Kaede awoke to the stiffest legs she had ever had; all of her joints seemed to be sticking, like hinges that had rusted from ages of disuse. She shook her head slightly, looking around the cabin. Not much had changed since she had fallen asleep again.
The man next to her was awake as well, though. He was pounding away furiously at his laptop, his brow furrowed. There was a coating of paper over every inch of his pull down tray table, all of them legal documents of some kind.
Feeling rather silly, Kaede pulled out a gossip magazine, one of her few guilty pleasures. It was her habit to go straight to the entertainment section and pour over the various plays and dances being performed in the city. More importantly, she wanted to see how well she was being reviewed.
But in her haste packing, she had packed an old magazine, from over two months ago. Kaede sighed dejectedly and slid it back into her bag. A quick look at her watch told her it was four o'clock in the evening New York time. The flight was about thirteen hours long; a good three hours were left before they could land.
The steady flurry of typing from beside her was rather soothing, she mused. Kaede turned to the man beside her. He remained buried in his work, scowling at what he had just typed, erasing and retyping it to his better satisfaction.
"Is it very important?" Kaede asked suddenly. She nearly clapped her hand over her mouth, so surprised that she had spoken.
But the man beside her did not even look up. "Yes," he answered, clearly indicating his desire for conversation.
"What do you do?" Kaede asked much more hesitantly. "What company do you work for?"
"An important one," the man answered. This time he raised his eyes to her, arching a brow and fixing an icy blue stare on Kaede's abashed face.
"Oh," was all she replied, and their conversation stopped there.
xoxo
Kaede waited for Tea at the gate, having deplaned first. The last three hours had been painfully awkward, like a thorn digging constantly into her skin. After Kaede's failed attempts at conversation, the man had returned to his work with a passion and barely paused for a second's breath until they landed. Once the plane door had opened, he had been out of his seat and out the door before Kaede had even stood up.
"Rude… arrogant… humph!" Kaede grumbled under her breath as a hodgepodge of different people filed past her: families with young children, rumpled looking businessmen, young couples and teens. All bore the characteristic look of relief at feeling their feet once more on the ground.
"Kaede!" Tea stepped off behind a mother pushing a stroller. What appeared to infant twins were nestled in the seats, sleeping peacefully.
"Don't let them fool you," Tea warned, shifting her oversized purse from one shoulder to the other. "They have iron lungs and digestive systems on overdrive. I swear, Mt. Fuji paled in comparison to the mountain of dirty diapers those two produced."
Kaede giggled and hugged her friend. "My deepest sympathies," she replied. "I sat next to the Stone Businessman. I think we exchanged two sentences the entire flight?" Kaede scratched her chin, pretending to think. "Oh! And he spent the majority of the flight pounding away at his keyboard."
"Was he attractive?" Tea guessed, sensing the source of Kaede's disgruntlement.
"Very," Kaede admitted, before brightening up. "But we're in Japan!"
"I know! I'm home!" Tea grinned just as brightly, as they started walking toward the baggage claim. "We have the whole day to relax. My mom made up the guest room for you, and we can chill and lay out in the backyard to recuperate from all this jetlag."
"That was so sweet of her," Kaede said sincerely. "Offering to put me up for the whole week."
"She's dying to meet you, Kaede. She can't believe she would know two famous performers." Tea giggled.
"What all did you have planned, Tea?" Kaede asked suddenly. "I mean, I know you came home to see your family and your friends, and I don't want to be in your way."
"What are you talking about?" Tea asked incredulously. "I invited you to come, which means you're invited to everything I do. You're my best friend, Kaede," Tea added passionately. "I can't think of anything more I would rather do than show you my hometown, have you meet my friends."
"Thank you, Tea," Kaede said softly with a gentle smile. "Now, shall we get our bags?"
"Definitely." The two girls hugged and continued to pick up their bags.
But while they waited for Tea's sunshine yellow suitcase and Kaede's forest green duffel, Kaede couldn't quite shake the sight of the man's piercing blue eyes, his mop of thick brown hair, his long lean body stretched in the airline seat.
It was going to be very hard to shake that memory.
KbN: I know it was a short filler chapter, but to make up for the delays and the crappiness of this chap, I've got teasers!! :) Enjoy!
Kaede leaned in closer; his hand moved from caressing her fingers to the hollow of her cheek. Their eyes met for a moment before their lips followed, liquor-slick and brushing slightly.
"So, you wanna get out of here?" he slurred against her lips, the sentence itself like a kiss.
Kaede smirked, practically purring. "Definitely," she murmured. They practically poured themselves off the bar stools, and Kaede tripped a little, her heel catching against the rungs of the stool. She fell against his hard chest and giggled a little.
"I'm a clumsy drunk," she whispered conspiratorially, laughter bubbling beneath her words. Nothing else mattered, not her clumsiness, the cloying smell of smoke that would linger in her hair and clothes tomorrow, nor the niggling feeling of guilt in the pit of her stomach. The only important things were tangible and felt: the muscle of his chest, the butterflies beating frantically in her stomach, and a heat, which courtesy of liquor and this man's touch, was spreading through her with lightning speed.
"We just need to get you out of those heels," he growled in her ear, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling them toward the door. "Let's sober up in my apartment…"
Eager to get away from Tea's reproachful eyes, even if just for a second, Kaede hurried over to a newsstand. While most of the magazines were in Japanese, there were a few in English. Nevertheless, it wasn't the language of headline that caught Kaede's eye. No, it was a glossy photograph of a young couple, caught in a passionate kiss that Kaede noticed.
It was a glossy photo documenting her night at the bar that really caught her attention.
Kaede grabbed the magazine and began rifling through. The center spread had the same photograph splashed across the page, with a headline in brilliant yellow letters.
"An Affair Abroad!" the header read, leading into the article, "Kaede Iwate, most famously known for her incredible performance as Chrisitine in the 'Phantom of the Opera' appears to have forsaken her longtime boyfriend and prominent lawyer Ken Carbonetti in a recent trip to Tokyo..."
Kaede tore her eyes away, unable to read anymore. Somehow, she knew that they would have found out the identity of the man she had left the bar with. How could the rest of the world know who she had slept with and yet she remain in the dark?
She fished her last few yen out of her pocket and paid the clerk for the magazine. It was a long flight back. Kaede would need something to read and think about for the next thirteen hours.
Tea watched her silent friend, her shoulders hunched and her face a stone mask. Tea had never seen Kaede so defeated, so struck down.
"You need to call him," she said gently. Kaede didn't look up.
"Kaede. You can't ignore this. Or him. Just call him."
Kaede's bottom lip trembled slightly, and she spoke finally. "Tea, what do I say? 'Hi, remember me? We screwed a while back, and we must not have been all too careful, because guess what! I'm-'"
"Kaede," Tea interrupted firmly. "Call him."
Kaede cast one last terrible glance at Tea, before reaching toward the phone. She dialed the number with shaking fingers, held the receiver to her ear. Only Tea would notice the toll the ordeal had already taken on Kaede, the way her fingers were never still anymore, her ghost smile that was a mere shadow of its former brilliance.
"Hello?" Kaede said suddenly. "Can… can you transfer me? I need to speak with…"
