Page 27 of F Buddy

She shrugged and smiled a little. “It’s fine. I came to say goodbye, after all, so I was expecting this.”

I leaned down to pull her into another hug. When I pulled away from her, I pressed a quick kiss to her lips. Then I turned and walked away.

The next fourteen hours passed in a blur. I didn’t sleep on the plane, and yet it felt like time was moving too fast. The next thing I was conscious of was arriving and making it to my hotel room, alone after I ignored Abigail’s attempts to get me to join her for a quick tour around the city.

I dropped my stuff just inside the door, then moved to the bed and fell backward onto it.

Loneliness wasn’t something I was familiar with. Usually, when I was alone, I didn’t mind it this badly. But right then, I felt lonely lying on a bed in a hotel room by myself, halfway across the globe and away from home.

Chapter 11

Scarlett

I sat on the couch in my living room. My laptop sat on my table, and I was waiting. I’d been waiting for the past few minutes, and I was thinking of relocating to somewhere more comfortable. When nothing happened on the screen, I picked up my laptop and moved to the bedroom. I set the device on the bed and exchanged the clothes I’d gone to work in for a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. Then, I sat on the bed and waited.

Still nothing.

I groaned and fell back into my pillows. It had been four weeks since Zach left for Tokyo. I wasn’t proud to say it, but I was starting to become a mess.

Hell, I’d been a mess from the beginning.

With the time difference between New York and Tokyo, we hardly had the time to chat. We sent texts, but we couldn’t do it consistently, so it got annoying. One of us could be awake while the other was sleeping, or was too busy. I’d stayed up one weekend just to talk to him way past my bedtime, but I couldn’t exactly do that on weekdays.

Still, it was growing exhausting for me, mentally more than anything.

But before I could think too much more about it, my computer pinged to let me know I had a new notification. I sat up quickly and pulled it onto my lap, and sure enough, it was the call I’d been waiting for. I settled comfortably back against the pillows and accepted the call.

Then he was there, sitting in bed just like I was, leaning against the headboard with pillows stacked behind him, and a lamp on a nightstand at his side. He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help smiling back. The picture quality wasn’t the best, but at least I got to see him. A mere phone call wouldn’t have been enough for me.

“Hey, there, beautiful,” he murmured.

I giggled as I settled further in my pillows. “You know, that’s going to get old one day, Zach.”

He smirked. “You’re smiling right now, so I’m gonna assume that that day isn’t today.” Then his smirk gentled into a smile. “How’ve you been, Scarlett?”

I chewed on my bottom lip as I considered how to answer. There were plenty of things I could have said. For one, I missed him a lot more than I probably should. We hadn't exactly clarified whatever it was between us, and I never broached it. But then, neither did he. And still, we kept making an effort to keep in close contact. I could only hope that it was a good thing we kept trying to stay in touch.

“Just busy with work,” was what I finally settled on. “Nothing fascinating happening. But tell me some more about you. Have you gone exploring yet?”

He grinned. “Tokyo is wonderful, amazing actually. I haven’t had a lot of time by myself to get around much, but I’ve gone out to eat in some places, restaurants, and everything is… interesting.”

He had a skeptical look on his face when he said that, so I wasn’t sure what it meant. I knew he disliked sushi, but I also knew it was nowhere near the only dish served in Japan. Hearing that he’d gone out to eat, even with a dislike for sushi, made me a little proud of him.

“Why don’t you tell me about where you went?” I suggested.

“Well, I didn’t go by myself. Abigail went with me. I think part of why she got to come with me out of all the possible candidates might be because she knows Japanese. She speaks and reads it a little, so I had her order for me the entire time.”

I went still, my back straightening slightly. “Oh?” I said quietly.

Zach didn’t seem to realize there was something wrong. “Yeah. I swear Abigail is so awesome. When we first came I was just glad there was someone from back home that I knew, but I’m glad she had to be the one I moved to a country halfway across the world with…”

I listened to him go on and on about Abigail. I’d only met the woman for a few minutes, that day at the airport when I went to say goodbye to him. I had nothing against her, if anything I’d thought she was interesting. But this was growing into a reoccurring problem, and I didn’t know how Zach was missing it.

“You and Abigail spend a lot of time together, don’t you?” I muttered when there was a lag in the conversation.

Zach nodded. “Well, yeah. She’s the one person I’m closest to here, after all. Not a lot of people in Tokyo speak English, and I don’t think I have the patience to learn Japanese. I had some luck at the office, there are a few people I can talk to without needing a translation, but Abigail’s always there for when I do.”

I felt my eye twitch a little. I wondered if he knew he was just making things worse, saying what he was.