October 14, 2016

My dearest,

It’s rare that we get to have lunch together on a weekday. We’re both working and the best way to share is to send each other pictures of what we ate. It’s our way of making sure we are eating healthy, or relatively so.

Today I’m near your office so we make a lunch date. A buffet at the hotel nearby so we can linger. You scan the choices – the tandoori chicken, the masala prawns, the black rice pudding with coconut cream.

Of course, I know what your must-have is: the satay. Sticks of barbecued beef and chicken with a generous helping of the spicy peanut sauce. We both know satay is just an excuse for you to indulge your peanut cravings.

We put our smartphones aside. No need to take pictures, no need to send them to one another. We simply eat, in each other’s company. Chewing slowly, considering what we’d try next. You are so beautiful, even when you’re gnawing on a drumstick.

And for dessert, we coo over freshly-made pandan crêpe rolls filled with grated coconut and fragrant gula Melaka. One is never enough. But this? Lunch with you is like Christmas and my birthday and our anniversary come early, all rolled into one.

Let us make another lunch date soon.

Yours, ever and always.