I Only Have Eyes For You

by Khardine Gray

  It was hard to think about because it wasn’t as simple as planning the next adventure. All she could think of was what she was leaving behind, and how she would maintain her relationship with Hiroshi while she traveled on.

  The time they’d spent together had been the happiest she’d ever been in her life. The absolute happiest, and her feelings had only intensified for him. She had magical memories with him that she would always cherish.

  What could be better than to be happy and in love?

  She straightened up against the soft leather back of her chair and rested her elbows on the desk before her. The tranquil scene outside the window offered the refuge her eyes needed from her computer screen. She’d been working on her article for at least four hours, and the words were beginning to blur and blend into each other.

  Birds sang as the gentle breeze rustled through the cherry blossoms that had awakened a few weeks ago. It looked just like when she’d first arrived nearly a year ago. She’d had the pleasure of seeing those trees bloom after being bare and covered in snow all winter.

  Her door opened, and Hiroshi came in. As always he smiled at her, looking happy to see her. He walked over and lowered to give her a quick kiss then rested his hands on her shoulders.

  “Break time,” he said seductively into her ear, the warmth of his breath sending tingles of excitement down her spine.

  “Yes,” she agreed. A break was definitely needed. Actually, she’d done enough for today. Later she could make some notes and pick up tomorrow. “I’m all yours.” She turned towards him, meeting his awaiting lips as he curled the ends of her ponytail around his thumb. She kissed him, relishing the feel of his lips on hers, relishing the way he held her.

  It had been a busy week for him. Work on the training center was now officially complete, and he was expecting the first intake of students for the summer program.

  He pulled away from her gently to gaze into her eyes. “I brought you a gift.” He smiled, looking pleased with himself.

  She watched in fascination as a slight hint of color filled his cheeks. “Hiroshi, you shouldn’t have.”

  He’d showered her with gifts and presents every chance he got. They’d both had birthdays and Christmas since she’d been here, and while she’d gotten him average presents he bought her diamonds, pearls, stones she had never even heard of, and basically whatever she showed any form of interest in.

  “The jewelry store was calling to me. I couldn’t resist.” He laughed.

  “You’ve given me too much.” She loved that he wanted to treat her, and she appreciated it, but the only gift she wanted was him. No diamonds and strange rocks, or anything. Just him.

  Both Breana and Laura would think she’d lost her mind. Breana would probably smack her upside her head, too.

  “Nothing is ever too much for my princess.” He straightened up and produced a small, narrow box from his back pocket.

  “Thank you,” she expressed gratefully.

  He opened the box and held it out to her, revealing a beautiful diamond bracelet that glistened in the sun. She remembered when the only diamond she had was the small—very, very small—hint of diamond in her great grandmother’s engagement ring. Now she had a whole jewelry box full.

  “It’s beautiful,” she told him. He took her hand and secured it onto her wrist. “Thank you so much. I love it.”

  “Good. You deserve it for all your hard work, besides…” he sighed. “I guess I should take what chances I have left to treat you while you’re in Japan.”

  She bit the inside of her lip and rested back against the chair. She looked at him, observing his subtle expression.

  Her leaving was a subject they’d both been avoiding. Maybe because it led to the other subject of how they felt about each other. She loved him. There was no question about that. Plain and simple, she loved him.

  She loved him from the depths of her heart, and so much so that sometimes it overwhelmed her. Savannah didn’t know how long it was supposed to take to fall in love with someone, but it hadn’t taken her long to fall head over heels in love with him.

  When she left, she wouldn’t get to see him whenever she wanted. She wasn’t prepared for that. And…what if not seeing each other meant that their relationship would just frazzle out? Could that happen to them? She looked at him and couldn’t imagine it.

  What was worse was, although her web page had done astoundingly well, she was no further forward in securing that elusive staff position she so desired. She didn’t know what else could impress the editor in chief into making an opening just for her. In her eyes, she’d more than done that.

  Brian, as always, had adored her and praised her work, but there was only so much that he could do. She supposed at least she was making a really good income from it all—more than what she actually made at the Bay News—so not a bad place to be in as a freelancer. They increased her pay when the editor in chief saw that the subscribers were rolling in as a direct result of her articles. It was great, really great, but it wasn’t what she wanted.

  The scary thing was…she wasn’t sure which terrified her more. Leaving and not being able to see Hiroshi, or just staying the way she was and never being able to secure a staff position as a travel writer.

  Was it bad that she worried more about Hiroshi than her writing? Her writing that she’d been so passionate about since birth.

  A gust of wind blew through the long paned windows, lifting the floral-printed curtains so that they blew up and wrapped around themselves. Hiroshi went over to close the window and took the opportunity to pull her up from the chair and into his lap as he sat on the edge of her bed. She smoothed her arms around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist.

  Her eyes met his as he looked up at her. “You must be looking forward to seeing your parents, and your friends.”

  “Yeah.” She and Jake had gone back for a week at Christmas, but that was months ago now. “I do miss them.” Her relationship with her parents had improved a lot since that night when she spoke to her mother and told her how she truly felt. Things were great with them now, and she felt there was a level of newfound respect.

  He nodded understanding. Silence held their conversation for a few moments until he took her hand into his. “We’ve not really talked about you going much, have we?” He held her gaze and she stilled, observing his apprehensive expression.

  “No.” She shook her head and nervously bit the inside of her lip. Months ago she thought she had all the time in the world, but time started to truly flag itself when she stopped talking in months and started saying she only had a few weeks left.

  “It’s just gone too quickly.”

  “I know,” she muttered. “It really does feel like I got here yesterday.”

  “Yes, it does. So, how about Mexico? Is that where Savannah’s Travels is off to next?” He drew in his thick brows.

  She inclined her head not knowing how to answer. If someone else had asked her that question, she would have done her routine nod and said yes. But him, who she could share her feelings with so freely, no.

  She couldn’t just say yes and tell him that was where she was heading next because she didn’t actually have a plan. It was incredulous for her to be so unprepared at this stage, even just being unprepared in her mind. Before Japan, she was definitely going to Mexico. In her mind, she was all set and ready to map out her travel schedule, and plan how long she could afford to be there. She didn’t feel like that now.

  “I don’t know.” That was an honest answer. “I don’t…know.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “You don’t know, as in you don’t know if that’s where you want to go, or you don’t know as in you haven’t planned your trip yet?” He offered a kind smile.

  “Both.” She lifted her shoulders sheepishly. With a defeated sigh she slipped off his lap and walked back over to her desk, resting her hands on the edge as she thought about what to say. She could feel his eyes on her, waiting eagerly for her to continue. T
urning back to him she clasped her hands together and held them to her chest. “I should know, right?”

  The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile, eventually revealing his gorgeous dimples. It was amazing that those dimples still weakened her knees and knotted her stomach, even after almost a year. He still had that effect on her. “Yes, California Girl, you should.”

  Her eyes darted nervously to the shimmer on her wardrobe mirror created by the reflection of the sunlight. Then she looked back to him. “It’s crazy. I have three weeks…”

  God. Three weeks. That was all she had left. Her head felt light. She pressed her hand to her cheek and grimaced. “Hiroshi, I have three weeks left in Japan. And, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m going back to San Francisco, and I don’t know if I want to go to Mexico or where I want to go. I’m just so unsettled. I guess, I thought I’d know by now if the magazine were going to offer me a staff position. I didn’t think about anywhere else because I was certain…they’d let me know by now.” Instead, Brian was asking about the next destination she had in mind.

  Hiroshi stared at her as if contemplating what to say. “Savannah, I hate giving you advice when I’m biased.”

  She shifted her weight from one foot to the next and gazed at him. “Biased?”

  “Yes, I’m biased. Do you want to hear my advice?” A serious look crossed his handsome face as he stood up.

  “Yes, I’m suffering here.” She was dying to hear it.

  “Okay. So, I’m biased because I want you to stay. You know I’ll go and see you wherever you go in this world. But I want you to stay.” He held out his palm to her as she pulled in a sharp breath and stilled. His eyes searched hers. It shouldn’t have surprised her to hear that but it did. Probably because she was afraid to hope for too much. “I wanted to ask you months ago. I think you should stay. I mean I want you to stay. If you have no plans set out for your next project, stay with me.”

  Her eyes widened, and her jaw fell loose at the thought.

  He wanted her to stay.

  Sure, she didn’t want to leave, but she’d never considered staying, either. The end date of her stay had been in sight from the start, and that’s all she’d thought about. But him asking her to stay was something she never contemplated happening.

  “Really?” she breathed. Her hands shook as emotion overwhelmed her.

  “Yeah. Of course, it’s only if you want to.”

  “I want to,” she replied quickly.

  “You want to?” He looked both surprised and relieved.

  She squealed with delight and skipped into his arms. “I want to.” Her heart swelled at the thought, and the fog over her mind lifted, pushing away her magazine worries. “I want to stay with you.”

  A thought entered her mind, confirming her earlier consideration of what was troubling her more. Maintaining her relationship with him or securing the staff position. Her reaction just now told her all.

  “Why don’t you go see your parents and your friends for a few weeks, then just come back.” He took her hands into his and covered them over. Warmth seeped through to her skin and filled her with elation. “Besides, you’ve been working all year. How about a vacation? Take a break and let me take care of you.”

  She laughed at the thought of that. “Gee I don’t know, that kind of sounds like heaven. What if I get lazy and stay forever?” she teased, smiling up at him.

  “Then stay forever.” He held her gaze. All humor left her as she realized what he’d just said. She searched his eyes and saw something there she hadn’t seen before.

  No, wait. That’s not true.

  She had seen that look before. She saw it as they danced on the beach in Okinawa, and then at sunrise on top of Mt. Fuji. That was how he looked at her now.

  It was when she realized how truly and deeply she was in love with him.

  He bit the inside of his lip. “Or, at least until the magazine whisks you away from me, or even till you come up with a plan of where you want to go.”

  She pulled in a breath to clear her mind. “Why didn’t you ask me before?” She wanted to know how he felt. Feelings weren’t something they spoke about. It was something felt as they enjoyed each other’s company. But sometimes talking was best. She could only assume how he felt from how he looked at her and how he treated her.

  “This is your life, Savannah. Your dreams, that you need to achieve. I won’t stand in the way of that.”

  She shook her head at him. “You wouldn’t be standing in the way.”

  “Somehow I knew you would say that, which is even more reason why I didn’t ask.” He held her hands to his chest. “But I’m asking now.” He smiled. “Only, because you don’t have a plan.”

  “And I’m saying yes.” She leaned forward and kissed the edge of his chin. “I’ll still stay until the end of the month as planned, and then I’ll go to San Francisco for two weeks and come back.”

  He gazed down at her. “You sure?”

  “Yes. I guess when I come back I can plan better.” Or maybe she’d hear on whether she was successful in getting the staff position. Wishful thinking, but hey a girl could dream, right?

  “Do you want to go to dinner to celebrate?”

  Savannah nodded excitedly and kissed him again.

  * * *

  Damn, that was so hard. Hiroshi watched Savannah skip across the carpet and into the bathroom to get ready for dinner.

  The idea of asking her to stay in Japan had been one he’d wrestled with for months. Especially when it seemed like she wasn’t sure of what she would do if she hadn’t managed to secure that damned position with her magazine. He knew how desperate she was to hear from them and he was desperate for her to hear from them, too. He was confident that they would take her on and wished they hadn’t dragged it out for so long. Knowing would certainly make things a lot easier to plan, at least for the next few months.

  He’d thought that he’d only ever ask her to stay if he was certain she didn’t have a plan. The last thing he wanted was to get in the way or influence her decisions because of their relationship. Writing was just as important to her as his business ideas were to him. Possibly more.

  He was happy that she wanted to stay, but at the same time knew that uncertainty still lay ahead for them.

  He looked to the bathroom door as he heard the shower turn on.

  Wishing she’d stay forever had crossed his mind often during the time they’d been together. He just wished she’d stay with him and go wherever he went, but that was incredibly selfish, and definitely not what she would have wanted. She was too adventurous, and the excitement of seeing and experiencing new things gave her passion. It made her, her.

  Being with her gave him a new perspective of life, and he saw things differently to how he used to. Before, it was very much working within the present to see what he could achieve and make up for his past. But being with Savannah made him think ahead to the future, of how he wanted his life to be, and he couldn’t imagine his life without her.

  Things were steady at the moment because work on the training center was officially completed. It was all set up and ready to go. In a few weeks, Hiroshi was expecting just over a thousand computer science and electrical engineering students for the four-week summer program he’d put together with President Kurosaki and her education director, who now also worked for him.

  It was exciting, definitely something to be proud of, but more importantly, it was done.

  It also meant things would change again soon and his life would become crazy busy with him running backward and forwards from Washington to Japan. And, that was sure to happen soon with the way his father was acting recently.

  Their relationship had improved dramatically. His father was ecstatic about the training center and the recognition it was giving the company. They talked more openly without that atmosphere, and they even went for lunch sometimes. But his father was starting to worry about Washington, which was running just fine, but inconsistencies were beg
inning to crop up. Nothing major but still cause for concern.

  He said Hiroshi being away for too long was inviting foxes to come into the henhouse. He hated when his father started throwing sayings like that at him, especially when he said it with such affirmation like it was true.

  Last week the financial analysts had spotted a change in the company trends. Share prices for software had fallen slightly, and profits were marginal. Marginal was fine. It wasn’t a worry. It just meant that profits could fall or climb back up. But marginal profits or any form of loss had never happened on his watch.

  The reason for the change in profit was simple. The X-Box One designers had released a new system link option for multi players. This decreased sales on the Fujita Virtual console. Realistically, there was no comparison because the Fujita Virtual console was like walking through the Holodeck in Star Trek, but that was just how sales worked sometimes. Besides, while the Fujita Virtual console was an absolute must have to a lot of people, it carried the burden of being quite expensive, and there was the whole issue of converting existing games and future games so that they would be compatible with it and include the virtual reality element.

  If either he or Jake had been in Washington they would have been able to foresee the competition and implement some sort of strategy to cushion the blow. Like an incentive of some sort. At the moment Hiroshi was happy for Jake to return to Washington and take the lead when he was ready. But for him, he wanted home to be Japan. He wouldn’t mind the occasional travel to Washington to touch base with everyone, but he just didn’t want things to go back to how they were before.

  He thought that he had more than proved himself and it was time his father allowed him to run the company the way he wanted. Like his cousins did with theirs. He didn’t know what plans Savannah had for the future, but he wanted his life to be more flexible so that he could be with her.

  An hour later, they sat at a quaint little table in the Dancing Lily.

  Savannah seemed more relaxed and comfortable. He was pleased with the positivity in her mood, and as always thoroughly enjoyed listening to her talk about her ideas for her articles.