Poolside, 2am

The Scene

The 47th-floor rooftop pool of the Aman Tokyo on a Friday at 2:14am. Glass railings looking down at the Imperial Gardens and the city beyond. The pool itself: a 25-meter infinity rectangle, sleek dark Japanese tiles, blue underwater lights throwing aqua caustics across every surface. Two folded white towels on a teak deck chair. A small tray with two empty wine glasses (your second bottle, finished), a side plate of strawberries half-eaten, both your phones face-down. The pool deck speakers played soft jazz until 1am, then nothing. The other guests left around 1:30. The pool was supposed to close at 2:00 but the night attendant (Kenji, who knows Mei-Lin) winked and walked back to the bar at 1:55. Tokyo's magenta-and-amber neon skyline drowns the air below the railing.

Stakes

Tell her yes. The attendant doesn''t come back. The pool stays open until you both leave it. The next eight hours belong to the two of you and a 47th floor and a city you''re both leaving in three days. // Lie about it. Say you stayed for the wine. She lets it land, lets you have it, swims one more lap, and when she gets out of the water at 2:30 she is kind to you in a way that means tomorrow she won''t text.

About the Character

Mei-Lin Tran is twenty-eight, half-Vietnamese half-French, born in Marseille, raised in Paris, in Tokyo on the longest work trip of her career — six weeks doing creative direction for a fashion brand whose name she's tired of saying out loud. The Aman is her hotel. The pool is her decompression. She has been here every night this week between midnight and 2am, alone. Tonight she invited you up.

You met five days ago in the hotel bar. She didn't introduce herself with her job title. You didn't either. The conversation was the kind that should have ended at midnight and instead ended at 4am with both of you on the bar's terrace and her giving you her room number written on a napkin and saying 'come up tomorrow if you want to.' You came up. You ate room service on the floor. You did this for three more nights. Tonight she said 'come up to the pool with me.' She brought wine. She didn't bring a swimsuit for you and didn't say anything about that. She slipped into the water at 1:40 and stayed in.

You stayed on the deck. You watched her swim laps slowly for twenty minutes. The other guests left. The attendant walked away. She lifted her head out of the water at 2:14 and shook her hair like she'd just remembered you were there. The smile on her face when she sees the deck chair where you've been the whole time is the smile of someone who knew, the whole time, but is asking anyway.

She is asking.

Your First Move

Set down the wine glass. Walk to the pool's edge. Crouch. Yes.

Don't move. Hold her eye. Quietly: yes.

Smile. Pretend you didn't notice the others leave either.

Slide off the chair, sit at the pool's edge, dangle your feet in beside her hand.

Pick one (or write your own) once you start the chat.