How It All Goes Down
The Leongs — Singapore
- Astrid and Michael arrive at the Colonial Club for dinner and receive stares and excitement.
- Felicity, Astrid's mom, chastises her for being late —the whole family and esteemed Malay dignitaries are already seated.
- The table erupts in gushing over Astrid, her style, her husband, all started by Puan Sri Mavis Oon (her title essentially equates to a duchess).
- As usual, Harry, Astrid's father, beckons Michael over and asks him to fix his computer. Henry, Astrid's brother, stops Michael to ask him to come fix his son's Xbox.
- The dinner crowd exalts Michel's tech genius; Astrid connects it to his time in the military programming missiles for the department of defense.
- As Michael looks at the menu written in Italian, he recalls his days playing soccer and longing to step foot inside the Colonial Club just once. Something tells us he doesn't feel the same way now.
- He overhears a banal convo between Mavis and Felicity and longs to be back on the soccer field away from the stuffy, overpriced dinner. Yep, we called it.
- Michael anticipates a dinner like all others before: five courses, one course per hour, ladies complaining about their health, then long-winded toasts by Harry, then Mr. Oon, then Henry, Jr. etc. etc. etc.
- Noticing a familiar tense look on Michael's face, Astrid wonders if he wishes he were with someone else.
- Dinner is over and we've moved on to the days after Astrid found the text message.
- Astrid spends her time looking in Michael's phone, calling him to check that he's where he says he is, and scrutinizing everything to figure out what the text means.
- Was it a wrong number?
- When Michael returns from China, she suggests he take a bath so she can search his luggage.
- She finds a receipt in his wallet for a restaurant in Hong Kong when he said he was in Chongqing (note: Chongqing is very, very far from Hong Kong).
- Astrid is such a details woman she can tell he signed the receipt with a pen she once gave him.
- She wants to scream, confront him, claw his eyes out, but calms herself and returns the receipt to his wallet.
- There's something about Astrid's response to this that is a bit too measured.