Chinese food was meant to be consumed in front of the TV.
Preferably in one's most comfortable clothes, preferably beside the person one loved most in this world, and preferably after one had taken the time to calm down. That breakdown had not been Suzuki's finest moment. Not even close. That had been... that had been him losing control, emotionally, which was in many ways the worst way that he could possibly have lost control. It was one thing to lose control of his powers, being the most powerful man in the world had it's disadvantages, but emotional control was something that he should have mastered long ago. Emotions were not tangibly real, not like his powers, and he should have been stronger than to let them control him. His powers were tied to his emotions, so for his own safety and those around him he had to learn to control them. His emotions also made him weak. Vulnerable, that was the word for it. A better word than weak….
Shiori liked that word better.
Her opinion was the one which mattered most in this world. She sat there beside him, box of sweet and sour chicken in one hand and chopsticks in the other, with an expression of what was to him pure happiness and serenity…or maybe something else? He didn't know, it was hard to quantify her beauty like that. Her perfection…and she was perfect. Aside from…no. Aside from nothing she was perfect and she deserved so much better than what he could be. He deserved to much better than what he could be.
Who was he now?
She laughed. She threw her head back and laughed…a beautiful sound. She was beautiful. Even with sweet and sour sauce on her chin she was beautiful. He couldn't think of any circumstances in which she was not beautiful. Perfect. He cannot think of anyone who would rather have shared this moment with period even though this moment was completely insignificant, there are so there were so many other things he could have done with his time, so many other things that needed his attention...but right now he could think of nothing and no one that needed his attention more than Shiori.
Well…
Mostly. Suzuki could mostly think of nothing else that deserved his attention more than Shiori. Shigeko…Shigeko no longer needed him. She had proven time and time again that she was no longer prepared to so much as listen to him and…and she could make her own decisions. Even ones that were so clearly detrimental to her life….Shimazaki Ryou…how she could have lowered herself to…he couldn't even think it…with that man. Didn't she value herself? Didn't she know anyone better than…she better not have known anyone better than Shimazaki Ryou. She better not have thought of any other man in that way…but there was nothing that he could do about it. This was nature's way and even he could not fight with nature…well he could try, of course, but he already had so much to do and anyway she was going to grow up whether he liked it or not. Nature he might have been able to fight but time…time was it's own entity.
Shigeko was growing up whether he liked it or not…
He was no ready for this despite the fact that this was an inevitability that he should have been planning for since the day that he'd acquired her. In many ways he had pictured the day when she became an adult, when she chose a husband, when she gave him grandchildren... but that day was supposed to be much farther off than today. That they were supposed to have been at least a decade in the future. Knew that it would have been advantageous for him to have had more experts, preferably ones as powerful as her, but he was just not ready. But ready or not this was going to happen. This was just... life. He done the same thing, when he had been older than her, but he had done the same thing... and love and lust and all of that was simply part of the human condition
He hated the human condition
Suzuki had always thought that he was better than the human condition, that he could rise above it, that he could become something more than his base instincts...Mukai was testament that no, he was weak in the same way that all men were. In the same way that all people were. Women had their own weaknesses, they were just less susceptible to them. Mostly because they were the one who actually bore the children. As a man he could leave at any time, he was done leaving, but that option was open to him and not her. Women were the ones stuck with the children…had Shigeko even given any thought to that? To what she would have done if she'd gotten pregnant with that man's child. Clearly he was not the most mentally stable individual, it could have been genetic, especially considering what his parents had been like…what his life had been like. Even Suzuki would not have punished his children with prolonged periods of isolation and he had never once made anything close to an attempt on either of their lives….Shimazaki clearly did not come from good people….so what of his grandchild, then?
His chopstick snapped in half.
"What? You were rooting for green team?" asked Shiori as she picked up the broken chopstick with her powers and tossed it in the empty takeout bag. A bath had done her some good, some food as well, just as she had predicted. She was perfectly fine. So she'd gotten a little roughed up, she was fine. So Touichirou had come to her without another one of his bizarre problems, that was normal for him. So what if Touichirou's daughter was out there apparently letting every single boy she met have his way with her?
That was especially not her problem.
Not her fish, not her aquarium. She was not Shigeko's stepmother. She was just the woman marrying their father. She wasn't going to suddenly turn into mother of the year because she married a man with kids. She wasn't even planning on being mother of the year with her own kid. No, mother of the year was not in the cards for her. She planned on being a good mother. Not the sort that had cookies waiting for you after school and hugged away any problems that you might have had. She was going to make her child smart enough and strong enough to survive in this world. She knew what life was like when you were an esper, she lived that reality every day of her life, and she knew how stupid people could be…
She knew how stupid kids could be.
She knew how stupid Touichirou's kids could be. He apparently just thought that kids were like chickens. You kicked them out of the nest and then left them to peck at the ground until they were ready to either lay eggs or get eaten. She had no idea…not her fish, not her aquarium. If it had been her fish in her aquarium then she would have taped the top down and not let her fish so much as see the light of day after that little…not her fish, not her aquarium. Shigeko was not her daughter and she was not going to, what? Sit there and lecture her all night about how stupid she had been. Shiori had more important things to do with her time.
Like see which team was going to be evicted from the love bus.
"No, red team clearly has the superior strategy and with the swapping of Ani from blue team they have the superior strength too. They're clearly going to win every physical challenge for the remainder of the game and those, being weighted the highest, will make them the winners." Said Suzuki
"Physical challenges don't offer that many points." Said Shiori
"No but they give cheats for the later creative challenges and winning those gives ones the largest point payout of the entire show. Red team's victory has been secured before the game has even ended." Said Touichirou
"It would have been more poetic if you had said that their victory was sealed before the game even begun." Said Shiori
"That would not have been accurate." Said Suzuki
"No, but it would have been more poetic." Said Shiori
"I have never been one for poetry…or verbal expression." Said Suzuki
"I know. It would be nice to see that side of you, though, even if it's not much…though I doubt it. I mean there are some deep waters there, when it comes to you." Said Shiori
"I apologize." Said Suzuki
"Don't, I like deep waters." Said Shiori
"Do you really?" asked Touichirou
"I know what I like." Said Shiori
"Alright…but from what I can gather your favorite sorts of marine life, the kind which can be found in tidal pools and coral reefs, actually reside at the near surface. Those are not deep waters when compared to the rest of the ocean." Said Suzuki. Shiori said nothing. She simply leaned in, smiled, and kissed him.
She tasted like sweet and sour sauce.
Unpleasant…but for her he would endure this. Kissing her, being near her, was a gift. She was someone who would never leave him. Masami had been unknowable, this unknowable entity that he had chosen to share his life with. Shiori was incredibly simple. He knew what she liked, what she disliked, what she wanted, what she had, and what she would have wanted had she known about it. He wondered if she could have survived the pressures of the deep ocean. He'd gone to the twilight zone and deeper, it had been beautiful, and she would have loved it…
But only if she could have survived. He didn't know what he would have done if he'd ever lost her.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Shiori as she leaned back and broke the kiss. She knew that feeling, that look on his face, she knew it well. He was thinking about something. That could have been good or bad…most likely bad. He had come to her that day with a laundry list of bizarre problems after all, some of which she hadn't even been able to follow. Something about Hatori and something about Fukuda…it had been hard to listen to anything, to comprehend anything, after he had mention the fact that his thirteen year old daughter was out having sex…not something she wanted to think about. Not something that she had space in her mind to think about. She had her own problems after all.
Problems that she did not need him solving for her.
"You…how painful it would have been to me if I were to take you deep into the ocean and you were to die from the pressures at those depths." Said Suzuki
"Oh, that's not what I was expecting…but I can probably survive. My barrier is pretty tough. It's the lack of air that's worrying." Said Shiori
"If you can move fast enough then it's not a problem…if you can move fast enough. I have no idea how you would survive under those extreme conditions…I am not sure if I want to gamble with this. I'll keep you safe…yes. I am confident in my ability to keep you safe." Said Suzuki. She was just about the only person, at this point, who he was confident about in any way. Everyone had either betrayed him, failed him, or been a moron from the start. He didn't know what he would have done without her…
Probably carry on as he had before she had come into his life, of course, but he didn't really want to do that.
"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Touichirou." Said Shiori before she stabbed her chopsticks into her container. She only managed to spear a piece of chicken on the third attempt. Honestly! When it came to that man it was always one step forward, two steps back, and six to the side! She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, she had no idea when he was going to get it into his head, but it had better have been soon!What, did he think that he had it all together? Well he didn't!
She speared another piece of chicken.
"Do you want a fork?" asked Suzuki
"I'm fine." Said Shiori
"Are you sure? Because you're acting strangely…and I don't understand why." Said Suzuki. She was not Masami, he reminded himself, and he could ask her what was wrong. She was going to give him a real answer. She wasn't going to say that she was fine and then distance herself from him for the rest of their time together. Shiori said what she meant and meant what she said. She was simple, not unknowable like Masami.
He liked simple. He wished that everyone in his life could have been as simple as Shiori was.
"Touichirou, I'm perfectly capable of getting my own fork. That's what's pissing me off." Said Shiori. She had been with Touichirou long enough to know that sometimes he needed things spelled out for him…no matter how annoying it was to sit there spelling things out for him all day. She loved him and this was what love was…she had never been good at this part of love…but for him she would try.
"I hadn't meant to imply that you were helpless, I had simply been trying to be helpful to you. I saw that you were using your chopsticks as stabbing implements. I assumed that you'd wanted a fork but did not want to get up and get it yourself…though I should not have assumed." Said Suzuki
"No, no, it's fine. I shouldn't have flown off the handle like that. It's been a long day for me, that's all…and even longer for you." Said Shiori quickly. She did not need to get into what had happened to her today. She could handle it herself. Obviously Touichirou was the one who needed help….not from her, this was well outside of her area of expertise, but she could at least try and empathize with the level of stress that he was under.
"My day has been the same length of time as it always is…though it has been very stressful, I will admit that. I just…I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. About Shigeko, I mean, I know what I myself am supposed to do." Said Suzuki
"Which is?" asked Shiori, honestly curious about his itinerary. She knew that he was ramping up for something big, it was the talk of the asper community. He had been recruiting heavily for some time now. Play always recruited heavily, but this was new. He had said before that he was gearing up for his end game. She still didn't know if it was even possible to rule the whole world. She could see him taking Tokyo, and holding it, from other espers….but normal people were different. They were too numerous. They had guns. They had bombs. They had all sorts of things that she couldn't even begin to imagine. Making war on normal people... now that was an effort….
To each hero was a man of effort though...
He had been planning this for three decades now. Over thirty years. She couldn't argue with that kind of drive. There was some envy there, for his entire life he had always known exactly who he was and who he wanted to be. She hadn't figured that out, she hadn't emancipated herself, until her late thirties…so much time wasted. The most productive time of her life was just gone…she had a lot of years left. She didn't need to take over the world to be successful…and who knew if Touichirou could even do it.
He couldn't even control his own kids, after all.
"I have business in Tokyo and then I have to oversee aspects of the Ninth Division and then I have to, at some point, figure out what I'm supposed to do with my children. I am so close to having the funds and manpower I need….but my victory won't be certain without my children…without Shigeko. She rivals me in terms of strength…." Said Suzuki. Something that he hadn't ever wanted to admit. He needed Shigeko…she had her place in the uprising. She had a greater place in it than Sho did….he should have been over this by now. Sho hadn't turned out anything close to the son that he's always wanted. It was what it was. He had tried for years to change the boy but there was no changing who he was. He was Sho…he was…
Suzuki would have better luck with his next blood child.
And, really, even without sharing blood with him Shigeko was still his child. He had raised her, her loyalties lied with him, at least he assumed so. It was so hard to tell with her these days. The ways she carried on…the things she did. She had taken years off of his life with this…relationship…with Shimazaki. Beating the man three quarters of the way to death hadn't helped anything. Sure he had felt better in the moment but that did not erase what had happened…or the fact that he was going to have so see Shimazaki socially for the foreseeable future. It wasn't though Shigeko was going to let him banish Shimazaki…
Not that she commanded him or anything of that nature.
"She's only thirteen, don't exaggerate." Said Shiori with a wave of her chopstick.
"I'm not, she is a powerful esper in her own right." Said Suzuki
"She's still just a kid, she shouldn't have any part of this. Honestly, Touichirou, no wonder she's going around acting like a grown woman. Look at the way you treat her. I've been telling you and telling you to lay down the law with her…and I mean in a real way. Not just popping her one across the face and hoping that it's enough. You've got to actually sit down and talk to her." Said Shiori
"What should I say?" asked Suzuki. This was why he kept her around…one of the reasons. She was so much more socially successful than he was. She always knew what to do…she was so knowledgeable. Like a female version of Tadashi.
"I don't know, maybe you could start with telling her that boys her age are morons and she has no business going to bed with them." Said Shiori with a sigh. She practically slammed her food down onto the coffee table. How could Touichirou take this in stride like that? Shiori knew boys that age, she'd dealt with them when she'd been that young. They thought that no meant convince me, everything was the opportunity for an artless make out or worse, and he who had sex was king. Shigeko didn't need that in her life, no girl did…not that Shiori cared.
Not that she cared more than a little bit…more than how all of this related back to Touichirou and then by extension her.
"I wish that she had been with a boy her age. I sincerely wish that she'd…well no, I wish that she'd waited until she was older, but I so wish that she'd chosen a boy her own age." Said Touichirou. Thirteen year old boys were terrible. He knew because he had been a thirteen year old boy at one point in his life. He knew what his mind had been on, what his ultimate goal in life besides world domination had been, and what he would have done to get it…he didn't want Shigeko with any sort of boy at all…
But a boy was a thousand times better than a man.
"I don't follow. What, does she think that she's gay too? Because at this point you may have to look really close at your parenting." Said Shiori
"No, she's not a homosexual…though my life would have been so much simpler if she had been. She is a heterosexual as most of the population is. She simply prefers older men…and I have no idea why." Said Suzuki. He felt like he needed a bath just from talking about this. Shigeko…he had to accept that she had done these things, that she had done what her hormone addled body had told her to do, and…and there was nothing that he could do about it….though accepting it and talking about it were two different things.
"Wait, are we talking about high schoolers here? Because she is way too young for all of that and you need to-" said Shiori. Ok, now she was…willing to take over aquarium duties for a little bit. She knew how boys that age operated. At least if the boy had been Shigeko's own age then it would have been more…even? The playing field would have been better. The difference between a boy old enough to be in high school and a girl Shigeko's age was stark. At least a boy her age could have had some sort of feelings for her…a boy that age was clearly only after one thing…
She never thought that she would say this, even to herself, but poor Shigeko…
"No, no, nowhere near her own age. She slept with a friend of hers, Shimazaki….and I want to talk about something else now." Said Suzuki. Talking about it made it more real. That was how it went for any great tragedy in life. When you spoke of it then…then it felt real. Like when his parents had died or Masami had left…
It was easier to avoid thinking about things when you didn't so much as talk about them.
"Uh….what?" asked Shiori, cleaning out her ear. She must have been going deaf or something because it sounded like Touichirou had just said…she knew Shimazaki Ryou. She knew of him. He was pretty highly ranked in Claw, brutal but efficient in his methods, and apparently was so disgraced that for the past decade or so there had been a kill on sight order on him from every yakuza group in the greater Tokyo area….
Also he'd slept with Shigeko….it sounded like….but it couldn't possibly be true.
"I said that I would rather not talk about it. Let's talk about…how is your gardening going? Is there anything interesting you're growing this year?" asked Suzuki
"Yeah, my peonies are coming in beautifully…can we please get back to what you just said? Because I think I must have misheard you or something." Said Shiori
"I do not wish to talk about it. I wish to leave it at the fact that my daughter…had…chosen to explore physicality with the likes of Shimazaki Ryou. Can we please discuss something else now?" asked Suzuki
"No we may not! Touichirou….are you well? Mentally? Because I don't think that you're mentally well." Said Shiori
"I can assure you that I am…and the fact that you suggested that I am unwell can be taken as an insult. Though I know that you would never insult me." Said Suzuki
"Well you're wrong because I just did. Touichirou! Are you out of your mind?! How could you let this happen?" asked Shiori. Her aura was showing, so was his. Their food lay abandoned on the table now. The TV was on but neither of them was watching. They were too busy staring each other down.
She was going to win.
She had to win. She had to win this thing for Shigeko's sake. That poor girl….ok. This was officially Shiori's aquarium and Shigeko was officially Shiori's fish. Shiori was not suddenly filled with a big burst of motherly love for Suzuki Shigeko, no, she still thought the girl was an incredibly spoiled little brat, but she knew…she knew how hard this part of life could be when you were a girl. She knew how men could be when you got to that age. Between the ages of ten and around eighteen men had been absolutely, shamelessly, relentless. She had looked younger than her age for the longest time and that seemed to signal to men that she was easy pickings. She wondered what was wrong with the other half of the species sometimes...
Hell, she wondered what was happy with her own personal other half of the species sometimes!
"I don't watch her twenty four hours a day…and watch your tone. I did not come here to be shouted at." Said Suzuki lowly. He was not going to get upset…though it was difficult not to. Not when she had looked him in the eye and said…all that she had just said. That this was his fault…it was. She was telling the truth…
But it also wasn't.
Shigeko wasn't a toddler anymore. Watching her twenty four hours a day just was not feasible. She would have resented that sort of surveillance anyway. She was and was not a grown woman…she was somewhere in between. Somewhere where he had no idea how to plot or…or what to do with her. He wasn't her mother. He had been forced to be both mother and father for years…and that was too much even for him. A woman would have known what to do about Shigeko. A woman would have lived her experience. A woman would have been able to sit her down and tell her everything that she needed to know…
Shiori was a woman…and he could not get angry with her. She was just trying to help…it wasn't as though he had people lining up to help….
"Well you're going to be. Touichirou, you are her father! You should have protected her-" said Shiori
"She would have done something if it had not been consensual. She is stronger than him…and if she didn't want to get her hands dirty then she would have asked me to do something about it." Said Suzuki
"She. Is. Thirteen. She's a child! She-" said Shiori
"She is not a child and she hasn't been for some time now…and I have no idea what to do with her. But you do. You-" said Suzuki
"Do with her? What are you planning on doing with him?! He's…if he works for you then he has to be at least in his twenties-" said Shiori
"Thirties…and I do not want to talk about it. Shigeko is at that age and….and there is nothing that I can do about what she…what she prefers in a partner." Said Suzuki. He didn't mean to argue with Shiori, it was just a reflex. He didn't like to be proven wrong…but he should have been alright with this…Shiori was a woman and she knew better….Suzuki had no idea what to do. First Sho and now Shigeko. Sometimes it felt like both of his children, his older children, existed to disappoint him….
"Thirties! You can't…you can't possibly think that she wanted any part of that! You know how men get when they see easy pickings like that. Hell, you are a man-" said Shiori. That poor girl. She did not need to deal with this. If she had been Shiori's daughter…well Shiori would never have let her daughter get into a position where this could have happened. She was keeping her work life and her home life separate, she decided. For the safety of her children…and not just because she had almost gotten kidnapped today.
She knew what men were like.
The vast majority of epsers in the world were men. Most of those men were not the sort of people that would have wanted to run into on the streets. Most of the espers she had met had either come from criminal backgrounds, cults, or both…she did not need to expose her daughter to that. Not before she was too young to defend herself. Not while she was young and naïve….or just plain stupid….and that was what Shigeko was. Just. Plain. Stupid. She should have known better at this point in her life…this was not her fault…but Shiori had known better at her age. The men who'd hit on her had been disgusting. She hadn't given them the time of day and she hadn't been even half the esper that Shigeko was. That was a powerful girl, whether Shiori wanted to acknowledge it or not, and she should have been able to wipe the floor with that man….
Teenagers were stupid.
They had to be protected from their own stupidity. Maybe she hadn't been outright forced. Teenagers were so easy to manipulate. Even Shiori had almost fallen prey to the whole 'you're so mature for your age' line…almost. She had drawn the line when he'd gotten pushy and tried to get her to leave the aquarium….she'd drawn the line right across his throat. He'd lived…though several fish hadn't…Shigeko was stronger than Shiori had ever been, she'd come here to fight her to her face after all, but…well teenagers were stupid and it was the job of adults…of Touichirou…to save Shigeko from herself...Touichirou or, better yet, Shigeko's missing mother…
Shiori was going to be a good mother…she had no choice.
"I would never! I have not been attracted to a thirteen year old girl since I had been thirteen…fourteen maybe. Not fifteen, first years were so annoying to me…Shigeko would have told me if she had needed my help. She would have defended herself or said something or…or…." Said Suzuki. This was not his fault. This was not…he hadn't had any part in this. He was her father, not her mother, and he was not qualified to talk to her about this…he was not….he had done his best. He was her father and he would have done what a father was supposed to do, chase away and murder an unwanted suitor, if she had asked him to.
This was not his fault…not in any significant way.
"Really? You asked her?" asked Shiori sarcastically. She knew that it was lost on Touichirou but she couldn't help it. This…this was more than bizarre. How could he have possibly seen this as anything other than…than what it was. A grown man had taken advantage of his daughter and he just….he wasn't going to do anything? He didn't see this for what it was?
What if this had been their daughter.
Shiori would have murdered the man. She would have done it slowly. She would have taken his cock, nailed him to an ironing board, and then ironed it flat. She would have crucified him through his genitals. She would have shoved angry bees into all of his orifices. She would have set him on fire. She would have boiled him in acid. She would have put him in a pair of shoes filled with broken glass and made him hike deep into the woods. She would have made him drink salt water until his body shut down. She would have taken this chopstick and shoved it up his-
-in due time, in due time.
"No…but I will." Said Suzuki. He didn't want to but he would. He didn't want to so much as look at Shigeko…but he had to ask her. Now he needed to know. Shiori had put the seeds of doubt in his mind…more doubt in himself….and he was having trouble seeing how this could have been good for him. It must have been. She never would have done anything to hurt him.
"Touichirou….do you honestly think she'll answer you? Do you honestly thing that she wants to talk to her father about this?" asked Shiori as Touichirou picked his phone up off the table and started what she prayed wasn't a message to Shigeko asking about her sex life…that she shouldn't have had…that she had been tricked into having…that she had…
Poor Shigeko. Poor, poor, poor Shigeko.
"I hope that she doesn't…and she has. She says…she's asking me why I want to know…and now she's send me another message. Now she's saying that it's none of my business…and now she's saying that she lost her phone. I know that last one is a lie….oh. Now she's apologized for lying and has said yes…and asked me never to talk to her again…and now she says that she's turning her phone off…alright then. Well at least we have our answer. This is not…not my fault. There is nothing that I could have done." Said Touichirou as he put his phone down. Face down. He never should have asked her….he hadn't wanted to know about any of that….but now he did….
He could never unknown what he knew now.
Knowing made it real... not that it hadn't already been real... but now he had to think about it. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about how his own daughter could have been so stupid. At least this wasn't his fault. At least... he should have warned her... but he didn't even know what to warn her about! He wasn't a woman. He didn't know what to say, what would have been appropriate to say, or what a woman would have told her period he was not father and mother.
But she or he could be.
She was going to be a mother. She could be something of a mother tissue Shigeko. He knew that she had no desire to be a mother to his daughter. Not any daughter that they didn't create together. It wasn't fair. He got the feeling that it just was not fair. He needed somebody to help him. It wasn't easy to admit, but it could have been worse. It was like he left sees delegating. He wished that he had a woman to delegate the raising of Shigeko too. These sorts of female centric things. She hadn't taken much to Tsuchiya as a mother figure, and Minegishi wasn't a woman... he wasn't entirely sure how that actually worked but it was not his to understand, just acknowledge….and it was clear that Minegishi was not the best influence on Shigeko either….but Shiori would have been, if she had wanted the job…
He had no idea what to do... but at least he knew that it wasn't his fault…that it mostly was not his fault.
"Touichirou….just watch the show. Pass the eggrolls and watch the show." Said Shiori. She could not deal with this now. She knew that if she tried to deal with this now, she tried to address any of what just happened or had been said, she knew that she was going to say things that she was going to end up regretting. She loved Touichirou with all her heart, even when he was an idiot like this, but she had her emotional limits. She had reached them earlier today and now Touichirou was pushing her so far past them she didn't even know what to do.
Well, she knew what to do….
She had to kill a man. She had to find this man and murder him. She was not Shigeko's mother, she had no obligation to Shigeko, but she was still going to murder this man. Really, it wouldn't have been any great loss to the world. She needs to find him, figure out how she was going to fight him, and then she had to figure out where to store his body. And then... and then she could deal with Touichirou….not that Shiori any idea how she would deal with Touichirou…she would think of something later, when she could think…when she wasn't so hungry. She just needed…she needed a brain break…so that was what she was going to do….
That was all that she could do for now, just eat Chinese food in front of the TV with what might have been the most clueless man in the entire world. The man she called her fiancée.