Typing this under the table and I’m a bit tipsy so sorry if there are any weird autocorrects
Watching you in your element is the hottest thing in the world
I’m doing my best to pay attention to Sadie and Chess and Julia but my god Satoshi
The way you move around the bar
No wasted motion
Your hands
The way you manage to be in like 7 places at once
The way you do so many things at the same time and make it look effortless
You’re standing at our table right now pouring us chablis and telling us about it and I haven’t taken in a word you’re saying because I’m so busy listening to you
I have to keep texting you because if I look at you then everyone in this bar is going to know how badly I want to tear your clothes off
SATOSHI
Say you’re going to the bathroom
FIONA
I can’t
Sadie will know IMMEDIATELY if we both disappear at the same time
SATOSHI
Please
Two minutes
I won’t even mess up your lipstick
I could really use a hug
FEBRUARY
Chapter FifteenFiona
Tasting today: NV 15yr sercial madeira.
Brace yourself. This is a lot.
My parents descended on me the day before Sadie and Jonah’s wedding, turning up on my doorstep unforgivably early. ‘What are you doing here?’ I asked, rubbing my eyes, head woolly with the hint of a hangover. ‘I thought you were staying in a hotel.’
‘Of course we are,’ my dad boomed, at a volume that made me wince. ‘But your mother wanted to see the grandkids.’
‘They’re not here.’ My parents were lucky I was, to be honest. If there had been a way for me to linger at Tsundoku so I could spend the night with Satoshi that wouldn’t have made Sadie, Chess and Julia very suspicious, I would have done it in a heartbeat. ‘They spent the night with Jonah. He’ll drop them off later.’
Dad ignored me. ‘And I wanted to see what I’ve been paying for.’
I let out a long breath, feeling exhaustedly ancient and like a teenager again all at once. My brothers might sometimes accidentally make me feel like Fiona Fisher, Family Fuckup, but that was nothing compared to my dad, who did it on purpose and all the time.
‘Hi, honey.’ Mum leaned over to kiss my cheek as Dad pushed past me into the house. ‘How are you?’
