved it with exactly this outcome in mind. It was roomy and spacious and perfect for their current purposes and they were both very pleased with the consolidation.

Sometimes Lionel accompanied Sasha to her meetings, and sometimes she worked in the suite beside him as he took calls with California and New York, and with Malaysia where his connections were still working on the matter of Sasha’s container of merchandise. That issue seemed to be working itself out well at long last. The agents were tracking the container constantly, every step of the way, checking with every port at which the ship docked, both when the ship stopped in port and when it weighed anchor again and left, just to make sure the container was always accounted for and was still en route to Shanghai, ultimately.

Lionel spoke with his family and his injured brother every day. His grandmother had arrived in Los Angeles from New Jersey and he chatted with her, too, every day. Mario had begun his physical therapy regimen and was expected to be discharged within a short time, perhaps even by the time Lionel left Shanghai, said his sister Antonella, so maybe if Sasha was flying back with him, she might want to stop off in LA for a day or two and then she and Antonella could fly back to Providenciales together. With Mario continuing to improve, she would be getting back to work soon, Antonella said, and besides she was sure he, Lionel, would appreciate the couple of extra days with Sasha.

“You might as well bring her to come meet the family, now,” Antonella suggested, “and at the same time, set Gina straight once and for all.”

He wasn’t convinced that Gina would be set straight – or could be set straight – but he liked the idea very much, especially the part about him having some additional time with Sasha. He would suggest it to her, he told Antonella, and hear what she said.

She said yes. He was delighted beyond words. He immediately began to make plans for showing her around the city where he lived. He anticipated that she would be visiting regularly and often, and the sooner she started, the better, in his mind.

She said yes, but she had her reservations. Concerns, she told him.

“Isn’t it kind of soon for me to meet your parents? Especially with everything going on with your brother still unwell? Suppose they don’t like me? And what about Gina? If your father still wants you to marry her?”

He listened silently and waited to let her come to the end of her barrage of questions. Smiling playfully, he asked her, “Which question you want me to answer first?”

Equally playfully, she answered, “All of them.”