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“I don’t know. He was acting out of sorts when I stopped for lunch yesterday.”
“Masanori has always kept to himself. You remember the times we would hang out together. He was permanently attached to a manga or book. Once he reached his capacity for hanging with us, he would sit out every activity.”
“But he’s never been quick to anger. He’s worse than you are with how well he guards his feelings.”
Katsuo quirks his eyebrow. Without needing him to ask me to clarify, I say, “Kori.”
“Hontoni?”
“Hai.”
“I’ll talk to him when I get in the office. I won’t lose my chef to my cousin. Z’s attached.” Katsuo frowns at the prospect. Although his oldest son has come a long way with his abandonment issues from losing his biological father and being separated from his grandmother, Katsuo will avoid situations that will trigger his son. “How’s Portia’s schedule looking for today?” Katsuo switches to his favorite topic.
“Don’t worry, no emergencies came up over the weekend to prevent your lunch date from happening. I’ll deliver her to you on time, as usual.”
“Have you heard from Sokolov?”
“Not since last month. They upped Mildred’s dose. There’s no way she’ll attempt another escape.” I continue to update Katsuo on our business with the Sokolov family in New Jersey. Our organizations agreed on an alliance on the condition that Sokolov keep Mildred from interfering in her former daughter-in-law’s life after she attempted to kidnap Portia’s kids.
Katsuo keeps her alive for Ezekiel’s sake. Once he becomes an adult, he’ll have the choice to maintain or distance himself from the horrible woman.
My cousin loops around, heading back to the house, and I follow close behind. We separate in the living room. While Katsuo goes through his morning ritual, I shower, change into my suit, and join Shinji at the door.
“Is boss man on board?” he asks.
“Yes, though he said I spoil you too much.”
My admission brings a smile to my husband’s face and I can’t even pretend to be annoyed. “Mr. Kimura, I must insist you keep up the good work.” He lowers his voice and suggestively arches his brow. “Your efforts will be well rewarded.”
“Don’t make me throw ice water on you two. My kids can hear everything you’re saying.” Portia emerges from the den area with Kioshi on her hip, followed by Ezekiel and Serafina who hide their giggles behind their hands.
“That’s rich coming from you. Your kids don’t need to worry about me and my husband when their parents barely censor themselves.” I follow Portia to her waiting car.
Shinji will wait for Katsuo. We’ll see each other again at lunch. I shake my head remembering a time before now when Shinji didn’t work with me, when I was lucky to see him evenonce a day. And to think, I hadn’t liked the idea when he first suggested working together.
The day progresses quickly. Since the board voted for Portia to be Tiger Cleaning Services’ CEO, the company Katsuo secretly established so she could materialize the potential he’d seen in her when they first met, her days have been non-stop meetings. She rarely has time to spare, which is the reason she titles her lunch appointment with Katsuo, Legal Briefing. It guarantees her executive assistant will never reschedule unless given specific instructions from Portia. And Portia only cancels on Katsuo during crises. Thanks to her management, disasters are rare.
At lunch, we take the elevator to Katsuo’s office. Thanks to my cousin’s planning, we don’t have long to wait for food to arrive. While Portia goes inside, Shinji and I take our food to Masanori’s empty office. He’s our in-house counsel, but he also overseas the principal arm of Kimura and Associates, our US based law firm. Since he oversees Kimura’s legal interests, he travels a lot to our regional offices to meet with other lawyers and accountants and to ensure the Kimura organization remains as circumspect as possible despite law enforcement’s interest in us.
As Shinji and I begin to eat our udon, he pauses with his hashi suspended above his bowl.
“Do you want to discuss last night?” he asks, then scoops a hefty portion of the thick wheat noodles into his mouth.
I wait for him to finish slurping to answer. “Why would I need to talk about it?” I question him because I knowmyreasons for wanting to discuss last night, but Shinji preempting me by introducing the topic makes me curious about his motives.
“Because Lakeshia did the unthinkable and you didn’t correct her.”
I clench my teeth and rest my hashi on the table. “It won’t happen again.”
“What a pity,” he sighs. “I rather enjoyed the results of your one-upmanship.”
I frown over the implication in his words. “Are you saying we were missing something before now and that something was her?”
Shinji narrows his eyes and seconds pass with us silently contemplating each other. “There’s some hidden purpose to your question, isn’t there?”
“No, I was intentionally straightforward.”
“The question, maybe. You? Not so much. But to answer what I think you didn’t ask…not just any woman can give us what we need.”
