*****
One thing my father left out of our conversation was that he’d lied to Mr. Tanaka, leading him to believe that renovations in the guesthouse rendered it unlivable. He was doing everything in his power to push this deal into fruition and needed Mr. Tanaka to be accessible for frequent schmoozing, which would be harder if they weren’t here in the main house. As a result, two of our three extra bedrooms were now occupied, meaning I had to be mindful of the volume on my stereo.
The first thing I did when I came in from the garage was shower. After that, I tried to stay in my room and away from everyone, but my mother wouldn’t let that go on for long. The soft knock at the door prompted me to shove my phone under the pillow. Per my request, Sam had just sent a few dirty pictures and I didn’t have time to close them out before my mother entered my room.
She smiled, unaware. “Sorry to interrupt. Were you busy?”
Trying to look as natural as possible, I shook my head, ridding my mind of the explicit images I’d just spent the last five minutes staring at. “Nope. What’s up?”
Her expression was thoughtful when she gently closed the door behind her and perched on the side of my bed. “How was Samantha?” She asked.
All the wrong answers came to mind – the dirty ones, the ones no mother would ever want to hear. “Good. She’s…good.”
There was definitely something on her mind. “Will you be joining everyone downstairs? I’m sure the girls would like to have someone their own age to interact with.”
I frowned. “They’re their own age, Mom. They don’t need me down there to entertain them.” My gaze shifted to the clock on the nightstand. “Besides, it’s almost midnight anyway. Won’t you all be headed to bed soon?”
“Your father and Mr. Tanaka are in the study talking business. I’m trying to keep the rest of the family occupied until they finish,” she said with a yawn before patting my arm. “I suppose I can handle it, though, if you’re doing something more important. I just figured, since you’re home…and since you owe me for defiling your body with that tattoo….”
I sighed inwardly but smiled when she did after giving me the side-eye. “Fine. Just give me a sec; I’ll be down.”
Satisfied with having guilted me into meeting her demands, my mother left me in peace. After retrieving my phone from beneath the pillow, I opened the most recent message from Sam, hoping that it was another photo, but it wasn’t.
“I sent urs, now where’s mine?”
“What u mean?” I asked just to get under her skin.
“Don’t play with me…lemme see it,” she demanded.
I laughed at her loaded threat and snapped her a pic that I then promptly deleted.
Seconds later my phone sounded off again. “I’m making this my new screensaver.”
I laughed and shot her back a quick “Like hell you are,” before shoving the phone in my pocket, and heading downstairs to play nice for the sake of ending this fiasco that had taken over my life.
There was incessant giggling from over near the fireplace where Reina and Kira sat at the edge of the rug chatting about God knows what. From the armchair beside the window, my mother sat holding a polite conversation with Mrs. Tanaka. She paused to shoot me an encouraging nod in the twins’ direction. I smiled back because their mother was watching, but I wasn’t happy about spending the rest of my evening down here – especially when the conversation between me and Sam had taken such an interesting turn.
I walked toward the fireplace and stood beside Reina and Kira, not caring whether they noticed me or not. The alert from Sam’s text message got my attention and theirs. I looked down to see a snapshot of Sam flashing a cheesy grin with the caption “I demand you to entertain me!” beneath it – a sign of how bored she must’ve been.