“Are you sick?” Mr. Nakamura said. “Because you should still eat.”
“It’s not… that, either.”
I couldn’t quite meet his eyes, so I kept staring at the flower-patterned tie instead. He could pull it off, honestly. Maybe he’d picked it out himself after all.
Mr. Nakamura ducked his head to catch my eyes, and the look on his face changed from curiosity to something a lot sadder.
“A boy?” he tried.
That made me look up at him. Was I that obvious?
“Well, if he rejected you, he’s not worth worrying about. You deserve someone with better taste.”
I blinked at him. “He, umm. It’s not. I…”
How did I explain this? I could barely explain it to myself.
“I don’t deserve him,” I said, because that was the point, wasn’t it? I didn’t deserve him. That was why I’d walked away.
Mr. Nakamura raised an eyebrow. “First of all, that’s not how love works,” he said with confidence I hadn’t expected from him on the subject. “Secondly, impossible. You’re a good boy with a good heart, anyone worth having would know they were lucky to have you. Now tell me the truth.”
The truth.
Right.
I sighed.
“I met him on Instagram,” I said. “That’s, umm—“
“I’m old, not dead,” Mr. Nakamura interrupted. “And I run a chain of restaurants. I know what Instagram is.”
I smiled wryly. Of course he did.
“He fosters kittens,” I explained. “We kind of… I dunno. The first time I worked up the courage to message him we ended up talking non-stop for hours and then we just… kept doing that. I never wanted tostoptalking to him. But I never thought it’d go beyond that, I had no idea where he lived. And then I went to visit Dawn and he was right there. And the whole time I never wanted to be away from him. I still don’t. And I don’t want to be away from Dawn and the twins, either.”
“Twins?” Mr. Nakamura asked. So there weresomethings he didn’t know.
“Yeah, I was surprised too.” I smiled wryly, dipping my spoon into my soup. My stomach knotted up at the thought of swallowing anything, so I just swirled it around a little and then let go again. “They’re perfect. Two little girls,” I added, taking out my phone to show him the picture.
“They get their looks from their mother,” Mr. Nakamura said with a genuine smile, just like the one I was pretty sure I smiled every time I looked at them. “And their uncle.”
“I’ll have to apologize to them when they’re old enough to understand,” I said, flicking to the next photo. It was one of Xander, nuzzling Nebula’s head.
“Is that him?” Mr. Nakamura asked, nodding to the phone.
“Uh, yeah.” I turned it around to show it to him again. “That’s Xander.”
“Handsome man,” Mr. Nakamura said. “And kind to animals. You could do a lot worse.”
“I couldn’t do better,” I said, turning my phone over on the table so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. “He’s perfect.”
“Perfect?” Mr. Nakamura raised an eyebrow.
“He’s perfect,” I repeated. “He’s kind and funny and he’s a lot smarter than he thinks. He cares so much about so many things. He makes the best cinnamon rolls in the whole world and his smile makes my stomach flip and I’ve never been more comfortable with anyone else in my entire life,” I said. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love him. I didn’t know I could.”
My face was hot by the time I finished speaking, and I was staring down at my soup again, not daring to meet Mr. Nakamura’s eyes. I shouldn’t have been talking like this to a client.
Not even one who was more an adoptive uncle than a client.
