Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The closer and closer it got to the end of the semester Ishida found himself at the café from his last class until close, which was around midnight. He just wanted summer to come, he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he couldn't wait. This night the whole place was empty besides him and the workers, like most nights. The door made a jingle and he looked up to see who was entering.

At first he looked at the body and remembered the girl he had seen there around a month ago. He watched the body travel over to his table and sit in the chair across from him. He finally looked up to see the face afraid it was ugly. He was shocked to see that the face was not ugly, plus he knew who it was. "Inoue?" he asked her stunned and she smiled at him. "How have you been?"

"Good, really good, I saw you here about a month ago and was just walking past and noticed you were here again, so I thought I could come in and we could catch up," she said in a very cheery voice and Ishida was very happy to see that she was happy.

"Well I have to say you look great! Are you going to school?" he asked and the guy behind the counter told him that they were going to close early. "Well I would love to catch up with you, but we have to get out of here." He picked his laptop up and put it in his backpack and swung it around placing it on his back. She stood up as well and they both walked out of the café together.

"Anyways, yes I'm going to school just down the road, I'm just finishing my last semester of my freshman year," she said as they stood out side the café under a lamp post so they could see each other. She leaned her back against the pole and looked at him, "I see Ichigo and Rukia got married."

Ishida snapped his head to her direction, "How did you know that?"

"Well after I saw you I found your blog and my room mates found the pictures on it," she said no longer smiling. He sighed and his shoulders dropped and he looked down at the ground, "Did you even switch schools?"

He looked back up at her, "I did, put after my senior year Ichigo showed up at my house and told me he was getting married. He asked me where you were, but by then I had no idea, he was very upset you weren't there. That was the only time I saw him after I talked to you and the only time I've seen him since then." He felt bad, she had missed it, but maybe it was better that way.

"They wanted me to come to the wedding?" she said amazed, they actually missed her?

"Yes, I know where they live if you would like me to take you there," he said, it was true that he hadn't seen him since the wedding a year ago, but the still kept in touch over the phone.

"Really? You think they still want to see me?" she asked and Ishida walked closer to her so she could see his face.

"As long as you promise me that you still aren't in love with him," he said sternly, he didn't know who she was anymore; she could have turned into a home wrecker.

"Defiantly not," she said defensively, why would she still love Ichigo if he left her and didn't try very hard to find her. It wasn't like she was living on the opposite side of Japan, just in the inner city. If anything she should be mad at him, but over the years her anger had subsided. She crossed her arms as a strong breeze blew in and it took all she had not to shiver.

Ishida had crossed his arms as well; he didn't want to stop talking to her just because it was cold outside. "My place is just down there, we can get out of the cold and talk more," he offered hoping she wouldn't reject him like most women. He watched her nod and he smiled before they started to walk to his apartment.

Once they got inside he offered to get her something to drink and she didn't want anything. She was amazed at how nice his place was, especially for a downtown apartment. "I even have an in the apartment bathroom, shower included!" he said and she was again amazed.

"How did you find such an amazing place?" She asked as he showed her his bathroom, which he was very proud of. (Side note: Almost all the apartments in Tokyo do not have a bathroom. Most times they have a toilet for the whole complex but no shower, hence the reason they have bath houses!) She walked in a looked around it was small but clean so it didn't look bad at all. "How many bedrooms does this place have?" She asked as she walked out of the bathroom and began to study a picture on the wall.

"Two, but I'm the only one that lives here. My dad wanted the second room just incase he needed a place to stay during the night, but so far he has never needed it. It is a very unnecessary expense," he walked over and looked at the picture with her. "That is the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite. This is her statue that still stands at her temple in Greece. I took this picture when I went there in December, I took a bunch of other pictures too but this one was the most striking."

"You went to Greece?" She looked at him; he was defiantly very well rounded, and rich. She couldn't understand why he didn't have women crawling all over him. Well maybe he did but every time she had seen him he had been alone. "Who did you go with?"

"To Greece?" He looked at her and she nodded, "Just myself." He felt embarrassed for telling her that but oh well. "I'm thinking about going to Egypt this winter, I would go in the summer but it would be way to hot."

"You are so lucky, that sounds like it would be so much fun. Are you a photographer?" She looked at him and he was looking back at the picture.

"No," he said his eyes never wavering from the picture. But he stopped when Inoue stepped in front of the picture. "Um…," he said looking at her smiling face.

"So you must have a girl friend if this place is so clean," she said walking down the hallway to what she thought looked like a kitchen. He followed after her but she stopped when she walked past his living room. "Wow," she said walking over to large statue of what she assumed was another Greek god. This one was the actual statue though, it was a man with a curly beard and messy hair and his physic was very muscular.

"That is Zeus, the god of the sky and eventually the god over all the other gods. I kind of stole this one, I found an abandoned altar and took it," he said sitting down on his black leather couch. His living room was very modern, his couches were black leather, his walls were an off-white and his lighting was a deep yellow.

"How did you get it on the plane?" She asked as she sat on the couch next to him.

When she sat right next to him he tensed up a little, but relaxed when she scooted away. "I took my dad's private jet, so I could bring anything back that I wanted, and I wanted a huge statue of Zeus. I think it looks good here," he smiled watching her as she looked around the room. "And no, I do not have a girl friend, I'm just a tidy person."

"Oh," she turned back to him, she was very glad that she had met him again. He got up and asked her if she wanted coffee and this time she said yes and she got up and studied the whole room while he was gone. She realized this whole time they had been talking about him, was he not interested in her? She picked up a picture off his coffee table and looked at it. It was an old photo of all of them outside Urahara's shop, she touched the picture. When she heard him come back in the room she quickly slammed it back down, and looked innocently at something else.

She heard him laugh and she looked up and he handed her a cup of coffee. "I know it's an old picture, I hope some day to have a more updated one." He set his coffee down and picked up the picture. "I look like such a retard," he laughed and set it back down. All of a sudden his phone started to ring and he excused himself to go and pick it up. "Why hello," he said smiling and he walked back to the couch and sat down. "Guess who is standing in my living room," he looked up at Inoue who was looking at him very interested. He got up and handed the phone over to her, and she grabbed it and held it to her ear.

She listened for a moment and a man on the other line said, "Ishida you idiot this isn't funny." Inoue instantly looked back at Ishida sipping his coffee on the couch smiling at her. "Hello?" She said into the phone, "Is that you Ichigo?"

"What? Yes it's me, who is this?"

"Inoue Orihime," she said bluntly smiling back at Ishida, he had lied to her but she really didn't care at this point.

"Inoue, really? The real one?" Ichigo's voice sounded astounded.

She laughed, "Yes, how are you and Rukia doing?"

"Good, Inoue where in the hell have you been?" He was now yelling at her.

Not realizing it she quickly hung up the phone and threw it on the couch in front of her. She looked down at it and then up at Ishida, "Sorry."

He started to laugh set his coffee down and he got up and grabbed the phone. It started to ring again and he picked it up, "I will call you later." Then he hung up the phone and went to put it back on the charger. When he turned back around Inoue was gone, he walked out into the hallway and saw her walking to the front door. "Wait," he ran up to her and she stopped, "Please don't leave I'm enjoying your company."

She looked at him, she felt stupid, and she thought she was over Ichigo, but hearing him talk just made her mad again. She was still angry at him, angry that they left her and then years later he asks her where she's been like she ran away from them. She quickly rubbed her eye to hold back the tears. She looked at Ishida he was standing directly in front of her and he was holding her arm.

She was mad at Ichigo not Ishida, she had no right to just storm out on him. She was really enjoying herself with him, but it was late. "I have to go," she said and he let her go and she ran all the way home.

Ishida moaned after he closed the door behind her, he didn't mean to make all her feelings come flooding back. He had such bad luck with women, you would think after so many nights just like this one that he would learn. He walked to his bedroom and passed out on his bed.

The next morning Inoue had a splitting headache and decided to go and get some coffee, Keiko didn't have a class until later so they went together. She really did not want to go to the same café but it was the closest one and she didn't feel like explaining to Keiko why they shouldn't go there.

They walked in and the coast was clear and they both ordered espressos and sat down at a table. A few minutes later Ishida came rushing in and order something and Inoue quickly ducked so that he wouldn't see her.

Keiko having still been reading his often updated blog instantly spotted him and wanted to go and meet him. "Inoue don't you know him? Will you please introduce me to him?" Keiko looked at her friend pleadingly.

"No, you can go introduce yourself to him," She said lifting the paper she had grabbed and hiding behind it.

Keiko ripped the paper out of her hands and threw it on the ground, everyone in the café looked at them including Ishida. He smiled and walked over to them, "Good morning Inoue and friend."

"Hello, this is my friend Keiko," Inoue said her face bright red.

"I am a huge fan of your blog, Inoue showed it to me and I've been reading it ever since," Keiko said shaking Ishida's hand and Inoue's face turned a deeper red.

"Oh really, when was that?" He chuckled a little and knew that he should avoid Inoue at all costs. This conversation wasn't that pleasant for him either, he didn't know why for a split second he thought it would be a good idea to go and say hi.

"I don't know like a month ago," Keiko said flipping her hand in the air, signaling it was a while ago.

"I see," he looked down at his watch, "Well I'd love to talk to you more but I'm already late for class."

"Well here," Keiko said taking a napkin and finding a pen on the table next to them. She scribble something down and handed it to him, "This is our phone number to our dorm room. I'd love to talk to you about some of the things you have written."

"Thank you," he said taking the napkin, "Good-bye," and he ran out the door.

Keiko turned back to Inoue, "What's wrong with you?"

"You just gave him our number?" Inoue said throwing her head back and closing her eyes.