“This is weird, just leaving you here to, like, fend for yourself. I didn’t prepare you at all.”
His guilty expression reinforced this, as if he felt he were abandoning me. Which was totally unnecessary, but kind of sweet.
“Oh my god, I’ll be fine.”
His face said he was far from convinced. “There’s a konbini right by the station, you remember how to get there?” He dug out his wallet and pulled out a handful of yen.
“I do, but I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s a convenience mart. They’ve got groceries.”
When he held out the wad of money toward me I stared at it, unmoving. “You want me to buy your groceries?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. There’s not a lot to eat here. I wasn’t expecting to have company.”
He was flustered, and every moment longer I stood without taking his money seemed to make it worse. Uncomfortable Dominic wasn’t far off from embarrassed Dominic. Cute. I enjoyed it for a second and then closed my hand on the cash.
“Any requests?”
“I’m not picky, but don’t buy anything unless you’re sure what’s inside.” A look crossed his face, a shudder of a memory.
“Learned that one the hard way, huh?”
He nodded and finished his coffee. His eyes fell like he was going to check his watch, but discovered his wrist was bare. Instead, he checked the time on the microwave clock. “I have to head out. You sure you’re okay? You can text me if you need help.”
His concern was starting to annoy me. I’d traveled all over Europe, and lived on my own in downtown Chicago. “Seriously, I’ll manage.”
He set a key on the counter. “Okay. Here’s the spare key when you go out.”
And with that settled, it dropped us squarely in the middle of ‘how the hell do we say goodbye?’ Did I throw out a ‘have a good day at work?’ Give him a hug? His blue eyes studied me, gauging my body language or waiting for me to initiate the farewell.
“Well,” he said, “have fun.”
It was like his feet were glued to the floor, though, and his expression looked pained. Like he was displeased with himself for saying those words. His head tilted slightly, bent toward me. “You gonna fucking kiss me, or what?”
It sounded amazing in his rough voice, and even though I knew it was a bad idea, I did it anyway.
It was close to lunchtime when I realized I needed a game plan on seeing the sights. I’d showered and dressed, then fired up my laptop at his dining table and read up on Japanese tourism. And while researching the different places I wanted to go, I fell down into the spiral of the Internet and wound up reading history of Japan articles on Wikipedia. I’d always been a sucker for learning new things.
The rumble in my stomach reminded me it was time to venture outside.
It was overwhelming, and exotic, and I loved every freaking minute of shopping in the konbini, from the strange produce on display to the brightly colored boxes lining the shelves. Some of which I had absolutely no idea of what they contained. Thankfully, most had English in small print somewhere. The clerk flashed me a vacant look when I was finished and rang me up.
Something as routine as grocery shopping was exciting. I loved the foreignness of it. On my way back to the apartment, amazing smells came from a restaurant and I considered going in, but then thought better of it. The chances of me understanding the menu or ordering weren’t great.
I texted Evie to let her know things were good. It was noon Tokyo time, which was a whopping fifteen hours ahead of Chicago, meaning it was nine at night there
, yesterday. I could hardly wrap my head around it.
The sun had faded from the window when I finished composing my list of the places I was going to tour over the coming days, and my phone buzzed with a text from Dominic.
Like a date? I pushed the question away. I did want to go out, and my opportunities with Dominic as my guide were limited, so I said yes.
I was seated at the kitchen table and peered at him over the top of my computer when he came through the front door and toed off his shoes. My hands gripped the sharp edge of the wood. Hopefully he didn’t notice. Goddamn, he was good looking. I was going to put that suit on the floor in ten seconds flat.
“Hi.” He shot me a sexy smirk. “Give me a minute to change.” He hurried across the living area and disappeared into his bedroom. I don’t know what I expected, but that was surprising. I blinked, trying to sort out this weird feeling.
Oh, fucking hell. I wanted his kiss and was annoyed he’d bypassed it. I pushed back from the table and my eyes narrowed on his open door. Hangers shifted around in there and gave the telltale sound as a shirt was yanked off with haste.