Armed with this new revelation that Hannah had lied, I felt had a decision to make.
I wasn't the victim of the crime here -- I had helped Hannah with no expectation of being paid back -- so I could have just let sleeping dogs lie.
Hell, the crime probably wasn't even that severe. Hannah had been opportunistic, at worst. Her boyfriend had sent her money to pay me back for the hospital bills, and she was faced with the choice to either give it to me or keep it.
When the best job you can get nets you IDR 900,000 a month, the opportunity to pocket 10 times that amount must have been too tempting to bear.
But there was something that irked me. I had been willing to have some kind of serious relationship with Hannah at some point, and she had rejected me for this other guy. She had told me she loved him and that they were likely to get married at some point in the near future.
Now she had gone ahead and fucked him over for a bag of cash? How could the relationship work longer term with that little pea under the mattress? What else was she willing to do to this guy?
So I wasn't a victim, but Hannah's boyfriend Gavin most certainly was. As far as I could tell, he was just a nice simple genuine guy and he was getting fucked over by some skanky working girl of questionable morals! Could I really sit idle and let him marry her, knowing what I knew?
I immediately sprung into hero mode again. I had to save him! I was "Captain Save-A-Joe!" [insert theme song here]
So I made a decision. I booked my flights, finished up my work, and headed off to Jakarta to put my plan into action.
When I finally arrived, I jumped in a cab and immediately started texting.
Of course the first went to Seven. I knew seeing her was likely a mistake, that we'd end up getting deeper into each other and there would be inevitable pain in our collective futures -- probably more so for her -- but I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could, even if it turned out to be the last time. Even if there were consequences.
I set up a date for that night and she enthusiastically agreed.
The second text was to Hannah. This one was a little more cheeky.
"I'm here in Jakarta now. Gavin told me he gave you money to pay me back for the hospital bill. Let me know when you want to meet up and give it to me."
Her reply came almost immediately. "I already spent all the money, so I can't give it back to you. Sorry."
Amazingly, she didn't even try to deny it. I took a deep breath, then typed: "OK, that's your choice. But if you don't give me the money back in 24 hours, I will tell your boyfriend what you did to him."
I didn't hit send, though. I knew I was playing a dangerous game here, but I just couldn't stop thinking about how fucked up it was that Hannah had claimed to be in love with this guy and then thought nothing of ripping him off.
Hannah was the only one who had done a wrong here, she had to be the one to lose out. And it was for her own good anyway. If she was going to make the relationship with Gavin work, it should be based on honesty, even if I had to force it down her lying throat!
Fuck it, I hit send.
I got to the hotel, checked in, and got ready for Seven. I hadn't had a reply from Hannah, but I didn't care. As far as I was concerned the clock had started ticking the moment I sent that text.
Seven and I had a nice dinner, but eventually we had to deal with the fat white elephant in the room (not me, the metaphorical one).
I held her eye contact, then dropped it. "I'm only here for a week this time. I don't want to give you any expectations."
"You already have. I can't help it," she said.
"Well what can we do? I want to see you, but I don't like the situation any more than you do. I missed you so much when I was in Singapore, and I was so happy when I found out I was coming back."
Then she said something that surprised me a bit. "I think it'll only get harder if we have sex. Is it ok if we don't?"
I heard my voice saying "sure, of course, that's probably a good idea," but at the same time my dick was kneeling in the mud in a torrential downpour, looking up into the night sky and screaming "NOOOOOOO!!" at the top if his purple-veined lungs.
Hannah replied to me during dinner, almost as if she knew it would disturb my time with Seven. She just repeated that she had spent all the money and couldn't pay me back.
I didn't bother to reply. Tick-tock, Hannah, you lying cunt.
When dinner was over, I asked Seven what she wanted to do. She asked if it was ok if she stayed with me overnight. I said "sure, but what about no sex?" She grinned and said, "can't you control yourself?"
I laughed. "I have awesome self-control. But I might not try to exercise it!"
When we got up to the room, we partially undressed and got into bed. I lay on my back and she lay facing me. I closed my eyes and waited to fall asleep, but of course, I wasn't even remotely tired.
After a long time, I opened my eyes again and peeked over at Seven to see if she was sleeping. She was staring right back at me with her little secret smile. I rolled to face her, looked into her eyes, and stroked her cheek gently with one hand. I touched her lips lightly with my thumb.
Then I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her in for a deep long kiss. She didn't resist and we ended up fucking through the night.
I had to go to work the next day without getting any decent sleep, but it was worth it. The day seemed to last forever, but I got regular lovey-dovey texts from Seven all day which made it tolerable.
I remember sitting in meetings and just staring blankly at whoever was talking, until there was a pause long enough for me to realize it was my turn to talk. I'd have to try to replay what had just been said in my head and fake the response.
Six o'clock eventually came, so I packed my shit up quickly and headed for the elevator.
On the way down to the ground floor, I texted Hannah two simple words: "Time's up."