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The room and the sky outside were still mostly dark when Jing Jing woke. She squinted at dark shapes, and it took a few seconds to figure out her bearings in the still-strange room that she had woken up in. Then, she smiled in the dark as she gradually sensed the weight of Yu Tu’s arm draped over her waist.
It should be strange, to have the warmth of his body so pressed against her like this, but Jing Jing felt only contentment as she felt for his hand and laced their fingers together. Yu Tu stirred next to her but didn’t fully wake, even though she felt him press a lazy kiss against her skin when she brushed her own lips against the back of his hand.
Not wanting the warmth of this cocoon to end but knowing it must end eventually, Jing Jing let out a soft sigh before shimmying upwards to reach out to where she knew a clock stood on the nightstand. She turned on the digital display to see that the time was just a little before five, much earlier than she usually woke up naturally.
Then again, they did go to bed rather early the night before.
Behind her, Yu Tu pulled her back closer to him and nuzzled her hair. Jing Jing’s eyes slid closed as she allowed herself to enjoy the way his hand was now wandering over her bare skin and how he was scattering kisses across her shoulder.
A little while later, she sighed again and forced herself to scoot a little away from him, whispering reluctantly, “We should probably get up, my flight’s at 8.”
Yu Tu’s touch at her waist was like a feather, tickling her, tempting her to sink back into his arms and explore the pleasures that she only began to know the taste of the night before.
Come to think of it, Jing Jing had no idea how she’d get through the next month, being away from him.
“What time is it?” Yu Tu asked, his touches still determined to drive Jing Jing to distraction.
It took a second for her to catch her breath and be able to answer. “Just about 5. But I said I’d meet Xiao Zhu at the airport at 7 and I need a shower.”
Yu Tu kissed the nape of her neck. “Shower sounds nice.”
“Alone,” Jing Jing said with laughter in her voice.
Yu Tu sighed in disappointment, and the sensation of his breath against her neck made her skin tingle.
“Don’t go,” he whispered, pressing tiny kisses against the curve of her neck while holding her so close she could feel the length of his body against her.
Jing Jing flipped over so that she could face him, and took his face between her hands in order to kiss him. “I’m sorry,” she murmured against his lips. “I wish I didn’t have to go either.”
Yu Tu’s response was to kiss her again, deeper this time, while cradling her body to his, as if to ensure as much contact as possible. His lips seemed to burn against hers and the sensation of his hands running up and down her bare back was very close to making Jing Jing forget the rest of the world existed.
When she finally forced herself to pull away, Jing Jing was utterly breathless.
“I really need to get up,” she said ruefully.
“I know,” Yu Tu answered, sighing and falling onto his back.
Jing Jing leaned over to give him another comforting kiss on the cheek before turning on the bedside lamp. She slipped out of the warm comfort of his bed and his arms to make her way into the bathroom.
She could feel him watching her in the semi-darkness.
When Jing Jing stepped out of the shower, she realised she had walked into the bathroom naked and had also not brought any clothes to put on.
There had to be a difference between letting Yu Tu see all of her in the heat of the moment, even like just now, and just walking around his house naked, right?
Well, it wasn’t as if there was anything else to it now, Jing Jing realised as she wrapped a towel around herself. She still had to get out of the bathroom to get dressed after all.
It turned out, Jing Jing didn’t have to worry so much. When she went back into the bedroom, Yu Tu was no longer there. He had managed to make the bed, smoothing out the blanket and returning the pillows they had discarded mercilessly the night before back to where they belonged, placed their crumpled clothes on the sofa and lined up her shoes neatly on the floor.
Jing Jing quickly got dressed and wrapped her hair in a towel before wandering out of the bedroom, to find the rest of the apartment also devoid of Yu Tu. Figuring that he had stepped out, she went back into the bathroom to dry her hair. Just as she was turning off the hair dryer a few minutes later, she heard the front door of the apartment open.
“Where did you go?” she asked when she walked back into the kitchen to find Yu Tu in t-shirt and sweatpants, slipping his off his shoes in the entrance hall.
He smiled and held up the paper bags in his hands. “There’s a breakfast stall downstairs. I thought you’d want food before we head to the airport, considering we didn’t exactly have dinner last night.”
Jing Jing walked over to kiss him. “I’ll miss this so much. I’ll miss you so much,” she murmured against his lips.
His only response was to sigh softly before pulling her in for another, deeper kiss.
It seemed like the hardest thing Jing Jing had ever done to get ready to leave Yu Tu’s apartment. However, just as she reached out for the door handle, Yu Tu placed a hand on her arm.
“I want to give you this.”
He held out to her a small, cube cardboard box. Small enough to fit into the palm of her hand.
There were probably very few things that could fit in such a box.
Jing Jing looked down at the box then up at Yu Tu, smiling playfully. “I’m pretty sure just because we slept together doesn’t mean you have to propose the next day.”
Yu Tu chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not that.” There was a pause, before he added, his eyes gleaming, “Not yet.”
Pity, Jing Jing found herself thinking, but she was thankful that she managed to not say it out loud. He was far too smug after the night before as it was.
“Open it when you get there,” Yu Tu said, his voice sounding much softer and more tender this time.
Jing Jing smiled back, intrigued now, and nodded, slipping the box into her coat pocket.
“We should get going,” she said reluctantly, brushing her hand against his.
Yu Tu nodded and leaned over to kiss her hair, before finally pulling the door open and allowing them to leave his apartment.
Jing Jing had gone straight from the airport to set, where she had to prepare for a night shoot, so it was nearly twenty-four hours later when she finally found herself sufficiently alone in her Beijing apartment to open Yu Tu’s box.
Gift?
Jing Jing shrugged away the semantics as she lifted the lid.
Inside was a key, attached to a keychain in the shape of rocket.
For a long moment, she could only stare at it, still in the box, breathless. Then, she placed it gingerly down on the table in front of her as if it were fragile, before reaching for her phone.
“You gave me the key to your apartment?” she asked as soon as Yu Tu showed up on her screen.
“Is it too soon?” he asked, looking and sounding at once anxious. “It only occurred to me after you left that maybe it might be too fast and I don’t want you to think – “
“It’s not too fast,” she hastened to reassure him. Then, feeling slightly apprehensive about her own quick answer, she smiled sheepishly. “I mean, I’ve already given you all the keys to my place, and the day after we saw each other again after over ten years too.”
Yu Tu smiled back. “That’s why I thought – but then, after last night, I wasn’t sure whether you’d think I was trying to pressure you into moving faster than you’re comfortable with.”
Jing Jing laughed. “Well, if you think about it, we did spend over a month in each other’s company nearly everyday before we got together, so that wasn’t fast. But then we were only physically together for three days at a stretch before we already had sex, so there’s that… And as I said, I have already given you full access to my apartment and now my car. The point is, fast and slow can be quite relative, really.”
Yu Tu looked relieved at her words.
“Although,” Jing Jing added, “you really weren’t kidding when you said you’d be a lot more forward from now on.”
“Says the girl who gave me all the passcodes to her high-security apartment literally the day after we ‘met’?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in mock question.
Jing Jing shrugged. “I didn’t say it as a complaint.” Then, before Yu Tu could say anything in response, Jing Jing couldn’t help a wide yawn.
“Did you just get up?” he asked.
“No,” Jing Jing said through the last of the yawn, “I just got home from shooting the whole night.” She gave a long sigh. “I guess the exhaustion of the whole weekend’s just finally catching up to me.”
Yu Tu laughed as they both knew what kind of exhaustion she was talking about.
“Are you getting ready to go to work soon?”
“Yeah,” Yu Tu said. More reluctantly, he added, “I guess I should leave you to get some rest.”
Jing Jing closed her eyes and nodded. “Hmmm…”
“Dream of me,” he said softly.
Jing Jing found herself smiling widely, her eyes still closed. “I will.”