Page 12 of Summer Haze & Tokyo Craze
“Right?” Tanner chuckles and leans closer to the camera. “A woman’s name out of your mouth and then in such a tone? That’s new.”
"It’s nothing,” I tell them and pinch the bridge of my nose. I shouldn’t have mentioned her at all. “I just learned that she apparently lived in Japan for a time, so I'm a bit worried about our expansion plans."
"Really?" Jackson asks surprised, his eyebrows raised up to his hairline. "You? Worried about a competitor? Have you gotten sick?"
"That's new. Where's that usual confidence?" Reed continues the interrogation, and I shake my head at them.
"Oh, I'm still confident," I quickly clarify and raise my eyebrow at them. "That's got nothing to do with it. I'm just saying I might have to adjust some plans for the company."
"Sure," Jackson says menacingly, and the other two roll their eyes at me.
“Of course, the company,” Reed says under his breath. I’m not going to dignify that with a reply so I’m glad when he changes the topic. "On another note, has any of you heard from Zoey?"
Both Jackson and Tanner shake their heads, frowns appearing on their faces. So I chime up.
"She has settled in. Got a message with a picture from her dorm room a few days ago."
"Dormroom?" Jackson asks, his face scrunching together in a grimace. As the second oldest brother, he feels especially protective over her. "Couldn't we have gotten her an apartment?"
“Right,” Reed adds. “Dorms suck.”
"Of course we could have,” I say and click my tongue at them. "But she didn't want me to. Said something about wanting the ‘dorm experience.’"
"She’s so weird," Jackson says, shaking his head. "Well, whatever, pretty sure ‘weird’ runs in the family. I hope she's going to have fun in college."
“Not too much though,” Reed adds quickly. “I’m not ready to be an uncle yet.” He clutches his chest theatrically and Jackson shakes his head at him.
“Good thing you have a pretty face, because you’re definitelynota good actor.”
“Hey!”
"I'm sure she will have a good time," I say, then lean forward, closer to the screen as I pull up the game myself to join them. "Now, are you suckers ready to lose?"
Finally, the shit-talking commences as we race each other, fighting with every dirty trick in the book, until I actually win the race and laugh at all of their annoyed faces.
My head is pounding on my way to breakfast. I feel like a sledgehammer knocked on my skull, a pressuring pain behindmy eyes as I walk down a neon-light lit hallway that’s not helping my case.
The guys and I continued to play until three in the morning and even then, I couldn’t quite fall asleep yet. I think I finally did around five, knowing fully well I’d have to get up by seven to be ready for the first conference meeting to start at nine.
So I’m operating on two hours of sleep and I can’t even comprehend what kind of food they have available for breakfast, and my brain is not in a state to read the signs so I just heave anything that looks or smells good onto my plate.
I can't say I ever had fish for breakfast, but as Dad always used to say, "Don't knock it till you try it." But God, where did the time go? It seems like just weeks ago I was pulling all-nighters at work, continuing at home after getting all my siblings settled and working until four in the morning.
It’s the small things that make me realize that I’m not getting any younger and remind me that the big four-oh is creeping closer and closer.
I turn around to find a table to sit on. Before I know it, I hear a familiar chuckle and my eyes gravitate to a table to my right. The one where Lily sits.
Even with her back facing me, I can hear her voice as she talks to the man sitting on the opposite side of her table.
Raising my eyebrow, I step closer. I pride myself in knowing most people in the industry, but I've never seen that man before, so my curiosity is piqued, pounding headache forgotten.
Well, I guess I'm about to find out who he is, because the only empty table in the room is the one right next to them.
"Morning," I grumble as I set down my plate and scoot back the chair.
"Good morning," Lily replies, sounding a lot more cheerful than yesterday.
Her whole mood seems to have improved. To be fair, I also wouldn't have been in a great mood if the airline had lost my luggage somewhere along the way.
