When he awoke he thought about his encounter with Helen Lau at the Mandarin; her calm in the face of his awkwardness. Perhaps he had damaged the delicate filaments of emotion which had begun to form between them. The colour seemed to drain from his vision of her, and his thoughts turned to Vanessa. He hadn’t forgotten Vanessa’s invitation to visit the Lotus; it had been received by him as a mere possibility, and continued to tingle at the back of his mind. Almost in reaction against the edginess of dealing with Helen, he looked to the relief of Vanessa’s unexacting company. He decided to go to the Lotus that night. He spent an hour in the gym, had lunch in the mess, studied criminal law in the afternoon in his room – part of the training programme – and had drinks in the early evening with the barflies in the mess. Later he showered and shaved, put on the same summer suit he had worn to the Mandarin, and a fresh white shirt with a blue tie. Then he changed the blue tie for the red paisley he had worn to meet Helen, wanting in some way to link the two events.
