Page 37 of Fe
“Are you thinking about it?” Fen asked.
For a moment, he did. But common sense prevailed. He nodded towards the entrance of the restaurant. Ripley gave his name, their coats were taken and they were shown to a table by the window.
“Oh wow,” Fen whispered. “What an amazing view of the city.”
The only view Ripley had any interest in was Fen with his unusually tidy hair, dazzling smile and those sparkling blue eyes enhanced by eyeliner. Ripley had never been interested in any man who wore make-up, yet on Fen, it was perfect.
Wine and food were ordered and Ripley leaned back in his chair. “How was your day?”
“I did a Tai Chi class which went well, but at work I nearly got into trouble with Charles. Though that’s not unusual. I was dealing with a customer who’d brought a picture frame in for repair and Charles was showing Victorian rings to a lady in very high heels. I heard her ask if they were used rings and I ended up pretending to have a coughing fit so no one realised I was laughing.”
“What did Charles tell her?”
“They’d had very important owners. But she still looked dubious. Then she got a ring stuck and put her finger in her mouth. Charles was flapping around saying, ‘Don’t suck it. I’ll put cream on it. If you keep yanking, it will get more swollen and you’re not going to be able to pull it off.’” Fen grinned. “How could he not realise how that sounded?”
“Do rings often get stuck?”
“More often than you’d think. I don’t get why people keep pushing them on when they see how tight they are. Probably because their fingers are not as slender as they imagine. Anyway, how was your day?”
“There was a last-minute change of plea and we finished early. I’m not working on Monday so I’ll be at my mother’s when your firm goes to do the valuation. Think you can come too?”
“Alistair is bringing me and Scott.”
“Great. I have a couple of estate agents calling as well.”
“Not much of a day off.”
“No.”
“What do you usually do if you get time off?”
“Catch up on stuff I should have done. Exercise. Sleep. What about you?”
“I told you I was teaching myself Japanese, so I tend to do that. I want to be able to read it as well and that’s tricky. There are three different scripts to learn. Hiragana, kanji and katakana.”
“Sounds unnecessarily complicated.”
“Yes and no. There is a reason. I can give you an example. If I said—I’m Fen— that’s watashi wa fen desu. The word forIis watashiand written in kanji. The core meanings of sentences are written in kanji such as nouns, but verbs and adjectives are written in a combination of kanji and hiragana. The waand desuare written in hiragana but Fen and other words that come from abroad, like coffee and computer, are written in katakana.” Fen winced. “Too much information?”
“Not at all. Say something to me in Japanese.”
“Watashi o oidashite kurete arigato.”
“Meaning?”
“Thank you for asking me out. And you can say dou itashimashitei,which means you’re welcome.”
“Dou itashimashitei.”
Fen beamed. “It sounds so different to European languages. Reminds me of a time Mum and I went out and we spoke in a pretend language all morning. It was fun.”
Ripley’s mother didn’t havefunin her vocabulary.
“So Japan is on your wish list?” Ripleypressed his knee against Fen’s under the table and kept it there as he watched him.
“I’d love to go, but the cost…” Fen shrugged. “It’s not only the airfare, though I’d need to travel business class so I could lie down for some of the journey, but paying for hotels and going to visit different cities. It would be expensive. Still…one day, maybe.”
The wine arrived, Ripley tasted and approved it, and it was poured.
