Page 31 of Tumbling Hearts

“I get that.” Gene nods, taking another puff from his cigarette and flicking the end on an ashtray on the floor. “Well, we’ll see. I can’t promise you I’ll visit Japan, but I’ll think about it. I’ve never been out of the country before.”

“You’d really do that for me?” Toshiko’s cheeks flush red.

Would I? Gene’s never been the one to attach himself to a chick before, especially not to the point where he’d travel to the other side of the world to see her. But he has been somewhat attached to Toshiko this entire last month, hasn’t he? He wouldn’t say he’s in love with her, but more like he enjoys her presence and appreciates her company. Maybe that’s more like the definition of a ‘friend’, but it’s hard to consider her ‘just a friend’ when they have been sleeping in the same bed every night, having sex occasionally. He likes the partnership they’ve formed, and, unlike Ray, she’s a woman. If Gene wants to continue seeing her…

Why not make it official?

“Yeah, why not?” Gene smiles. “If that’s the case… will you go steady with me?”

“Go steady?” Toshiko tilts her head. “I’ve heard that phrase before. Remind me what it means.”

“Oh, right,” Gene chuckles. “It means, will you be my girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” She covers her mouth with one hand. “Saa, I haven’t been in a relationship in over a year. But I like the sound of that… being your girlfriend.”

“If I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never had a girlfriend before.”

She lowers her hand to her lap. “Really? And you’re so handsome!”

“I mean, I’m not a virgin, even before I met you.” He chuckles again. “I just have never been in a committed relationship.”

“That makes sense. I’ve heard of how rockstars like you meet girls all the time. But are you sure about this? We might have to go periods of time without seeing each other for a while, with you touring and my own career. Even so, if we are in a relationship, you would want to be… How do I say this? Not seeing other people? Even while we’re away? I don’t want to be in a relationship otherwise. But I do like you a lot, Gene. So if you want to, I’d want to as well.”

With the thought of ‘seeing other people’, of course his mind jumps straight to Ray. While he wants to hold out hope that they could be intimate again, he also can’t count on it. Ray is in a relationship with Carol. Gene doesn’t want to turn Toshiko down on the off chance he might have sex with Ray again, because it might not even happen. Besides, it was his idea anyway to ask her out. He should stick to it.

“Yeah, we can work it out. I wasn’t seeing anyone other than you, anyway.” Unless you count Ray. “So it’d be just continuing what we have going on here, being together. And y’know, I don’t really get around with girls to begin with. I’m not like Ray, who’s a total womanizer.”

“Womanizer…?” Toshiko raises her brows. “Oh, are you telling me that Ray has cheated on his girlfriend, Carol?”

Yes. He has, with me. “N-no, not Carol. But he did cheat on his last girlfriend, Harriet.”

“Oh dear. Well, at least it seems like he’s been better with Carol. She’s a lovely girl.”

Gene chuckles at that. “I suppose so. But yeah, we’re really doing this? You wanna make us official?”

Toshiko nods, setting her hand on Gene’s knee. “Yes. I’d love to be your girlfriend.”

It’s later in the day, and Gene is sitting with Toshiko on the couch in the living room, relaxing and watching the television. It’s official now: he and Toshiko are in a relationship. Not just a friendly-and-sometimes-we-have-sex relationship, but a real, true, boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. It sends his mind in a whirl every time he thinks about it, and he wishes he brought his pipe downstairs so he could continue toking on it. When he’d asked her, he wasn’t thinking of how having a girlfriend would affect him. But now, after a few hours have passed, it’s really starting to hit him like a ton of bricks.

I actually have a girlfriend now.

After declaring each other official, Gene and Toshiko didn’t ravish each other or immediately start tearing their clothes off. No, he went straight for his pipe. And then they came downstairs. Maybe that’s an odd way to start a relationship, but what does he know? He’s never had a girlfriend before. Toshiko didn’t really seem bothered, either. They’ll probably have sex later before they go to bed, so he shouldn’t let such a thought worry him.

But even so, he’s been paranoid. Maybe the weed is making that feeling worse, but weed also calms him, so it can’t be that. No, his thoughts keep circling around Ray. What will Ray think when he finds out?

Well, maybe I shouldn’t dwell on it too much. He has a girlfriend, too. So all in all it should be fine. It’s not like I’m leaving the band.

It’s not like we’d stop being friends.

And speak of the devil—Ray himself enters the living room from the hall, appearing to have just finished up in the bathroom. Gene turns his head toward him, and instead of Ray going back upstairs to do whatever he was doing, he walks up to the side of the couch and approaches Gene.

“Oh, hey Ray,” Gene says. “What’s up?”

“Um… You busy with anything?” Ray puts his hands behind his back.

“No, other than watching TV. But I can just stop, if you need me to.”

“Alright. So, um… did you want to… jam with me? We haven’t written anything new in a while.”