“Aiko-san,” Yatsumi said, her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “This is my dear friend Mio. She’s part of the group I told you about.”
“Eh? You told her about the group?” Mio shirked her friend off. “You didn’t invite her, did you?’
“Of course I did! You were saying yourself the other day you wish we had more people.”
“Yes, but not…” Mio sneered. To Aiko, she said, “You’re really Reina’s girlfriend?”
Fists clenched and collected sweat, but Aiko ignored her nails burying into her skin. “We’ve been together for five years now.”
“Five years?”
“Oi, come on, let’s go.” Yatsumi tugged Mio’s arm and tried to lead her away. Yet the other woman remained as stuck as a statue, her face paling beneath the rims of her glasses.
“I remember her getting a new girlfriend after me, but…” Mio realized her friend had her arm. “Oh, Yatsu? What are you doing?”
Yatsumi released her and waved at Aiko. “Well, I’m going. I’ll call you later, Aiko-san, to tell you where we’re meeting next week.”
“You can’t invite her without asking me!”
“What are you going to do? Uninvite her?”
Mio tensed, the nearest streetlight shaking with every one of her shudders. “Wait!”
They both scuttled down the alleyway without a proper goodbye to Aiko.
She stood for another minute, in case they came back. Do I even want them to come back? Yatsumi, yes, but Mio was another uncomfortable story. Do I even want to be friends with one of Reina’s exes? Desperation did make one do the occasional odd thing.
Aiko found her girlfriend in the bar where she left her, sitting with another couple. A bottle of beer sat in front of her, even though she had promised she wouldn’t drink any alcohol that night. Aiko didn’t know why she was surprised or disappointed… but the other two women, hanging on her every smooth-talking word, gave her a flashback to Mio’s pallid visage.
“Ah, Ai-chan!” Reina slapped the empty stool next to her. “See, I told you my girlfriend existed.”
The other women pouted their lips and exuded whines annoying enough to make a dog mad. “It’s not fair. Charming women like you should always be available.” The nearest woman put her hand on Reina’s arm.
She peeled her off. “Ai-chan, meet my new friends. They’re from out of town.”
Aiko sat down and stole her girlfriend’s drink. To her chagrin it was almost empty. “How many of these have you had?”
“Huh? Oh, two.’ Reina went back to chatting with the out-of-towners.
The bartender asked Aiko if she wanted anything. She ordered a cola, and told the bartender not to give Reina any more alcohol. After she left, Aiko slipped her arm around Reina’s and leaned her head on her shoulder, where she stayed until the other women decided they had to go to the restroom together.
“Ehh, what’s wrong?” Reina wrapped her arm around Aiko and rubbed her side. “Tired? Was your meeting good?”
Aiko inhaled the scent of her girlfriend’s familiar body odor. When she spoke, it was into the short sleeve of Reina’s T-shirt. “It was fine. I met one of your ex-girlfriends.”
The now-empty beer bottle clattered against the counter. “Eh? Ex-girlfriend?” Reina could chortle as if nothing were amiss, but by now Aiko recognized when uneasiness festered inside her girlfriend’s body. “You must have heard wrong. You know I’ve only had a few girlfriends.”
“I know. She was fairly adamant she was one of them.”
Nevertheless, Reina tried to get the last of the beer out of her bottle. “Who was it?”
“A woman named Mio.”
Reina dropped the bottle, the neck grazing the edge of the bar as it landed with a plop in her lap. Yet her hand remained in the air, and her face paled as much as Mio’s when introduced to Aiko only ten minutes earlier. “Mio…”
“You remember her?”
“Of…of course I do.” Reina pulled the bottle out of her lap and sat it on the bar.
“I ask because I know how awful you are with remembering most women.”
“I remember Mio.”
“She remembers you too.”
Reina wanted another beer, but both the bartender and Aiko cut her off. When she protested, Aiko reminded her of how drunk she was the night before. The look Reina gave her was probably the same one she gave Mio a time or two.
Mio.
It wasn’t uncommon for Aiko to imagine Reina having sex with other women – not when it was a fact of their relationship. She knew there had been dozens, maybe even a hundred women before her, and sometimes Reina still fooled around with other women when Aiko was there to participate. Still, this was different: if Mio was a girlfriend then that meant Reina spent a lot of time with her, maybe even doted on her, and slept with her at home. Aiko gulped. She never worried about her girlfriend’s heart straying, but…
“Ai-chan.” Reina had a cigarette to replace her beer. “Let’s take these girls home.”
“Eh?” Aiko sat up, hands clutching her stool. “Are you serious? We haven’t had any company like that in our new house yet.” The only “company” to show up at their door was Mrs. Uchiyama again while Reina was at work.
Smoke obscured her face. “So? Maybe we should start. We finally have a big bed of our own to fuck women in.”
“Mou.” Aiko leaned against the bar. It wouldn’t be their first threesome – hell, it wouldn’t be their first orgy. But after meeting Mio, Aiko wasn’t sure she could stand seeing her girlfriend kiss another woman for a little while. As far as she was concerned, their bed was still only for them, a private place to make love. Like we have almost every night so far.
Reina tapped her cigarette against an ashtray. “Is that a no?”
“I’m not really in the mood for that.”
A tsch escaped through Reina’s teeth. She gazed at the restroom door as if those beautiful women would return nude as newborns and begging for her attention. “You’re not very fun tonight. Did those feminists make you feel bad about having sex?”
“I don’t think that’s a feminism thing. And no.”
“Ah, is this about Mio?”
Grimacing, Aiko pressed her hand over her eyes so Reina wouldn’t have to see her annoyance. “It’s not about anything. I just want to go home.”
“Alone?”
“Alone.”
“All right. We’ll go home. We can still have sex though, right?”
On the verge of shoving her girlfriend off her bar stool with an emphatic no, Aiko hucked back the second half of her cola and stood up. Why does she have to be so sexual? Not that Aiko wasn’t used to it. To say she suffered through a full week of sex with the woman she adored – for some reason – would be disingenuous. But it did get exhausting.
Yet when Aiko peered at her girlfriend again, she saw the hope on her wistful countenance and the gleam in her eyes. Aiko placed her hand on Reina’s knee and remembered it between her legs that first night in their house. Her body warmed at the thought of making love once again.
“I’d like that,” Aiko finally said.
With a happy smile, Reina extinguished her cigarette and escorted Aiko out of the bar. As they walked down the street toward the train station, Aiko dispelled the thoughts of Mio from her mind – the greatest feeling in the world was that of Reina’s strong arm draped around her shoulders.
Two days into the work week, Reina received the first sign her hard work may have started to pay off.
When it happened, she was already sitting at the desk she shared with Suzuki and inputting handwritten files into the new computers. The same main task she had since being hired over a year earlier. Concerning output, however, Reina had one of the highest numbers in her department – she was exceptional at mundane tasks like that, as long as they didn’t include cleaning or cooking. As she finished another sheet, she licked her fingers and flipped the paper over to get started on the other side. A shadow loomed above th
e desk.
“Yamada. Suzuki.” The section chief stood tall, arms behind his back. He was a no-nonsense man, a recent transplant from another department after the sudden retirement of the previous section chief. Since then, the staff was shuffled around like old people on a cruise ship. “Please come see me in my office immediately.”
Both Reina and Suzuki followed, the man in front sweating while the woman behind convinced herself nothing was amiss. I’ve done nothing wrong. Besides, if she were in trouble, the section chief’s eye would have twitched.
He closed the office door behind them and bade Reina and Suzuki to sit. Suzuki slumped down, his thick legs wobbling and his arms flailing. Reina called back her etiquette lessons from Catholic high school and sat with her ankles crossed, back straight, and hands in her lap. She felt ridiculous.
“I’m to inform you of a position opening up in a parallel department two floors above here.” The section chief tugged his tie and flipped open a folder outlining the details. “The board has specifically asked that this position be filled by an employee hired in 1996, as it pertains to managing next year’s new hires. They think it would best be done by those nearer their standing. Odds are it will be one of you.”
Reina contained her rising excitement. A promotion! Already! Well, it wasn’t certain. But when she saw Suzuki grunt in acknowledgement, she thought back to their first year anniversary reports commending her on her output and suggesting Suzuki up his. She liked him as a coworker and a drinking buddy, but if it came to choosing somebody to promote at this second, Reina did not doubt she was the only contender.
“Myself and the section chief of the other department will be making the preliminary decisions. This is your warning that you will be watched extra closely from here on out. We’ll know who is best suited for this job.”
Reina inclined her head. On the outside she maintained her pinnacle of pacifism, but inside she jumped for joy like a kid let out for summer vacation. I have this. She wasn’t even that interested in a career, but if she could get more money…well, why not? Respect was just as addicting as being charmed by two lovely women at a bar. For a moment Reina panged for those beautiful ladies who promised they were former acrobats.
After being dismissed, Reina and Suzuki detoured into the break room to get some coffee. Kimura was already inside brewing the next batch – since they were in-between secretaries, a junior had to fill the role of beverage master – and looked up at them with an innocent smile.
“So what do you think, Yamada?” Suzuki hovered near his coworker and the coffee pot, cup in hand. “Would be real fancy getting a promotion so soon.” Kimura lifted his head at the announcement. “Yamada and I are battling for a promotion.”
“Or so it seems.” Reina remained by the table.
“Oh, really?” The coffee pot beeped in finality. Kimura detached it and poured Suzuki a steaming cup. “Good luck to both of you!”
Reina held out her cup for Kimura to fill with a reverent turn of his wrist. It reminded her of how she liked to light cigarettes for flirty women…like the ones from Saturday. Damn! Why do I keep thinking of them? Because she had wanted them, that’s why. Thankfully Aiko more than made up for the lack of a foursome with how vibrant she was later that night. Just thinking about it almost made her feel satisfied again. Almost.
“So Suzuki, did you ever ask your girlfriend to marry you?” Reina blew the steam off her coffee and tasted its heat. It burned the edges of her lips, and she recoiled as demurely as possible lest the men laugh at her.
He sat his hot cup on the counter and mopped the sweat off his reddening cheeks. “N…no. That was the fury of the alcohol Friday. Heh…I was so drunk!”
“We all were.”
“I didn’t ask Atsuko to marry me.” Suzuki smiled, and for the first time Reina noticed his crooked, yellowed teeth. Ew. Like she needed more reasons to be turned off by men. “I didn’t even get to see her this weekend. But I did think more about it. Do you really think I should?”
Although not directly spoken to, Kimura finished filling up the other coffee cups and replied. “Oh, if you love her, you should!” He picked up cups and put them on the drink cart.
“Whoa, you’re a real romantic type of guy, Kimura!” Reina’s coffee was cool enough for her to drink now. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
He almost spilled the coffee in his hand. “No…” he squeaked. “No, I don’t.”
“I do love her, this is true,” Suzuki continued. “And…I like to think she would say yes. I mean, I have no reason to guess why she wouldn’t, when one considers feelings.” He sputtered on his coffee. “But money is an issue. I don’t make quite enough for us to live together, let alone afford a wedding.”
“Maybe if you get the promotion.”
Suzuki regarded Kimura with a bright, infectious smile. “That’s right! Maybe I could if I get promoted!” He looked at Reina again and frowned. “Oh, sorry Yamada.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Taking his coffee with him, Suzuki decided to go back to work. He waddled out of the break room, scratching his ass with the brunt of his chomped cuticles. Reina gave herself another moment before following him. She watched Kimura finish loading the drink cart with enough coffee to hydrate the entire building.
“Ah, it must be so nice,” he mumbled to himself, his long mustard-colored tie nearly dunking into the nearest cup of coffee. He caught it and wiped it off with long, dexterous fingers. Reina blinked. Normally she did not study a man’s appearance so closely. “Do you…” He looked up. “Do you have a boyfriend, Yamada-senpai?”
Her ass nearly slipped off the table she leaned against. Fine thing that, considering it would have sloshed hot coffee all over her. “Huh? Boyfriend?” No matter how many times people asked her that, it always sounded so preposterous. Gross! Never in her life had she had a boyfriend. There was one boy in middle school who shyly asked her out, but twelve-year-old Reina had no interest then either. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend.” The truth, anyway. He hadn’t asked her about a girlfriend.
“Oh.” Kimura put the final touches on his arrangement and grabbed the handles on the cart. “I don’t have a girlfriend. Seems that Suzuki-senpai has a more exciting life than us.”
Speak for yourself. Reina doubted that Atsuko-piner got laid every night like she did. With Aiko. One of the most beautiful, nimble, and curious girls to crawl into a bed with Reina Yamada. Atsuko probably scrunched her face at icky gross sex. Reina filled her mouth with coffee so she wouldn’t have to respond to Kimura, who pushed the cart out into the office, side-long glimpses still coming after her like darts.
Reina went into work overdrive for the rest of that afternoon, clearing her work and digging into Suzuki’s. If only my mother could see me now. She had called Reina “lazy” a time or a million in her teenage years. Hell, if Aiko could see her now! Then again, after moving around the furniture over a week before, Reina doubted she would be called lazy for at least a few more months.
She drew that line at voluntarily staying an extra two hours after work, however. A half hour already passed before she knew she could leave anyway. When she first started working she balked at being expected to stay late every day, but now that she might be paid more…the smile she allowed herself to have as she marched down the street to the station was bright enough to light a room.
Her good mood continued when she arrived home, the tantalizing scent of dinner drowning out the humidity pressing against her skin. The best thing about moving in with her girlfriend – after the sex, of course – was the wonderful home cooked meals Aiko was a natural at preparing. Tonight it smelled like salmon.
Salmon and udon, as it turned out once Reina came through the door. She dumped her briefcase and blazer before leaping into the air-conditioned living area, the table set with whole salmon and steaming bowls of summer seasoned udon. Aiko emerged from the kitchen with fresh vegetables on a tray.
“Ara! You look happy today!” She s
at the tray down and followed, knees thumping against a floor cushion while her hands poured a cup of tea for her girlfriend.
Reina loosened the top two buttons on her shirt and sat before her food. “And this looks great. You’re spoiling me every day, Ai-chan.”
That giggle as Reina shoved in a mouthful of fish was the cherry on her good-day sundae. “I’ve never had somebody who liked my cooking so much.”
“Well, I like your cooking.” A bulbous udon noodle slid down Reina’s throat.
It took ten minutes of vigorous eating for Aiko to coax the source of Reina’s good day out of her. After setting down her empty bowl and picking off the last gobs of meat from salmon bones, she wiped her mouth and opened her arms.
“I might be getting a promotion.”
Aiko shot straight to overjoyed, as if Reina said “am” and not “if.” She squealed in her seat, ponytail bouncing beneath the air conditioner and dimples popping off her face. “Hontou ni?” She settled down before she knocked the teapot over. “That’s exciting!”
“Come on now, it’s not official yet.” However, Reina could not keep her own smirk of pride off her face. “I have to prove I’m better for the position than my coworker. And he’s so lazy! I did half of his work today.”
Aiko stood up and collected the dirty dishes. She muttered something about, “Wouldn’t it be amazing?” as she went into the kitchen and turned on the sink.
Reina remained at the table and thought about the things she could buy with a raise: vacations, new electronics, work clothes tailored to her lean body, more junk food, the latest and greatest sex toys (or did those count as electronics?) and maybe even a car. Why not? Reina had her license, and their new house came with a tiny driveway currently overtaken by weeds and pieces of broken pottery.
Of course, it would be even more beneficial if they were a two-income unit.
“Oi, Ai-chan.” Reina picked up the remote and flipped the TV channel from the news to a variety show. “How did your job searching go today?”
The sink turned off, but Aiko neither appeared nor said anything for a small time. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” she finally said, the excitement banished from her voice. She took one step into the living area, her shoulders slacked and her fingers fumbling together. “I did go looking, but…”
Kataomoi Page 5
