Pretty damn perfect so far! “I want to hear what you’re thinking.”
“Maybe I don’t know how to say it in English.”
“Then say it in any language. I promise I’m listening.”
Aya closed the bedroom door. When she faced Genevieve once again, it was with a stubborn countenance that harkened to that dark and rueful room in Paradise.
“Suki yo.”
Oh, Genevieve knew what it meant. A steady diet of Japanese dramas and pop music in the 2000s had taught her what such a simple phrase meant. She likes me… Literally, that’s what it meant. Like. Yet in the same vein as Mandarin, where it was more common to express love with the tempered, cordial word “like,” confessing that much to a woman meant they were well on the track to getting engaged, at least!
It still left one thing up to interpretation, though.
“That’s… I mean…” Genevieve didn’t like how shy she could be around Aya, but here she was, attempting to look like a calm and mature forty-year-old instead of melting into a puddle of giggles. “You know, I’ve never forgotten one of your first lessons.”
Aya unclenched her hands. “Is that so? Was it about suki?”
“No. It was about ai. And koi.”
“Ah… I remember now.”
How could you ever forget? As Genevieve pulled her hair away from her burning face, she said, “What kind of suki, is it? Is it ai? Or is it koi?” Did Aya have a lasting romantic love for the woman standing before her? Or was it the hot, passionate kind?
What kind of poetry were they writing?
“Would you be angry if I said both?” Aya took Genevieve’s hand, her thumb rubbing against knuckles. “I don’t know. We’re still figuring all of that out, right?”
Genevieve was halfway between collapsing to her knees in love and putting on a stoic face to maintain some semblance of decorum. “Yes. Well… if we’re sharing our innermost feelings…”
Aya patiently waited for more.
“I… well… do you remember that I said something back in that apartment I’m buying? The one in Shibuya?”
Aya raised her eyebrows. “Uh-huh. Don’t think I could ever forget that.”
“Do you know what it meant?”
She shook her head.
A gentle laugh touched the air between them. “It means…” Genevieve had to center herself before committing to a response. As good as she was with languages, this was too important to mess up. “Totemo suki yo.”
The air quickly left Aya’s lungs. “I see. Sou ka.”
“So…” Genevieve reclaimed her hand and pressed both against her chest. Was it tightening? Or was that her throat drying? “Here we are. In like with each other.”
She hadn’t meant it as a mood loosener, yet they were both laughing at the end of that minute. “This is so stereotypical,” Aya said. “I’m almost middle-aged. You’d think I was more confident saying these things by now.”
“Me too. Although, in my case, I guess I’m more worried about moving too quickly. I’ve been burned before. I mean, I’ve burned before.” She tested the waters before wrapping her arms around Aya and inviting herself into a full-body hug. “I don’t want to scare you away because I’m getting too intense.”
Aya returned the hug. She smelled as fine as the spring rain in the countryside. I should go to the country more often. Be it rural Taiwan or Japan. Maybe she’d steal Aya away to the wilds of North America, where the air was the freshest she had ever experienced. Aya liked California. Maybe they could disappear to Yosemite for a few days.
“It’s hard to scare me away.” Aya’s hand rested on the back of Genevieve’s head. When she finally allowed herself to relax, she floated away, enmeshed in the solitary world they carved together. “The only thing that’s really new to me is the society you come from. I’m not used to being around so many wealthy people all the time.” Aya’s hand tightened where it rested. “I can handle it, though. Especially if you plan on spending a lot of your time in Japan.”
Genevieve pulled away. “It’s never easy coming from different places. Money helps ease the distance, but we are from different cultures. There will always be something that threatens to drive us apart, or to make things too complicated, or…”
“Genny.” Aya took her by the arms. “It’ll be okay. Mature heads will prevail, right?”
“I suppose so. Especially if we’re feeling about each other the way that we are.”
“Why don’t we go to bed and discuss it some more?”
Genevieve almost missed the mischief in her girlfriend’s voice. “What, what we did in the club wasn’t enough for you?”
“I didn’t say let’s do it all night long.” Aya’s arms lowered. “I only have so much stamina, after all.”
“Oh, but what if I wanna do it all night long?”
“We’ll work something out.” Aya approached the bed, taking her side without any thought toward it. As she pulled back the covers, she gestured to Genevieve’s empty side. “Are you joining me, Genny?”
That brought Genevieve forward faster than if she were about to walk the virgin road for the first time.