Chapter 41
"Lean on me."
And just like that a year has passed; a year has passed with me blindly leaning on him closing my eyes and ears to everything else.
I sit here in my office, it's 6.24 in the evening and the autumn days are slowly turning into winter nights. I see the throngs of people down below; couples huddled together making their way to the subway station, a mother pacifying her wailing child terrified of the street performing clown, office ladies in their groups of threes and fours gossiping as they head towards the newest restaurant for dinner.
But suddenly everyone looks up as though notified of my presence; I am taken aback but it is not me they notice as tiny wafers of white make their way down from the heavens.
Just the Yuki barges in, "First snow! I mean its snowing Makino-san," she says with a lit in her voice.
"So it is…" I reply lit absent in my voice.
I look out again and it's as though everyone is in suspended motion in awe of the first snow. But I notice a face in the crowd; he's looking up, not at the snow but directly at me, 20 floors away from him somehow I still know he's looking up at me.
I hear a tinkle of my phone and answer it;
"Can you see me?" I ask.
"You ready to go?" He replies.
"I'll see you in 5 minutes," I say, and he replies by simply waving his had 20 floors below me.
I turn back to my desk and see Yuki still there and tell her she can get off work now.
She smiles and says, " I'm so envious of you, everyone always thinks that arranged marriages are so sad but both of you are childhood sweethearts and he comes to pick you up nearly everyday. It's just so sweet."
I want to burst out in laughter at the irony but after a year of hearing similar comments from every ignorant soul, even irony wears thin.
So I reply, "Sure, I'm one of the lucky ones."
He's standing there leaning on the car ever so suavely and I see a few OL's giving him the sideward glances even the married ones. I take a deep breath and step into his line of vision; he smiles and I can practically hear them swoon.
He puts his arm on my waist and draws me close to him and whispers, "Happy anniversary darling."
I give him a smile and a soft kiss on his jaw.
As we drive away I bet every one of them by the lobby wanted to be me, only… I wanted to be them.
We're having dinner at my favorite restaurant, which he booked out; somewhere in between the appetizer and entrée he said, "So, Tsukasa and Shigeru are getting married next week."
Here we go again…I think to myself.
"Mmhmm," I acknowledged as I take a sip of my wine.
"Funny isn't it, we got engaged before they did, but they are getting married before we are," somehow the lackluster in his voice gave-away that he didn't find it too funny.
I take another sip of wine giving me time to formulate my reply.
"Well, I think spring is a better time for a wedding…And by then this joint-partnership business would be well out of the way so all in all it's better for all of us." I pause before I insert the deal closer, "Besides, we have the rest of our lives together… what's another 6 months."
He's now smiling. Sometimes I think he starts this just to hear me say that last line.
"Hanazawa-san… I'm so sorry but the restaurant has been booked out," I hear the restaurant manager say in the corner of the room. I take another sip of my wine hoping the alcohol will drown out the name.
"I should go and say hello to the old man," says Soujiro who moves to stand up.
I think he is just doing that to (a) avoid seeing my eyes flash with hope and (b) to make sure that is was the old master not the young one.
He came back in 2 minutes later and I asked, "So how is he?" pretty certain that the man that disappeared since that day would not appear anytime soon.
"Good. The old man wished us a happy anniversary," he said as he took a sip of his wine.
