Slurp.
The noodle whipped around like it was struggling for its life as Taichi Kimura sucked it into his mouth. He grinned across the table, his pasta-filled cheeks puffing out in a smile. Zoe gave her best resemblance of a smile before drinking deeply from her wine glass.
“How is your pasta?” she asked.
“Very good. Thank you.” He gave a slight nod of the head, like a mini-bow.
According to Zoe’s mother, he’d recently moved from Japan, but she’d expected him to have already been acquainted to, if not adjusted to, American life, having gone to university in the States.
But the habits were as strong as his accent: the bowing, the politeness—slurp—the slurping. Her mother still did the same thing when she ate soup or noodles, a long-ingrained courtesy to show respect and appreciation for the chef’s hard work.
Growing up with it, she found the habit endearing. It made her feel at home, as though she were dining with her mom and not on a boring date. If you weren’t slurping it, you weren’t enjoying it. And if Taichi’s noises were anything to go by, it must have been the best meal of his life. At least one of them was enjoying their date.
She took another swig from her glass. “So, how is your new job going?” she asked. “Are you settling in?”
“Yes, thank you. It is very good. Everyone is so nice.”
The conversation died off for the rest of the meal. When he finally finished his fettuccini, and Zoe her second drink, she was hoping the date would be over and so would her obligation to her mother. She anxiously glanced around until she caught the waiter’s attention.
When he noticed her, he gave her the head tilt and approached their table.
“Will there be anything else for you?” he asked very slowly and a few decibels too loud, like that somehow makes English easier to understand.
While Taichi’s accent was strong, his English was impeccable. Zoe almost took offense on his behalf at the waiter’s assumption. But if her date noticed the unintentional slight, his manners were impeccable too, because he answered politely enough.
“Yes, please. I had my eye on the chocolate cake.”
“Cer-tain-ly!” He turned to Zoe, and even though she’d ordered in a perfect American accent, he spoke the same way. “And for you, madam?”
“Make that two. And another glass of wine, please.”
“You like chocolate too? We have that in common,” Taichi noted with delight, as though that would have been a deal breaker.
She’d forgotten how boring dates could be. Then again, she’d been spending a lot of time with Levi lately. One could even consider some of those encounters as dates, if one wanted to—which she most certainly did not. And at no time would she consider their interactions boring.
But Zoe wasn’t on a date with Levi—not that she wanted to be. In fact, they hadn’t spoken since she left him on the carousel on Pier 39 the day before. No, she was on a date with Taichi Kimura, and because she’d promised her mother she would consider him as a potential husband, she put thoughts of the rock star aside.
But the nonexistent small talk was slowly eating away at her sense of propriety. It may have been a first date, but Zoe didn’t like to waste her time. Besides, they both knew why they were there. What was the point in dancing around the subject? Or maybe that was her third glass of wine talking.
“Tell me, Taichi,” she said. “Why did you agree to this date?”
“I’m new to town. I thought it would be nice to meet someone and get to know you. Your mother said you were beautiful, but her description didn’t do you justice.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “But you’re aware of both our mothers’ intentions, are you not? Of the arranged marriage?”
“I am,” he said blankly.
“And you still came?”
“You came as well,” he indicated her thereness with a hand gesture, but she knew he understood what she was getting at.
“Touché, I guess.” She frowned into her empty glass. “I’m just trying to understand. You’re coming to America, land of the free. I assume you want to live here because of the lifestyle, the freedom of choice.”
“That is one of the reasons.”
“Doesn’t that include the freedom to choose your own wife?” She was afraid she was being too blunt, considering they’d just met, so she tried to explain. “Being from a younger generation, I’m surprised you would consider such a traditional arrangement.”
“It’s true, I enjoy many things about America and look forward to many years discovering it. However, who better to do it with than someone who understands me and my own culture as well as this one?”
Even to her fuzzy, wine-befuddled brain, his succinct answer surprised her. It actually made a lot of sense. “But why me? I’m more American than Japanese. Not to mention I’m brash, I’m blunt, I swear too much, and I’m stubborn. Don’t expect a docile, subservient wife.”
What was she saying? He shouldn’t expect anything, because it wasn’t like she was going to marry the guy. Maybe it was her fight about marriage with Levi that had started her thinking. Or maybe it was running into Sean so unexpectedly after all these years, but she wanted to know what Taichi saw in her that was worth marrying, even if he’d only just met her. What did he see that Sean didn’t? That—if Levi was right—she didn’t see? Was she marriage material?
“In all your mother’s descriptions of you, she never said you were docile.” Taichi chuckled good-humoredly. “You know who you are. You are independent. I like that. We are just two similarly minded people that are willing to come together and form a mutually beneficial union. I’m simply looking for someone to enjoy my life with. So why not you?” he asked simply.
Thankfully, the waiter came with their dessert, preventing her from having to respond.
Why not? That was a good question. Zoe certainly thought she was a great catch. But marriage material?
Taichi seemed perfectly pleasant, mild mannered, and polite. She could never see him mistreating her—mainly because she could kick his ass if he did.
As she stared at him over her new glass of wine, he certainly looked attractive enough. And to have someone to lie next to every night meant no more vibrators for her.
Scratch that, she thought. Of course there would be vibrators. It only makes things more interesting.
An arranged marriage seemed a lot less messy than hopping back into the dating-scene again. It made her cringe to think of the uncertainty of it all, the self-consciousness, the doubts, all to possibly end up left at the altar again. Taichi, on the other hand, was a sure thing. He already knew he wanted to marry her.
Taichi dug into his chocolate cake. “Why are you considering an arranged marriage?” he asked. “As you say, you are more American than Japanese.”
Zoe’s own candidness suddenly turned around and bit her right in the butt.
A week ago, she would have laughed at the question. Her? Consider marriage? Ha! She’d never have thought it possible. Not until she’d met Levi, until he’d made it impossible not to take a good hard look at the choice she was making to be alone.
He’d made her think about things, feel things she never thought she would again. Things she’d put behind her a long time ago. Or at least, she’d thought she had.
But Levi only wanted to date her. There was still that uncertainty, the unknown if it would all fall apart one day. Levi was a wild card. Whereas Taichi was a safe bet.
She recalled the way that Levi looked at her on the carousel the day before. He’d asked her What do you want? And quite frankly, she didn’t know anymore.
Levi had been questioning her, pushing her to explore her beliefs over the last two weeks, but she couldn’t run away from that question anymore. Not seated across from a man who could be her fiancé.
Taichi was giving her his time, his honesty, and candidness about marriage. She owed it to him to be honest. With him and with herself.
“I guess,” she said, “because it would be nice to have someone there by my side. Someone to share my day with that could do more than just bark. Someone to wake up next to every day that didn’t have doggy breath. Someone who could be an equal partner.”
And there it was. The truth. Maybe she didn’t have everything she needed. Maybe she wasn’t entirely sold on being alone forever, just her and Freddy. As she thought more and more about it, there were a lot of holes in her life that a dog just couldn’t fill. But was Taichi the man to fill them?
“Those are good reasons,” he nodded affably. “Partnership, dependability, mutual respect.”
Smiling, she tucked into her dessert, allowing herself to really enjoy the date for the first time that evening.
Was she seriously thinking about it? Maybe everyone was right. Maybe even Levi was right. Life was too short. It was too short to be alone, too short to spend it hiding her heart away.
Later that night, she got home and crawled into her empty bed. And when she cuddled up next to Freddy and her Fuzzy Friends, she knew for certain it just wasn’t enough anymore.
The only remaining question was, who was the right person? The man she knew would never break her heart, but at the same time might not ever make it whole again? Or was it the man who had found the opening to her heart, who had the potential to fill it again, but could also leave it shattered?