Page 83 of Pragma
She huffs. “By the position in which you are, fucking literally, I presume you don’t intend to meet the last suitor?”
All the muscles in my body contract.
“No,” Aki answers simply.
She drops the butt of the cigarette on the ground; her man quickly picks it up. “I chose him for you, although it seems you already caught him.” She waves at us. “You don’t have to go on a date, unless this is what you call one. Young kids these days.”
“What?” Aki takes the word from my mouth. Is she saying…
“The person you’ve…coiled yourself around is my marriage candidate for you,iina.” She drops the bomb, looking annoyed by the extra explanation.
“What?” This time I’m the one talking, because I must have heard wrong.
“You chose River? Since when?”
“The fucking beginning.” She gets another smoke out of her little purse. “You are like two peas in an idiot pod. Of course, I chose him! I was sick of this dance between you two. I thought it would be easy, but fuck, you are unbelievably stubborn.” She’s looking at me. “Your feelings of inadequacy have turned into a damn complex. You have to work on it and fast.”
What?I can’t seem to think of another word.
“Why did you put me through all those dates if you knew I’d choose River? Was this some kind of insane punishment?” Aki growls, finally releasing my body to fully face his aunt.
“Insane is the only approach you understand, Akira. And it was my way to push both of you in the right direction. As always, it worked!” She smiles with the cigarette between her lips.
So all the jealousy and anger I felt in seeing Aki meeting people that could give him things I couldn’t was all part of her plan?
“I’m pretty sure you orchestrated all this mainly to force Ishida-san out of his traitorous hole. Getting married to a powerful ally would have made it even harder to take me out. So he jumped the gun and played right into your hand.”
There’s always another angle with her. She really is diabolical.
“Whoever said don’t mix business and pleasure was a damn fool,” she declares.
“Pleasure? Punishing me is pleasure for you,Ane-san?”
“I took him in when he was a kid and fucking saved him…why am I being punished?” I hear her muttering before she looks at Aki again. “Like you didn’t have your fun. You are just pissed at me because, once again, I outsmarted you.”
His indignant sniff only shows her how utterly right she is.
“Contract marriages are normal for our family. I had one too, needed it to secure my position as thekumicho. I sacrificed everything,everythingfor this family.” For a moment, her eyes move away. “Just like your grandfather did before me. Your father, though, he found love and held on to it. He left the family and never looked back until that car accident. Before he died in the hospital, he made me promise to help you find love, and when you brought this blond-hairedgaijinback home with you nine years ago, I knew you’d found it all by yourself.”
“We didn’t even know ourselves at that time,” I tell her.
“I think you both did on some level. I didn’t know it would bloom in a sexual, romantic way, or whatever you call it. But you did live for each other, and trust one another unconditionally.”
Her words reach deep inside me. Aki’s hand grabbing mine forces air in my lungs again. And I take it all in, pushing away my fears and doubts while finally and totally embracing my feelings for him.
“This is the love your father wanted for you.” It’s the first time I witness such an affectionate smile curling her lips. I’m quite sure this is a one-time thing.
As soon as the thought forms, her mouth tightens. “And how the hell it took you so long to see it is beyond me! How can you become thekumichoif you are so blind?”
“Like you’d leave your throne anytime soon.” He scoffs. “You could have at least given me a hint or something.”
“We all need a little rain to grow and darkness to let us shine. And what do you think moving to New York was for? To make you bond or some shit like that.”
I don’t care how or why, but I’m thankful she did it. I give her a deep bow, and when I straighten up, I state, “I’ll do my best from now on,Kumicho.”
“Good! I’m sick of the two of you pining for each other, ugh!”
“I don’t pine,” Aki hisses.
