I looked back at Sako. “Did Kenji come to bed?”
Sako clasped his hands in front of him. “No.”
“No?” I echoed, trying to sound casual, but it came out too soft.
Sako hesitated just a moment too long. “The Dragon was. . .busy.”
“Busy?”
“Yes.”
That was it. Justyes. But something in the way he said it made me pause. There were layers in that word—busy. It felt deliberate. Chosen with care. Too neutral to be innocent.
What the fuck did I sleep through?
Sako cleared his throat and adjusted the cuff of his white linen sleeve. “Your friends have been standing at the door since this morning. I tried to encourage them to return later, but they were quite adamant. It is now the afternoon and Mr. Zo, in particular, has threatened the staff—multiple times.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Zothreatenedyour staff?”
“He said he would start flashing people and causing chaos.”
That sounded odd being that Zo was the biggest scaredy cat I knew. I couldn’t see him threatening the staff of a Yakuza boss, unless. . .
I smirked.
Hiroko. She got him to say that, Interesting. Why does she want me awake right now?
Sako spoke, “Mr. Zo claims it’s an emergency and that it involved 'Royal black girl priorities.'”
“Wow.” I blinked. “That sounds like Zo. Alright. You can tell them to come in. Sorry that he bothered you. I’ll talk to him. That won’t be happening again.”
“Thank you, Nyomi.” Sako bowed and rushed off.
Sighing, I swung my legs off the bed, letting my toes sink into the soft tatami mat beneath me. The weight of the dream still lingered, thick in my ribs. But now something else layered over it—disorientation.
Kenji hadn’t come to bed.
I had fallen asleep alone.
And I’d woken up many hours later. . . still alone.
Not even a crease in the pillow.
No scent.
No warmth.
Just the silence of someone who never showed up. And it was that silence that made the room feel too large, too beautiful, too curated. Like a showroom I’d been placed in, not a space built for intimacy.
Like the dream had followed me here after all.
Fuck. . .
That version of my mother, all dressed up and still alone, waiting for a man who didn’t come home. It hit me harder now since Kenji was not in the bed.
You’re not your mother. Things are different. Don’t go there.
I breathed in and out.
