She tapped my shoulder lightly still chuckling as she bent to fetch her purse from the coffee table, and then answered, “No, it’s a road that’s chock-full of galleries, stores, restaurants, and what not. A lot of young people like you gravitate there. Or so I’m told. It’s not far from here, and I thought you might enjoy it.”

She made to reach for my arm, so I crooked it slightly so that she could slip her arm through it, as we walked out her door.

I asked as she keyed in a security code, “Are we walking?”

She laughed again as she turned and directed me to the garden path that led to the heavy wooden door beneath an archway of ivy that served as a gateway of sorts to her house. “Unless you want me to struggle in these sandals, I think you could do me the favor of driving us there?”

I smiled down at her, and answered, “Of course, of course!”

As we exited the heavy wooden door, I insisted on pulling it shut behind us.

I shook my head as I opened the passenger side door for her, “I have no idea how you’re able to manage that heavy wooden door by yourself, Sheryl!”

She laughed again, “Actually, there’s a side door that I almost always use. This time I just wanted to take advantage of having you around to manage that door so that I could walk under my archway!”

I pretended to purse my lips, and murmured, “Hmmmm….”

She eyed my rental. “Wow! This is a nice car, Aerin.”

I smiled, “Thanks. The agency I’ve been using arranged for it. They got me a nice rental in Hong Kong also.”

“Well, when my husband and I take a trip to Asia maybe you could ask them to help us?” Sheryl asked, as she took a seat, and then thanked me as she pulled the seatbelt over her chest and clicked it into place.

I smiled at her as I got in and pulled the door close. I’d started the car electronically before we’d boarded so the aircon had already started to pump in cooling air into the car’s cabin five minutes before we boarded. I’d anticipated that the car would be heated up while the car baked under the hot sun.