We could both feel the difference when she sat down at our table the next Sunday; when I looked up she blushed. Her smile was shy but her eyes sparkled when they met mine, reliving our actions last week. It looked cute on her, but I hoped my expression wasn't half so gushy.

"Konichiwa."

"Konichiwa. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine!"

"And the family?"

I shouldn't have brought it up, at least not so soon. Her smile faded faster than a switched-off hologram, and she looked down.

"Um… not so good. My brother's still upset, and he spent all weekend pushing me about the apartment. It was awful. He just can't understand why this is so difficult for me."

"Your brother's a clod."

Coffee girl looked pained, though whether it was because I'd insulted him or she wanted to agree, I wasn't sure. "I don't mean to make him sound all that bad, really. It's just something he wants so much. He keeps talking about how much fun it will be and all the things we can do together."

Didn't he have anything else to think about?

"Sounds to me like your brother needs a girlfriend."

At that point she rolled her eyes in a derisive manner. "He's got a girlfriend. He just doesn't know it."

"He what?"

I arched my eyebrows and she smiled, albeit wanly. "I don't like to gossip, so I won't name names. But she's hopelessly in love with my brother and everyone knows it but him. I told you he's not good at noticing things. The silliest part is that he loves her too."

"Really?"

"Again, everyone knows it. But he won't ever admit it because he doesn't think she'd give him the time of day, and that's where it stands." She shrugged, lightly. "I don't think he'll understand she's his girl until they're literally standing at the altar."

Amused, I snorted. But at least her smile had come back, and she opened her book looking ready to read.

Wait a minute. Was Coffee girl my girlfriend? What's the definition for that, anyway? She's a girl, yes, and we meet once a week. I didn't ask her to come, exactly, but I expect her to be here and threw an embarrassing tantrum the one day she wasn't. I shared my table with her. She shared her Valentine's chocolates with me. We held hands, we'd kissed.

"You don't…" I blurted without thinking, and she looked up. "Uh, read with any other men. Do you?"

She stared at me blankly. "What?"

"I mean, you read here with me. But, do you read with anyone else? Or… go behind bookshelves?"

I think I finally got my meaning across, and the puzzled lines in her forehead smoothed out. "Oh…" And she blushed again. "No, I don't."

"Good," I said rather shortly. "Because I don't want you to."

She raised her eyebrows at my tone, but she didn't seem offended. "Do you 'read' with any other girls?"

"Of course not."

"So, does that make us… exclusive?"

"Call it whatever you like," I answered, rather stiffly, and shrugged. "Just so long as we both know."

"Oh. Okay."

Unromantic, maybe, but at least I knew when I had a girlfriend. We turned back to our respective reading material.

And before she left my car, we kissed. Many times.

'indecision'

"Konichiwa," she greeted next Sunday.

"Figure it out yet?"

She didn't have to ask what, and slid into her chair with a timid shake of the head. I stared incredulously.

"Still?"

"That's pretty much what my brother said, too."

"I don't blame him. I've put together tournaments in less time than you're taking."

Coffee girl cringed. "Please, you know how difficult this is for me. I can't choose between them."

"I think you're limiting yourself, looking at it like that. Your mother and brother don't have to be the only options."

"What?"

"If you don't want to choose between them then don't. Get your own place."

Puzzled amber eyes met my stare. "Get my own place? What do you mean?"

"I mean," I elaborated impatiently, "move – into – your – own – apartment."

"Live alone?"

"Yes!"

Coffee girl boggled at me. "But- I couldn't do that! I wouldn't even know how."

"And you complain that they spend too much time telling you what to do."

She blushed bright red at that, and occupied herself taking a sip of chai. "Well, it doesn't solve my problem," she declared afterwards. "I'd still have to tell them no, both of them."

"Seems fair, seeing as how they both make you so miserable."

"They don't! They just -"

"I know, you told me. But you also told me the reasons why you really don't want to live with either one, so don't. Why is this so unthinkable?"

"Because it just is, okay? I don't have the money to just pick up and get my own apartment if I feel like it, I didn't inherit a fortune like some people at this table. I don't even have an allowance. It's all I can do to afford this every week." She lifted her cup in mock salute. "Actually, I don't even know how I'm going to pay for college. I'm sure Mom won't pay if I choose to live with Onii-chan. An apartment of my own? Yeah, right."

"If you really want to, you'll find a way."

Coffee girl bit her lip, refusing to meet my eyes. "I don't want to talk about it anymore, let's just read."

"But -"

"No. I come here to forget about my problems, just like you. This is our escape, so I want to escape now. Okay?"

Determinedly she opened her book, ignoring me and my exaggerated huff. Of course I understood why she came here, but it couldn't go on like this. When she left the bookshop and went home she'd still have the same problems; she couldn't ignore that any more than I could ignore my company's restructuring needs.

I could solve everything, if I wanted to. I could pay Coffee girl's college tuition without putting a dent in my savings account, just so she could walk out of her mother's house and never have to go back. I could get her an apartment, anywhere she liked, I could get her a house if she really wanted it.

I could ask her to move in.

But no. The only one in my life who asked me for nothing, the last thing I wanted was to make her dependent on me. It was for the same reason I'd taken her upstairs and taught her those self-defense moves, instead of merely dealing with her molester. Next time she won't need me, next time she can save herself. If she'd only learn to speak up for herself then she could save herself from this.

Ask her to move in. Behind my papers, I grunted in amusement. Wouldn't that be interesting, introducing her to my brother?

This is my girlfriend, Coffee girl. I met her in a bookshop and from now on she'll be living here, hope that's okay. You can just call her Coffee, if you want to.

I'm sure the look on his face would be priceless, but it just wasn't an option. Speaking of my brother, before turning my phone off I'd gotten a message that he was getting pizza with his project group tonight and therefore not coming home for dinner. There was, technically, no reason for me to go straight home.

- - - - - -

Once the thought had occurred to me, it stayed with me for the rest of our time in the café. At 5:40 she returned her book to its shelf and we left the shop, Coffee girl settling herself quietly into my passenger seat as usual. I turned right and drove through the first intersection, but when I saw the highway entrance ramp I steered away and pulled up to the curb. She shot me a startled look.

"What's wrong?"

"Eat dinner with me tonight."

"What?"

"I don't want to go home yet and I know you don't. So come on, let's get something to eat. Anywhere you want."

Coffee girl simply stared at me for a full five seconds before finally collecting her thoughts enough to shake her head.

"I can't- you know I can't. My mother expects me to be home in fifteen minutes."

"So call her up and tell her an excuse. You've done it before."

"That was an emergency, I had to. I can't just call her and tell her I'm not coming home for dinner!"

"Why not?"

"Because I just can't! What would I say?"

"How about the truth? Would it be that bad?"

"She would explode," Coffee girl informed me, in no uncertain tone of voice. "Why are you asking me this when you know I can't?"

"Because it's a nice evening, damn it, and you're my girlfriend, and I want to eat dinner with you. Forget your mom for once and think about what you want. Do you want to go home, and eat her food, and listen to her moaning? Or do you want to have dinner with me?"

I pressed the button that lowered the windows, just to back up my words. The late May evening was indeed really nice, soft and warm with the western sky turning gold. It suited Coffee girl, and even though I'd started this conversation on a whim I suddenly wanted to share it with her very much. Dinner, on a restaurant patio somewhere, with the sunset light reflecting on her hair. It would be great, surely she knew that.

The unmistakable wistfulness in her eyes told me she did. But then she looked away, averting them.

"It's not just dinner, or Mom. I graduate next week, final exams are in two days. I have to study."

"Your grades are fine, we both know that. One hour for dinner won't fail you."

"Tell that to my mother."

"Enough about your mother already, tell her to take a running jump. We're talking about you."

"And I'm saying that I just can't."

"Only because you won't stand up for yourself. It's no wonder they walk all over you like they do, you can't even get up the nerve to miss dinner. How the hell do you think you're ever going to choose where to live?"

"I don't know!"

"No surprise there. If you would just learn to think for yourself -"

"Stop!" she cried. "Please. Don't tell me what to do!"

I subsided. I wouldn't betray her, I wouldn't cross that line. She'd never done less for me. Defeated, I dropped my hands on the wheel and resisted the urge to bang my head against it.

"I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I just want you to do something you really wanted, for once." She hugged her arms to her chest and said nothing. "Or maybe you didn't want to."

"I did," she whispered, so softly I almost couldn't hear her over the traffic. "I do. But I just can't, not now. She'd never understand. Please take me home."

What choice did I have? With a sigh I pulled back into traffic and up on the highway. We completed the rest of the journey in awkward silence, the wind whisking through my open windows the only noise. I pulled up to the curb on her street, and she turned to get out.

My hand closed over her wrist, holding her back.

"Wha -"

"You're about to graduate," I acknowledged, "and that means nothing. You took some classes, regurgitated the material on tests, that's it. You'll have a degree on the wall, and my company hires people like that all the time. But the ones that get fired, the ones that can't hack it, are the ones that never learned to have a little confidence in themselves. They can't make decisions, can't think on their own, always have to be told what to do. Maybe they had families like yours, I don't know. Do you really want to live like that? Do you want to be one of those people I had to fire?"

Do you, Coffee girl?

I held her stare for an agonizingly long moment, waiting for her answer. None came.

She squirmed out of my grasp and then my car, leaving me with nothing but the memory of scared amber eyes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

I am sooooo sorry that this chapter took so long to get up. Readers that leave 71 reviews for one chapter alone (Holy crap, that's a lot. You guys are awesome!) deserve better than that. Don't hate me when I say it only took three days to write; much of the hassle involved finding enough free time to actually sit down in front of the computer and get to it. Another writing project demanded my attention, and everyone's best friend Real Life has been more troublesome than usual.

I should have told you guys last chapter, and would have if I'd known this update would take so long, but things are about to get tricky. After living in Thailand for a year and a half, I've decided it's finally time to come home. (The statute of limitations expired. Haha, just kidding.) I move back to America in 3 weeks. And this means not just the logistics of packing and shipping, but also that I have only a handful of days to spend with people I might never see again. Writing time has been curtailed so I can spend my last days with friends having fun and taking photos, trying to preserve my happy memories of this place. Living in southern Thailand has been righteous fun, tsunamis and terrorists and all, but I know it's time to go.

Guess this means that I won't have CG finished by the end of March, shucks. I was hoping I'd make it in time to be eligible for the SxS fanfic contest, but there's always next time. Speaking of which, I hear they're anxious for more nominations. As an SxS writer, I'll do my part by encouraging all of you to run along and vote for your fave fic; all genres are welcome. We all know how ff net is about web links, so I'll just tell you to click on the homepage link in my bio. Click on User Info, then scroll down to the bottom and you'll see it listed with my Communities. Go on, go be democratic. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can't get chapter 11 up before my feet hit American soil.