February 2025: A Drunken Promise – Inez Chong
A Drunken Promise
It wasn’t much of a meet-cute. In the ruckus of this modern world, who had the time? People bustled to their jobs on heated schedules; and when they did have time to spare, they wasted it all at bars and clubs, attempting to fill up and drown out the emptiness in their lives.
Girls no longer sat around, waiting for love.
The Cloud9 club was quiet that night.
Rhea Poon was fighting boredom on her shift when a troupe of young men approached the bar, declaring a round of shots, thank you. In the mind-numbing shroud of EDM music, she didn’t notice the men change their order from six shots to five.
“Hey, you do one!” suggested one bloke.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Rhea cocked her head, considering their offer, and met the amber eyes of the young man directly in front of her. His brunette mullet was scruffy and raked back. A classic Aussie moustache twitched under his regal nose as he sluggishly watched her.
She laughed, “Fuck it, okay.”
The group cheered as she raised the remaining shot glass to a satisfying clink, joining their single, binding moment of reckless joyousness. Rhea was clearing away the empty glasses when she noticed the one with the mullet still standing there.
“May I help you?”
“What’s your name?”
“Rhea.”
“Rhea?”
“Yeah. Rhea,” she chuckled. “Was there something else you wanted?”
“Nothing. I’m Luke. Where are you from?”
“You wanna guess?”
It was her favourite line. She loved watching their faces twist, their minds rummaging for
Asian countries, only to come up sheepish, expressly aware of saying something racist:
Japanese? No. Korean? Nope. Chinese? Ehh.
“Not sure. Japan?”
“Nope.”
“Hong Kong?”
“Yes, exactly,” she exclaimed, surprised. “That’s crazy. No one ever gets that in the first few tries. How’d you know?”
Luke flashed her a boyish grin, “I lived in Hong Kong for five years.”
Again, Rhea was unable to mask her astonishment. With his mullet and stache, she had pegged him as a straight local who had never stepped foot out of Australia. Perhaps she was the racist one.
His next words sent her into another cloud of amusement:
“I like you.”
“You’re drunk.”
“No, well… I mean, yes, but… I don’t think that really matters, you know?” Luke gazed intently at her. His eyes sparkled like embers. Dull, intoxicated embers. “I mean, you like who you like. It doesn’t matter if you’re drunk or not. I think it would come out either way… you know?”
She smiled, “I think your friends are looking for you.”
“And what if I’ve been looking for you? All these years?”
A string of genuine laughter bellowed out of her. Rhea turned away, surprised again and again by this young, goofy, drunk man at the Cloud9 bar. And yet, as she looked back, meeting his amber eyes in the dingy room, she felt the world slow to a light spin, and then a definite stop.
In that moment, something devoured her. A drunken promise.
Inez Chong
Right Left Write’s February prompt was Meet-Cute.
Find out more about Right Left Write at www.queenslandwriters.org.au/rightleftwrite.
Right Left Write’s February theme was Meet-Cute.