“Don’t you get it? I’m doing this for you. I’m trying to take care of my little sister. Shouldn’t you be grateful that I’m paying attention to your life?”
“I’m not grateful,” I said. “How could you decide something like this without asking me? Why didn’t you pick up the damn phone and ask me?”
“You would’ve said no!”
Yes. I would have.
But that was beside the point.
This couldn’t go on. I couldn’t let my sister run my life, like she did at school, when she would volunteer me for all sorts of sports clubs if they were missing a member during a game. She became known as my manager of sorts and I couldn’t even go against her because she blackmailed me with threats of exposing my bad test scores to my parents.
Now she had nothing to blackmail me with.
She could take her Yuuki Sugiwara and shove him up her butt, for all I cared.
Her eyes narrowed. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d actually opposed her and this was one of those times.
I sighed, wishing to hell this wasn’t how my night ended, especially with a sister I hadn’t seen in months. She might’ve been annoying more often than I cared to admit, but I loved and respected her. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I couldn’t let her continue to treat me like we were still children and she the older one, the one who knew better.
“Saki, I’m sorry. I really am. But I don’t want to meet your friend.”
She pouted. “Why? You used to not care about this sort of thing.”
“Well, now I do. Don’t set up any dates for me. I mean it.”
“You’re seeing someone right now, aren’t you?”
“I said I wasn’t, didn’t I?” I tried my best to keep a level gaze with my sister, to tell her silently that her scare tactics didn’t work on me anymore.
“Really?” She looked me up and down. “Then why are you wearing makeup?”
I stared at her. “Why am I what?”
“Makeup,” she said with a knowing smile. “You never used to wear makeup.”
I put a hand up to my cheek, face smooth from the face powder I used in the taxi.
Crap.
She had me there. “Because. I work in a big company now. Looks are everything.”
Her smile widened. “Even on a Sunday night?”
Damn her and her observant eyes. “I’m trying to pay more attention to my appearance, okay? Maybe I’m trying to find someone without having to rely on someone else for help.”
“But I want to help you, Rika,” she countered. “Yuuki is such a nice guy. I went to school with him for eight years. I’m surprised you don’t remember him. Are you sure you don’t know who I’m talking about? He’s the really tall guy. Played baseball as a regular. Come on, Rika, he was a really popular guy in my grade! All the girls had crushes on him.”
Actually, now that she mentioned it, I thought I knew who she was referring to. I didn’t quite recall the name, but I thought I knew who she was talking about when she brought up his height.
Having topped one hundred and seventy centimeters by the time I reached high school, there weren’t a lot of people who were taller than me, and there weren’t any taller girls in my class. I got made fun of a lot, but I did recall seeing a guy in my sister’s class who was quite a bit taller than me. Granted, he was a third year, but it was nice to see someone whom I had to look up at.
I couldn’t recall his face, but he couldn’t have been excessively bad if I didn’t remember him. And he must have been good at baseball since my school was well known for its baseball team and scouted students from other prefectures. We even went to nationals at Koshien Stadium in my first year. He must have been part of that golden team.
But still, like hell was I going to go on a blind date arranged by someone like my sister.
“I don’t care how popular he is,” I said, righting my seat. “I’m not going. I don’t have the time. I just came back from a week-long business trip, Saki. Maybe I’ll have time in a month or two, but right now my schedule is way too packed.”
Her face fell. “It’ll just be for an hour. Please? If you don’t like him, I promise you never have to meet anyone I suggest ever again.”
My ears pricked, even though I had heard the same things from her when she was pimping me out to the sports teams who assumed I was athletic because I was tall. I had some athletic talent, but I pretended like I was a klutz, getting a great deal of perverse joy from making them regret they had asked my sister.
She clasped her hands in front of her, her eyes squeezing shut. “Please, Rika?”
My father set down his chopsticks over his empty rice bowl. “Surely it wouldn’t hurt to go to one, Rika?”
There went the killing blow, the KO to my life bar.
My father didn’t ask me for a lot. Actually, my parents didn’t ask or expect much from me at all. They got that from Saki who excelled in her classes and her rhythmic gymnastics, so I skated through life without much trouble.
I looked at him sitting calmly at the other side of the table, his glasses glinting in the overhead lights. “Are you asking me to go, Dad?”
My mother stood up as well and started collecting the empty dishes. “There’s nothing wrong with going, is there? And your sister is right, you know. You’ll be thirty and we’re only getting older. We want to make sure you’re not going to be alone.” Her forehead wrinkled. “We want to make sure someone will be there with you when we’re not here anymore.”
I sighed, knowing my defenses were growing feebler by the second. Judging from the grin on Saki’s face, she knew it as well. “I’m not going to be alone. Saki’ll be here, too.”
My mother shot me a meaningful glance. “You know what we’re talking about, dear.”
Well, hell.
Frustration welling up inside me at my inability to say no to anything, especially to my sister, even after all these years, I jammed a fist against my forehead. “Fine. When is it and where?”
“This Saturday at two. There’s a shop that’s just outside Jiyugaoka Station. It’s a pastry shop called Patisserie Kashiwa. Can you make it?”
I paused at the meeting location. “A pastry shop? What kind of guy wants to meet at a pastry shop? Besides, don’t these meetings take place in coffee shops or hotel lobbies or something?”
Mostly, I was fuming because Jiyugaoka was at least an hour away and would require me to transfer twice, not to mention it was a very popular station due to the number of bakeries and coffee shops in the area. It was bound to be swarming with people, something I did not relish.
“I’ve been there before. Their cake is the best,” said Saki in a reconciliatory tone. “You still like cake, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
My father clicked his tongue. “Rika, just go. What’s the harm?”
Swallowing the angry words I would regret, I grabbed my empty dishes so I could escape to the kitchen. “I’m not doing this because I want to. I’m doing this because you’re making me.”
Fuming all the way to the kitchen, I almost hurled my empty dishes into the sink, angry at being manipulated by my sister again. And this time she didn’t even have to blackmail me because she managed to get my parents to go against me.
I was only twenty-eight. What was wrong with being single?
Everything, according to every damn person in my country.
My mother put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. “Don’t worry, Rika. Saki is worried about you. She wants you to have someone to turn to, that’s all.”
My thoughts turned to a tall, lean man with sun-kissed hair and eyes bluer than the ocean off Okinawa. What would my parents have said if I had brought Julian home?
My sister’s eyes probably would’ve gone bigger than dinner plates and my parents would’ve been positively stunned at his mastery and grasp of the Japanese language.
They would’ve liked him.
I smiled at the thought. I wished they could�
��ve met him.
My mother stroked my cheek in a motherly manner. “See? You don’t mind if we want to take care of you, right?”
I leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “You let Saki run everything in this house.”
She shrugged and handed over a warm Tupperware container. “Your sister is a force of nature. Why fight the storm? Anyway, here’s your lunch for tomorrow.”
“Mom,” I said weakly, but she stopped me with a pinch to my midsection.
“Don’t you start,” she said as she shooed me out of the kitchen. “I know you can cook, but allow me this. The saddest day for me was when you graduated from high school and I thought I couldn’t pack your lunch anymore. There’s a special kind of joy that only a mother can feel, knowing her child is growing strong and tall from her cooking.”
She looked me up and down, a look of resignation in her clear brown eyes. “Although, all my friends ask me what I fed you to get you so big.”
“Love you,” I said and tucked the Tupperware under one arm while I pulled on my shoes, knowing I needed to go to bed if I wanted to wake up before seven the next morning. “Thank you for the food, Mom. Saki, bye!”
“Remember! Next Saturday at two. Jiyugaoka!” she yelled from the living room as the sounds of canned laughter filled the house. “I’ll text you the details later in the week.”
Now that she had what she wanted from me, a date for her poor friend who apparently could not get one for himself, she wanted nothing more to do with me, and didn’t even wave her younger sister off even though we hadn’t seen each other in a month.
My father came out, hands behind his back, and I kissed him on the cheek, wishing him good night.
His brows furrowed. “Saki means well.”
“Yes,” I replied with a heavy sigh. “I know.”
That was the sad thing. She did mean well. In her own way, she loved me and tried to protect me. I remembered all those times when she stood up for me, even getting into a fight with an older student who kept making fun of my gawkiness.
It was for those moments I lived with my sister’s forthright, insistent nature.
My father offered to help me with my luggage up the five flights of stairs, but he had a bad back, and after reassuring him my bag was practically empty, I lugged it to my door at the far end of the building.
By the time I got to my apartment, I was a shaking mass of bruises and sweating profusely.
The house was dark and smelled like dust. Luckily, it was balmy out so I left the veranda and kitchen windows open while I put the Tupperware container in my empty fridge and padded into the bathroom to take a hot bath in rose-scented water.
By the time I got out, I felt better and definitely sleepier. I was even humming as I grabbed my clothes to put them in the laundry hamper.
As I shook my black jeans, a small silver key clattered on the tiled floor.
Nobuki’s house key.
Come whenever you want.
Make yourself comfortable.
I let out a snort. “Without an address? Fat chance, mister.”
Although I was sure he would’ve sent me his address if I’d asked him, I wasn’t up for seeing him that night.
All I wanted was to sleep, and when I threw myself in bed half an hour later, I slept like the dead.
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A One Night Affair (Kissing the Boss Book 2) Page 23
