Sometimes, love can be found when you least expect it...
Akari Takeda walked on the dark side for fifteen years until death gave her the chance at a new life. Determined not to waste the time she has left, she moves to Boston with her young son to...
Sofia took one look at me when I walked in the door and rushed over, worry etched across her features.
"Everything. Linc lied. Everyone lied."
"Huh? Linc lied? What about?"
I fell backwards onto the sofa and blubbed the whole story out. The way the man I'd fallen in love with only gave me a second glance in the first place because Emmy had paid him to. How I didn't know which of his feelings were real. The awful way I'd found out the truth this evening.
"All these little things keep falling into place. Like him not knowing his way around that apartment, and always being happy to take his bike even if it was raining. He couldn't admit he had his own expensive cars on a janitor's salary, and he must have realised that if we took mine, the driver would report everything he saw back to Emmy."
I bet even as we drove to Linc's real home, Clint had tried to warn him. Too bad he'd been in the shower. Otherwise what new story would he have come up with?
"Men suck. You know what doesn't suck?"
"What?"
"Wine. And chocolate cookies. You hold still and I'll get both."
This was why I'd heard women say a good girlfriend was worth two of a man any day. Sofia knew exactly what to say, and she didn't pry, just kept my glass topped up and listened to the ramblings that spilled from my mouth.
"Sho what should I dooo?" I slurred an hour later, staring into my grape juice as if it held the answers to all my problems.
"Difficult to say. For what it's worth, I think he really does love you. When you went to school the other morning and we ate breakfast together, he wouldn't stop talking about you. Kept asking me the sort of things you liked, and what you didn't like. I think he was planning to take you to the opera next weekend. He asked if I'd mind looking after Hisashi."
"Linc likes opera? He never told me that."
"I'm quite sure he doesn't, which is the whole point. He was going to go because you like opera."
"Oh. This relationship thing's complicated." Confusing, just as Emmy said. My head swam with unanswered questions and half-thoughts. Or maybe that was the wine.
"Love is never easy," Sofia said softly. "But if you find the right person, I'm sure it's worth putting the effort in."
Was Linc worth the effort? I needed to have a serious think about the answer to that question. But in the meantime, there was more wine.
Hoppla! Dieses Bild entspricht nicht unseren inhaltlichen Richtlinien. Um mit dem Veröffentlichen fortfahren zu können, entferne es bitte oder lade ein anderes Bild hoch.
"Are you okay in there?"
Sofia's voice floated through my door in the morning, permeating my brain with the subtlety of Thor and his hammer.
"Head. Hurts."
"Give me a sec. I'll bring aspirin."
A few seconds later, she came in, balancing Hisashi in one arm with a glass of water and a packet of pills in the other hand. She put Hisashi down next to me and he crawled into my lap, waving a toy giraffe at me and chattering excitedly.
