Queen of Love

“You should care. Because she’s going to prey upon that insecurity as soon as…”

Aya spoke through chewing on kimchi. “She told me I get my perversions from Dad.”

Mari was so white with horror that she immediately shut up.

“The rice needs longer to cook, then we can have dinner.” Rika sat next to Mari. “Sorry. My memory has been fuzzy lately, and I forgot to start the rice cooker on time.”

If she were fishing for sympathy that she might have dementia, she wasn’t getting any bites. “Ma,” Mari said, “we have to help Aya. She’s having her heart broken right now.”

“Eh? That Chinese girl broke up with you? Che. She seemed flakey, anyway.”

Aya didn’t have the energy to correct her. “We haven’t broken up. I think.”

“You either break up or you don’t.”

“It’s not that simple, Ma.” Aya didn’t want to dwell on this, anyway. The past two weeks had been plagued with radio silence from Tokyo and Singapore, and when they did text or call, one of them usually made up an excuse to go quiet again. Aya had been distracted anyway. Takatani called her back into the office but wasn’t allowing her to give tours yet. According to Ishida, there had been a big meeting about her coming back and how Takatani wasn’t going to put up with jokes and comments about what had happened. “It was strange,” Ishida had admitted on Aya’s first day back at the office, “you could really tell who had snooped in things they should not have.” That didn’t make Aya feel better. “Things happened. She had to go back to Singapore to take care of her business, and her image.”

“If her image doesn’t include you, then what kind of girlfriend is she? Seems like if I’d give the same advice about a bad boyfriend, I should do it here, too.”

Aya stuffed her mouth with greasy gyoza. It was almost too hot to eat, but she didn’t care. A burnt mouth was a good excuse to not respond to her mother’s advice.

“Now, listen here,” Rika said, a finger halfway to wagging beneath her daughter’s nose. “I don’t pretend to understand two things about your life, but how is this any different than when Kentaro ghosted Mari right before they got married?”

“Why you gotta bring that up, Ma?” Mari asked. “That’s ancient business.”

“How did you resolve that, huh? You marched up to his mother’s house and demanded answers out of him. You really set the tone of your marriage with that one. His mom and I still joke about that!”

Aya scratched her ear. Something’s really burning in there. An answer, probably. “I remember. Didn’t you say he was getting cold feet about the wedding? Wasn’t he scared about providing for you and the kids you wanted to have?”

“Yeah, like I was taking that excuse. We were both thirty-five. It was time to put up or shut up. He always said he wanted a wife and kids, I wanted kids, so it was time to get to work!”

Aya gestured to the kids leapfrogging in the living room. Sho almost flew off his sister’s shoulders and crashed into their grandparents’ display case. “How’d that work out for you?”

“They’ll mellow out when they hit fifth grade. I think, anyway…”

“Only four more years to go.”

“That’s beside the point,” Mari continued. “I got the life I wanted, whether I like it or not. What life do you want, sis? You gonna let this pretty and rich lady yank you by the chain? From what I hear that video makes it clear she wants to be yanked on a chain!”

Rika was so white in the face that Aya worried her mother would faint from embarrassment. “I don’t hear any of this. Absolutely none of this.”

“You’ve got to take the reins, sis. Genevieve is the kind of woman who wants you to call the shots, right? Ah!” Her gasp rippled across the table, shaking the appetizer dishes and rattling the water glasses. “You’ve got to go to Singapore and tell her what’s up!”

“I can’t just go to Singapore,” Aya said. “Do you know how much that costs right now?”

“You know where she lives, right? So what’s stopping you?”

“Money! Besides,” Aya sighed, “why should I be the one to do all that work? She’s the one keeping us in stasis. Queen of Love is right.”

“What’s that mean?” Rika asked.

“It’s something her friends call her. Because she rushes into relationships, I guess. Then they crash and burn. Guess that’s where I am with her right now. The crashing phase. Jury’s out on how much it burns.”

Mari and Rika exchanged a look.

“Nani?” Aya asked, exasperated.

“What happens when the car is crashing because the driver has lost control?” Rika asked. “You reach over and try to steer the wheel so you don’t crash so hard. What’s worse, huh? Crashing right into the tree and dying on impact? Or steering the car into the ditch where you get banged up and bruised but live to see another day with the driver?”