Page 17 of Up All Night
“People are always by themselves.”
“Yes. They go everywhere alone. Japanese people are always alone.”
The way he spoke, whether he realized it or not, was poignant.
“You don’t like alone?”
“It feels sad a lot.”
I had only known this man for a couple of hours, but I felt like I was learning more about him than I had learned about most of my friends back home. “You like to be around people,” I said matter-of-factly.
“Yes! People are best. It’s why I like restaurant business. My restaurant, it is food and bar. The bar is my favorite. Everyone is so happy and having a party. It’s only time you see it in Japan.”
“Well, if you move to America, things will certainly be different.”
“I want to move to America,” he reaffirmed.
Now that he had opened up again, our conversation turned toward the differences between Japan and the rest of the world. How people were lonelier here than they were in America. How they saw their families less here than in Greece, Turkey, almost anywhere else. How they were more educated than many places we had lived. Oh, and how expensive! Hadrian was shocked to hear that America could be as expensive as Japan, but then conceded that things were also seemingly expensive in Greece even with the comparatively low costs – when nobody could afford those low costs, they were expensive.
“The food is also better,” he told me for the third time. “Italy makes the best food. So does Greece. Japanese food is okay, but Italian is better.”
“What about American food?”
“American food is good because it has many Italian foods.”
I couldn’t fault him for that superb logic.
We were laughing about something. I don’t remember what. Maybe he told me a joke about his nieces and nephews back in Greece. All I know is that I took that moment of good humor as an opportunity to put my hand on his arm and test his reaction.
He instantly stopped smiling. Not to say he frowned, but my actions had put some damper on the experience. Right, right. He had said he didn’t like being touched. I pulled my hand away and kept it to myself.
Hadrian tapped his empty coffee cup on the counter. “We go? Take a walk?”
He had his eyes on the train station across the street. Oh. Good job, Cyndi. You ruined the night and got yourself sent back to your noisy share house.
That was what I assumed as we threw out our trash and stepped out into the cool autumn night. November was a strange time for weather in Japan. One day it would be hot and somewhat humid, and the next it would snow a few inches. That day had been warm, but the night was brisk. Hadrian shivered in his jacket and motioned for us to walk as quickly as possible.
Naturally, we made a beeline for the station.
At least it had been a nice enough evening. My body was screaming at me to fuck this guy, but as far as I could tell, he wanted nothing to do with me like that. Leave it to me to find the one man in Japan not down for a one-night stand. Maybe he was looking for a long term thing and was turned off after finding out I would leave the following weekend. With our language barrier the way it was, it was near impossible to find out the truth.
Not that it mattered, anyway. We were never going to see each other again.
I checked for my wallet as soon as we entered the station. Yet we bypassed the ticket machines and continued to pass beneath the station until we came out of the other side.
Uh, well then!
“This is my favorite park in Tokyo.” Hadrian pointed to the paths wandering through the green spaces across the street. “We go?”
“Sure.” My attempts to mask my excitement didn’t work. This date wasn’t over yet? Where were we going? What were we doing? Why did I have to feel like such a teenage girl on her first date? Was I really that sad?
Or was I that… into him?
Whatever. That was silly. The date leading up to any possible sex was that – a date! This guy wasn’t going to hold my hand on a stroll through the park. Nor was he going to tell me his innermost thoughts like we had known each other for years. I barely knew him. For fuck’s sake, I found him through a dating app! I wasn’t going to be in town long enough for us to get to really know each other.
His mannerisms were strange to the point I could barely get a read on Hadrian. He animatedly spoke to me as he described what he loved about this park and how he liked to come here whenever he passed through Oji. Yet at the same time, he kept a respectful distance. I wish I had known more about the culture he grew up in. Was he being polite? God! I wish he would throw his arm around me if nothing else! Touch me a little! I’m not saying he had to slap my ass or try to cop a feel of my tits. Just enough to send me a message that he was into me, damnit!
At the same time, I’m a paranoid person thanks to a lot of shitty experiences, and the fact this guy I barely knew was leading me through a dark park at night sent up the usual red flags.
