【Me · The Single Man】Nearly eleven on a Thursday, my phone lit up at the corner of the desk: "Bro, you in Nanning?" Six years in the scene, and the number of times a couple has messaged me first I can count on one hand—I sat up straight almost instantly. I tapped the avatar open: it was Brother P and Mrs. P, a traveling couple with a bit of a name in the circle, shooting content wherever they went, and not a single review calling the two of them fake. Brother P said they'd land in Nanning tomorrow and wanted to find someone local to kick off their whole Guangxi trip. I stared at that line for a long while before I dared reply a single "Here."
【Brother P · The Husband】I sent that message behind her back—she was still blow-drying her hair in the bathroom. Picking Nanning wasn't random; I'd been watching this guy for half a year—what he showed off wasn't conquests, it was restraint, and the women in his comments called him "steady." All these years married to her, I've slowly figured out what kind of man I am: I like watching her come undone in another man's hands, like that suspense of an arrangement I set up with my own hands yet don't control. We traded photos, and I sent over a short clip she'd recorded before, her moans dragging out one trailing note after another. The instant my finger pressed send, something I can't quite name turned over in my chest—half of it pride, half of it a sourness I never let myself admit.
【Mrs. P · The Wife】When he told me, I was wiping the water off my body in front of the mirror. "Found a single man in Nanning, for tomorrow." His tone was offhand, like he was telling me which restaurant he'd booked. I gave a little "Mm," but my heart dropped half a beat. Looking at the photo, I leaned my face in close—young, a bit shy when he smiled, not the slick type I dread. But the more like that he was, the more flustered I got: a strange city, a stranger, a stranger's pair of hands, and tomorrow they'd be on my body. I pulled the bath towel tighter, my fingertips cold, but the base of my thighs went hot beyond my control, as if my body had said yes a step ahead of me.
【Me · The Single Man】The next day at work I couldn't take in a single word, chatting on and off with Brother P while picking a hotel, changing the location, room type, and check-in time back and forth three times. The two of them were supposed to land at nine, but the earlier flight was delayed, dragging it all the way to ten-thirty before they cabbed over from Wuxu Airport. I'd checked in ahead of time, the second key card clutched in my palm, waiting on a sofa deep in the lobby, the sweat in my hand warming the card. First sight and breaking the ice are always the most flavorful part of a session like this—you never know who's going to walk in the moment the door opens.
【Brother P · The Husband】The plane taxied on the runway a long time, and she kept squeezing my hand, her nails digging into my palm again and again, saying nothing. I knew she was nervous, and the more nervous she was, the hotter that little flame in me burned—it's something no one else can give me. Out of the airport and into a cab, Nanning's night lights retreating past us, the smell of sour bamboo shoots and late-night food stalls slipping in through the gap in the window. At the hotel entrance she straightened her collar and took a deep breath. I carried her luggage, falling half a step behind, watching her back move ahead of me. Every step of how tonight should go, I'd already laid out in my head: first let them get familiar, I step to the side, hand her over for a while, then take her back when she's at her most content. But standing right at the moment, I realized everything I'd laid out was just to hold down that sourness.
【Mrs. P · The Wife】In the elevator I looked at myself in the mirrored wall, having touched up my lipstick twice and still finding my face pale. The doors opened and shut, floor by floor, the corridor stretching endlessly. He swiped the card in front, I trailed half a step behind, my heels making not a sound on the carpet, which only made my heartbeat sound all the louder. At the door I almost wanted to tug his sleeve and say let's forget it—but the door opened, warm yellow light, a strange man standing up from the sofa. He was nervous too, I saw it at a glance, and that actually put me at ease. So I wasn't the only one trembling.
【Me · The Single Man】The lock went "click," and Brother P came in first, the refined, easygoing type, his palm dry when we shook hands, his smile putting you at ease, as good to look at as in the videos. I stood to greet them, exchanged a couple of pleasantries about the delayed flight and the traffic, and the mood was softer than I'd expected. Then came Mrs. P. A pair of fair, straight long legs on high heels, walking step by step into the light. However good the photos, nothing beats the real person standing before you. She was prettier than on the screen, and the weight of substance beneath that youthful face couldn't be hidden however she tried; when she smiled her eyes curved into two crescent moons, and she nodded at me lightly, as if we'd known each other all along.
【Mrs. P · The Wife】The way he stood up, a little at a loss, was actually charming. I nodded at him, and my smile was real—all the panic I'd stored up along the way suddenly changed direction the moment I saw his eyes clearly. It wasn't that I stopped being afraid; it was that mixed into that fear was something else: a tingling numbness of knowing exactly what came next, my body already quietly starting to look forward to it. I could feel my ears going hot, and below my collarbone starting to burn too. I set my handbag on the table slowly, so he could look at me a little longer—a small scheme that startled even me.
【Brother P · The Husband】I watched her walk into the light, watched this guy I was meeting for the first time have his gaze pinned by her, and that surge of pride rose in my chest again: this is my wife, I brought her, I'm the one who made all of tonight possible. But right after, that thing I couldn't name came up along with it—the curve of the smile she'd just given him held one degree more than the smile she gave me at the airport, something I couldn't read. I hung up my coat, handed them water, my voice steady, like a man who'd arranged everything just so. The door shut behind me with a "click," and in this one guest room in a strange city, there was only the three of us adults and a whole night. The strange thing was, the heaviest thing in my heart at that moment was a gratitude toward him I couldn't put into words.