Only Uni (3 page)

The room began to tilt and dip. Trish sucked in a dry breath and realized she had stopped breathing. The murmuring from the cracked door behind her eased into the quiet room like waves at the shore, lapping toward the beach.

“Where’s Trish?” Grandma’s cultured voice carried over the din from the family room.

Suddenly, Grandma didn’t seem so bad anymore.

Trish turned and flung open the door. Leaving it wide open, she walked out into the hallway. She slapped the wall switch to turn on the hallway light and flood her path.

She focused on the cream carpet. She hated it. It was pure and clean and soft.

Jenn rounded the corner into the hallway and nearly collided with her. “You better come rescue Venus — ” Her face flipped from cool to concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Trish opened her mouth, but the only thing that came out was something between “erk” and “ugh.”

Jenn got the “really concerned” face. “Trish?” She peeked over Trish’s shoulder.

“No!” It came out sounding like a croak, but she got her point across. With shaking hands, she prodded Jenn back down the hallway. After initial resistance, Jenn complied. Like she usually did.

They erupted into the living room filled with relatives, most of them eating. The noise was too loud, the lights too bright. Trish had a fleeting fantasy of shrieking, “Shut up!” and then racing out of the house.

This was too much. She needed to go somewhere with her three cousins and best friends, where she could rage and cry and doubt and scream and cry some more.

She needed to leave, but in order to do that, she had to find her other two cousins to inform them they were leaving with her, and she had to find Grandma. Oh, and avoid Kazuo. “Where’s Grandma?”

“In the kitchen.”

Trish pushed her way through people. “I have to say hello and then tell her we’re leaving.”

“We’re leaving?”

“And Lex and Venus, too.”

“They are?”

“It’s an emergency.”

Jenn’s eyes got round. “Oh. Okay.”

“But I have to avoid Kazuo.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to see him.” Actually, she wanted to see him too much. “Can you divert him or something if he comes near me?”

“He’s already diverted. He’s talking with Venus. In the kitchen.”

Rats. “Okay. Um . . . I’ll pop in and say hi to Grandma — ”

“She brought him to see you. She’ll call him over.”

Jenn was too logical for Trish’s overworked brain right now. “Well, do something so he can’t. And I’ll tell her we’re leaving.”

“She’s not going to like that.” Jenn bit her lip.

No, she wasn’t. And although Lex and Venus seemed to enjoy antagonizing Grandma, Trish and Jenn liked to keep her happy. Life was easier that way. Trish swallowed a sob. “I don’t want to talk to him.”

Jenn’s brow furrowed. “Why don’t you wait here instead of seeing Grandma just yet? I’ll get Lex and see if she has any ideas.” Jenn switched directions and dove into the crowd of people.

Good thinking. Trish backed into a vacant corner in the living room and tried not to eye the food on people’s plates. Her stomach rumbled. She smoothed the creases on her skirt — did she have cornstarch from the mochi on there this entire time? Plus some sticky patch that was probably a gift from Allison, the brat.

“Trish, there you are.”

Nonononononono.
“Grandma, I was going to find you.” She gripped her hands in front of her chest to try to keep her heart from flying out. She sucked in her gut and tried to shrink a little.

Grandma always made Trish feel hulking and fat. She never seemed to eat — even at lavish family gatherings like this — and she always wore the most fab business suits that must take off at least ten pounds from her already-slender figure. She fingered the gold filigree pin on her cream lapel as she waltzed up to Trish’s corner.

“You’re looking good. New haircut?” Flattery might work. Trish was
so
in the doghouse for not coming up to say hello to Grandma as soon as she arrived.

Grandma patted her permed gray-bronze curls, but her perfectly stenciled lips never broke their straight red line. “I’ve been searching for you.”

“Oh?” She widened her eyes and hoped she looked innocent rather than like a deer in the headlights about to be completely slaughtered. She clenched her hands at her stomach to stop it from gurgling.

“I met Kazuo yesterday when I was in Japantown.”

“You did? But Kazuo doesn’t work at the sushi restaurant anymore.” His “artistic loner” personality hadn’t won him any friends with his coworkers, so when they had to lay off someone, he was the first man booted. His parents in Japan had responded with larger monthly checks so he didn’t have to find another job.

“I saw him outside the Shiseido shop. He seemed rather sad, so I talked to him.”

That, or she had wanted to pick his brain about why they broke up. “He seemed happy the last time I saw him.” Well, as happy as brooding Kazuo ever got.

“He told me he hasn’t seen you for a few weeks.” Grandma’s stern expression melted. Her bright brown eyes pleaded with Trish. “I hoped you two would get back together. He’s such a good boy.”

“We weren’t right for each other.”
He just made me feel beautiful and loved
. No, she had to remember the bad times. Trish had a flashback of Kazuo in one of his frustrated artistic rages, flinging paint on his masterpiece and raining spit on her shocked face as he ranted.

Grandma’s gaze dropped.

Trish’s heart fell a notch with it. “I’m sorry. I know you liked him.”

Grandma sighed.

Trish wrung her hands. “We really tried hard to make it work.” Well,
she
tried. He just agreed with her when she wanted to talk things out, and then tried to make love to her with his words and gaze.

Grandma’s face suddenly came to life, sparkling like the diamond choker at her throat. “Well, Kazuo is here tonight.”

“Uh . . .”

“And he says he’s a different person now, and he wants to try again with you.”

Kazuo had said he’d try harder or turn himself around after every fight they had. “But . . . Grandma . . .”

“Isn’t that romantic? Girls love when men chase them.”

Trish couldn’t picture Grandpa ever chasing Grandma. More like the other way around. “But I don’t like Kazuo anymore.”

Grandma’s immaculate Shiseido makeup cracked as she frowned. “Trish, I can always tell when you’re lying to me.”

She bit the inside of her lip.
Everyone
could tell when she was lying. “It’s kind of like french fries.”

“What?”

“You know how we all love french fries?” Well, with her slender figure, Grandma might not know. “But they’re bad for you. Very, very bad. Lots of calories and bad carbs.”

“I don’t know what that — ”

“Kazuo is like french fries.”

Now Grandma was looking at her like she’d given a speech on DNA cloning vectors.

“I do still like him. But long-term, he’s very, very bad for me. So I’m going on a diet.”

Grandma patted her arm. “Well, you could stand to lose a few pounds, dear.”

What?
“That’s not what I meant.”

“And I’m certain Kazuo would appreciate a more youthful figure on you.”

Youthful? She was only thirty. “I’m not fat.”

“No, you’re not fat, but you’re not as slender as Lex.”

Lex was an athlete and she exercised 24/7. But Trish consoled herself with the fact she actually had a bosom. “I’m not like Lex — ”

“Kazuo loves you just the way you are.”

“But I don’t want him to love me.”

Grandma’s eyes took on a sharper cast, and her voice had a ring of steel like a samurai drawing his sword. “It would make me very happy if you two would get back together.”

Trish blinked. Was that a threat? Grandma never threatened her. Sure, she threatened Lex and Venus because they went out of their way to annoy her, but Trish? Grandma loved Trish. Trish always had boyfriends to bring to family parties. Trish listened when Grandma said she wanted her to get married. Trish wanted to give Grandma great-grandchildren.

Grandma’s hard look made her squirm. Well, maybe she’d at least talk to Kazuo. It was the middle of a big party. Nothing would happen, right?

“Where is Kazuo?” She fiddled with her earring and half-heartedly flickered her gaze around. Maybe if she didn’t look too closely, he wouldn’t show up.

Better yet, maybe he’d be so captivated by Venus’s drop-dead-gorgeous face and figure that he wouldn’t want to see Trish. Although the thought of him and Venus twanged in her breastbone like a snapping guitar string.

“I’ll go get him.” Grandma disappeared faster than a ninja.

Trish considered — for a brief moment of insanity — simply walking out the door. But imagining Grandma’s wrath kept her chained to the floor. Even an army of rushing Japanese warriors — like in that Kadokawa movie
Heaven and Earth
, which she saw in the original Japanese, thank you very much
—
was preferable.

How sad. She was less afraid of death by dismemberment than displeasing Grandma.

He appeared through the crowd of people like a ship parting the waves. His emotional pull on her sucked at every square inch of her skin like a vortex trying to drag her into a black hole.

She wasn’t going back to him again. No matter how absolutely muscular and protective he looked in that black turtleneck sweater —

No, stop thinking about his muscles.

A woman nearby gasped. Yeah, Kazuo had that kind of effect on women. Something about his silky long hair pulled into a ponytail and his dark, fathomless eyes —

Stop thinking about his eyes.

“There you are, Trish.” His deep voice had that sexy lisp of an accent that marked him as a Japanese national. Trish wondered if anyone had thought to record his voice on MP3 to fall asleep to —

Stop thinking about this man and sleep, you idiot.

She was doomed.

“Hi, Kazuo. Did you eat yet? Good party, huh? My relatives always have great food. Did you know that some of my aunts and uncles married Chinese spouses? So they bring a lot of really great Chinese food to these family parties. My cousins Venus and Jenn are half-Chinese. They both speak Chinese. Jenn speaks Mandarin and Venus speaks Cantonese because their dads are . . . well, Chinese. And — ”

“I’ve missed you, Trish.”

He said it with a kind of strong, passionate look, the kind that preceded some heart-pounding grabbing and kissing.

No, no, no. No kissing in the middle of the New Year’s party. Trish swallowed and eased backwards.

Kazuo leaned toward her.

Besides, what was she doing thinking about kissing when she’d just caught her father kissing another woman? She had to get away from her parents, from the party, from Kazuo. “Kazuo, you know we’re like oil and water — ”

“You are my muse. I am an empty shell without you.” He reached out one long-fingered hand, pale and graceful, barely smoothing over her cheek. It made her tingle. “I need you to breathe life back into me.”

She had life. Lots of life. And she liked his touch way too much. She drew a shaky breath, filling her lungs with his sandalwood scent, sharp and musky. He’d make her the center of his world, and he’d hold her with those strong arms —

No. Remember? That was how she’d got herself in trouble in the first place.

Maybe God is punishing you.

The thought splashed like ice water down her back. All her problems . . . Dad and that woman . . . No, it couldn’t be God punishing her for sleeping with Kazuo. That was silly. Besides, she’d . . . well, Kazuo wasn’t exactly her first.

She jerked a step back and almost sent an aunty behind her slamming into the wall. “Oops, sorry.” But she broke Kazuo’s mesmerizing spell.

“Trish.” Jenn suddenly appeared. Thank goodness. But hadn’t she said she’d get Lex?

Trish straightened her back and stared up at him. “I was leaving, Kazuo.”

His full lips curved up in a half-smile, and his eyes gleamed like black lacquer. “I’ll drive you home.”

Stupid! He took her words as an invitation. She gave herself a few mental smacks. “No, Jenn and I are leaving together. Girls’ thing.”

Jenn bit her lip.

Oh no. “What?”

“I drove Venus.”

“She’s coming too.”

Kazuo’s brow dented. “I was talking to Venus. She didn’t say anything about leaving.”

“She probably forgot.” Kazuo didn’t know that Venus never forgot anything.

“Trish, there you are.”

Oh no. How could she face her mom after seeing what she just saw? She turned with an automatic smile plastered on her face and hoped she didn’t look like she was in pain.

Mom’s hands fluttered in the air as she made her way past an uncle and closer to Trish and company. Her straight hair was looking a little like a bird’s nest as she swung her head back and forth, smiling at someone who followed her. “I want you to meet someone special.” Her bright eyes twinkled up at Trish like an excited sparrow. “She happened to be invited by one of the aunties.”

Mom pulled forward a tall, slender woman with jet-black hair falling like an ebony cascade.

The woman Dad had been kissing.

To her credit, her eyes wavered under Trish’s shocked scrutiny. Her smile was small and tight.

Mom didn’t notice. She clasped the woman’s hand and beamed up at her. “This is my only daughter, Patricia. Trish, meet my old college roommate, Alice Ogawa.”

THREE