The Difference between A & O

A few weeks ago I ran into an old colleague called Nicole. Nicole and I had an interesting friendship which bordered on the verge of something else but we never got round to doing anything about it. I was still Gina's boyfriend at the time but I enjoyed being with Nicole and somehow we could not keep our hands off each other in the office. Everything bordered in the land of the almighty tease - she would somehow brush herself against me and stroke the back of her foot against me whenever she got the chance to do it. I would subtly hold her hand when nobody was looking. Gina, with her ever suspicious mind, loathed Nicole at first sight and eventually Nicole slipped out of my life and I was left wondering what could have been.

Anyway, she knew about Han Li and I knew she had a boyfriend, who incidentally is a married man. We had tried to meet again but didn't quite make it. I made it clear that I was not interested in meeting her other half and would not inflict mine on her. Somehow the meeting never came up.

Last Friday, we met again. She brought the other half to an official function that I was working on with Allan. The funny thing is, I actually like her other half, I actually think he's too good for her. The girl is a crazy-wanna be Sarong Party Girl. He, on the other hand is a decent man with a steady job of being the Head of Department at a school.

As ironies would have it, there are quite a few similarities between us. He did his National Service in Kranji Camp, a place where I once did a portion of my national service. Like me, he finds his best friends from his army days. We have the same taste in cigars and whiskey (he likes McCallans 12-year old) and we are both Cantonese. His surname is Tong while mine is Tang and to top it all off, he teaches at a school that is not only near Gina's but one where she taught at and I know some of the staff.

Life is indeed funny. For now, it looks like I've lost a potential shag partner in Nicole but I think I've made a new friend in Jimmy. Funny how life turns out and how the people provide you with the experiences that you never thought you would expect....