I want an angel on a gold chain,

And I will ride her to the stars.

- Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pirates (1977)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anna led Hank to a booth at the White Tea House where two women sat next to each other. She stood by the booth's empty bench and spent a second purposefully scanning his physique right in front of his face, before removing her jacket. When she turned to hang it on a hook attached to a nearby beam, he returned the favor by scanning her from behind. He marveled at how the wide neck of her French cut tee top graced the width of her shoulders, noticing a heavy lace bra beneath the shirt's thin veneer.

It needed four clips to hold itself together.

Anna took note of what part of her body Hank was fixating on when she turned to face him again. Without saying a word, but with a look that could bend steel, she took his hoodie from his arm and hung it beside her jacket. Feeling cowed, he maneuvered around her and slid into the empty bench. He tried to not make any noise while clearing the nervousness from his throat as she sat down beside him. She placed her purse in the narrow space between her ample fanny and his skinny one, trapping him against the wall.

The two women seated across from them were closer to Hank's age, making Anna the only teenager in the group. The one in front of Anna was another Asian, with a mocha-and-cream complexion, making her skin darker, since Anna's was like peach mochigashi. Hank could tell the woman was part Japanese, but there was other ethnicity mixed in from the Pacific Islands. She was short and very heavy, and appeared to be the oldest person at the table, but no older than what Rio seemed to be.

Her clothing was fashionable and expensive—a single-piece modern interpretation of an Indian sari and choli. It was made of muted black satin held together by criss-cross strips of lace. Although some people might call her fat, her overflowing bosom compensated for her weight.

"This is Fuji," Anna said, sliding her butt towards Hank until her purse pressed against both their hips. "You know, like the Mount," she added flippantly, sliding away the half inch necessary to keep their shoulders from touching.

Anna clasped her hands and leaned on her elbows, again floating her breasts above the table. She turned her head to judge Hank's reaction to her quip about Fuji, pressing her hands to one cheek. If his throat hadn't already been dry, the three women would have heard him gulp.

Fuji's hair was long, like Anna's, but curled into swept-back tresses, like what Rio liked to do with her shorter hair. It was dyed mahogany brown, complimenting her mocha complexion. It also highlighted the cinnamon tint of her apple dumpling cheeks and, as she smiled big and bright, her eyes disappeared into slits behind two mighty dimples.

"Hello, Hank," Fuji said.

With as much coolness as he could muster, Hank eked out two words. "Hello, Fuji."

Anna smiled sweetly and reached across the table to touch the wrist of the woman sitting in front of Hank. "And this is my friend, Sue Marie," she said.

Sue Marie was everything Fuji was not. She was a young woman of Western descent; long and lithe, with the lung capacity of a mountain biker. Her skin glowed an earth tone gold, with natural brunette curls spilling over strikingly thin, athletic shoulders. She wore a white sport bra under a creamy sheer teddy styled to look like a kurti. It had a high phulkari collar embroidered with patterns colored red and silver and blue. The patterns ran around a decorative slit in the neckline, and also appeared on the oversized cuff of each of the teddy's long sleeves.

The sheerness of the teddy was hidden behind a faux denim vest that would typically have been zippered shut. But it was unzipped at the moment and, as Sue Marie reached to receive the touch of Anna's hand, the vest fell open far enough to reveal a perfectly placed gumdrop nipple. It firmness poked through both the teddy and the bra, centering itself on a flat, yet sensuous breast.

Hank watched with fascination as Sue Marie raised a teacup to her nude glossy lips. Her smile peeked out from behind its rim as she pretended to take a drink. Although her doe-sized eyes were often darting about, at this particular moment their pecan colored irises were locked square onto Hank.

In order to regain his attention, Anna shouldered him in a way that was far from gentle. "Say hello to Sue Marie," she said as a command.

Hank burbled through a goofy grin. "Sue Marie. Yes. Hi. I'm happy to meet you. Hello."

He gave her a polite head bow, to which Fuji bowed as well, then so did Sue Marie, giving the deepest bow of all.

"Anna has known you since she was little," Sue Marie chirped, regaining Hank's attention with her huge pecan eyes.

Anna had never been little as far as Hank was concerned. Even as a teenage girl, she weighed more than most adult Japanese. He glanced around at the other people that were with them in the tea room. Although Sue Marie wasn't Asian, she was shorter than Anna, and tan enough to fit in. She also wore generous eye makeup in an Oriental style over a base and blush. Despite her Western hair, she in no way stood out like Hank; a six-foot-two, alabaster white young man. Yet if anyone cared to look, no one seemed to pay him any mind. They didn't stare him down with disdain, as had been the case a few days earlier, when PEP Dots covered his face.

"I know Anna because she shops at Asok's," Hank said, realizing the women were waiting for him to speak. "She comes by herself, and gets what she wants."

Sue Marie snorted a giggle into her teacup at the unintended double entendre of Hank's remark.

He turned to talk to Anna. "You were thirteen when we first met."

"We never met," Anna said tartly. "And I was going to Asok's long before you showed up; since I was eleven. My family sends me because I speak English, but I don't see why that matters. Most times, you and I were the only people there who spoke any English at all."

Anna fiddled with her bangle bracelets. "But it was good for me," she said to them. "I like doing things for myself."

"Me, too," Hank said. "I would have helped if I thought you needed it, but you never did."

She glanced at him suddenly. "That's because I know how to get what I want," she replied with a shy smile.

"When did you start working there?" Sue Marie asked Hank. She tapped the table with her fingers, as if counting to herself.

"I've been at Asok's six years, since I was a senior in high school. It's been my only job ever. I like the neighborhood, and the culture. Asok's is also a great place to eat. It has the biggest deli around. And the store is pretty big, too."

I'm babbling, Hank thought, shutting up.

Anna spoke with indifference. "Then why haven't you been there lately?"

"Well, I got a PEP test," Hank said to Sue Marie, for he found Anna to be intimidating.

With her excessive makeup and Phulkari collar, Sue Marie had the look of an uncorked genie. She seemed intent on charming Hank into doing her bidding by giving him an instant smile every time she caught his eye. He sized her up while she plied him with her cheery demeanor and girly giggles, concluding she spent a lot of time suppressing inner urges.

"A fresh pot of tea has come," Fuji said, as a café maiden delivered one. "Hank-sama's will be the first cup."

She rose off her seat with a great breath of air, to reach toward him with the pot. As she skillfully poured black tea, Anna and Sue Marie leaned back instinctively, taking a hold of their teacups. Anna also pulled Fuji's cup towards her by its saucer, giving Fuji's bosom the clearance it needed for her to reach across the table.

"Honey? Sugar? Milk?" Fuji asked Hank between pauses as she leaned over the table, holding the teapot before her.

Hank forced words to come from his lips. His brain approached sensory overload from the astronomically unlikely events that were occurring in his life.

"Honey, please" he said to Fuji's cinnamon dumpling dimples.

Fuji leaned forward further, smiling sassy through narrow eye slits. "Yes, Dear?" she asked, being coy.

The ambient sounds of the tea room faded from Hank's ears. The loss of his ability to hear was replaced by a heightened sense of smell. The tea was Vanilla English Black, extra strong. His new clothing and cologne smelled like hot linen sheets hung on a line with pins made of cedar and myrrh. Anna smelled like jasmine rice soaking in the sun. Fuji's heavy breath was spiced with orange blossoms and peppermint, while musk and amber perfume poured from the depths of a keyhole opening in her choli top.

Somehow, Hank's face produced another sound.

"What?"

"I said 'Yes, Dear?'" Fuji repeated, as her eyeballs reappeared when her smile became demure.

"Uh… I said 'Honey'" Hank repeated, not getting the game she was playing.

"I like honey, too!" Sue Marie chirped, leaning far to her left, to look around Fuji's teapot, and to regain Hank's attention.

"Honey's great," he said to her, while Anna huffed and rolled her eyes.

Sue Marie grew more agitated as she watched Fuji pour tea next for Anna. Hank could feel her legs swinging open and shut under the table, as they brushed against his from time to time. Whatever she was wearing to compliment her faux denim vest and kurti top, he could tell something heavy covered her slender legs.

Fuji dripped honey into Hank's teacup with the grace of a true kafe meido. She stirred it with his spoon before tapping it on the rim and placing it back on his saucer, turning the handle to face him. She did the same for Anna, substituting sugar for honey.

Anna let out another huff as she watched the tea in her cup ripple due to Sue Marie's antsy behavior, who seemed to always be moving. She bounced up and down on her seat, watching Hank taste his tea. He found himself parched, no doubt from time he'd been spending with his mouth hanging open. When he put the cup back on its saucer, most of the tea was gone.

"You need a refill already!" Fuji remarked with cheer, repeating the process of serving Hank.

Anna and Sue Marie repeated their process of defending the table against the approach of Fuji. Her voice was as heavy as her bosom, expressing the effort it took for her to pour the tea. Even so, words flowed from her dark cherry lips like silk banners in a breeze. Hank could tell she wasn't American, but her perfect Queen's English didn't betray a home country.

"You're so talented," Hank said, praising Fuji while enjoying her encore performance.

"Why, Hank-sama. Dōmo. You must be talented, too. How did you get those long legs to fit in this booth?"

Sue Marie peeked under the table while giggling to herself. "I've got long legs, too!" she remarked, as they swung open and shut like a broken gate. "This tea is our favorite!" she chirped next. "And we love it here. Don't we girls?"

She cast her crazy gaze about, cocking her head again around Fuji as she poured Hank's tea, this time to peek at Anna.

Sue Marie carried on. "This tea room is just the best! Like Asok's is the best deli!" She pasted her doe-sized eyes on Hank. "You should come here with us more often!"

Sue Marie spoke as if everything was amazing. She was the kind of woman a man could instantly like, and she made it very clear that she liked Hank very much.

"We come here for breakfast, or lunch sometimes, or just always!"

Fuji settled into her seat after completing her kafe meido duties. She heaved and huffed while adjusting her parts, as Anna examined her bracelets.

And Sue Marie carried on. "Other times we stay all day, and have tea and cake, and other stuff for dinner before going home."

Hank blinked. Sue Marie didn't. Both of them stared at each other.

"Wait a minute," he said. "You guys… you live together?"

"Yeah!" she chirped. "We live just down the street. and walk here all the time!"

Sue Marie was having an increasingly harder time controlling herself. Perhaps it was the caffeine in the tea, but whatever the reason, she either bounced on her butt or swung her legs almost without pause.

"We do everything together! Don't we, girls?"

And the heavens do part, to let angels pass.

The Book of HUMILITY - Chapter THREE

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