Antonio’s rendition of the story replayed in my head and I felt torn. My intuition was still going haywire, but I couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t just the adrenaline rush from the argument. I crossed the room and had AJ’s attention when I sat beside him on the bed. His eyes shifted back to staring at the wall in front of us, thinking back over our conversation, I guessed. When I took his hand in mine, he sighed heavily, squeezing my fingers in his.
There were so many thoughts racing through my head. Did he tell me the truth? Even if he had, was it the whole truth? Was there more to this girl? How dangerous were these people Mr. Hahn owed money? Would this ‘Mr. Tanaka’ step up to help before things got too out of control? I couldn’t focus on any particular way to feel so I chose numbness. I was glad that AJ decided to finally tell me his family’s secret, but…..I admittedly felt skeptical that he’d revealed all of his own.
*****
Two weeks later…
At around midnight, I was sitting on my nightstand staring out the window at the falling snow. My mind was still reeling from my conversation with AJ days ago. Thinking his name made me turn to where he slept soundly in my bed. After our emotions had died down some, we talked about everything more calmly. He explained further that his intentions were to maintain as much normalcy in our relationship as possible. However, what he didn’t realize until we talked is that his attempt to shield me from reality was doing more harm than good. The ‘normal’ that he sought was beginning to crumble because of the lies and deceit. Thankfully, we’d slowly but surely started coming back from it.
With each passing day, we both became more anxious about Mr. Tanaka making a decision. AJ tried to hide his feelings, but wasn’t doing as good a job of faking it now that I knew what was going on. In the meantime, we exchanged room keys just in case. I wanted him to be able to get in my dorm if he ever needed to hideout here, and I now had his just in case he ever got into any trouble.
I turned my gaze toward the window again and stared out across the courtyard. The parking lot was full and most of the cars were covered in a fresh blanket of snow…except for one. The headlights of the vehicle were illuminating the trees off in the distance for a few seconds and then everything went dark. I continued to watch as a tall thin man dressed in all black emerged from the car with his cell pressed to his ear. On cue, AJ’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He awoke from a dead-sleep and didn’t even seem to notice me sitting there on the nightstand when he answered. Through the darkness, I watched his expression transition.
“Gimme a sec,” was all he said before hanging up. My eyes shifted back to the man outside who’d shoved his phone back inside the pocket of his knee-length black coat. The bed creaked when AJ pushed the covers back and climbed out of bed. He left on his black shorts and just grabbed his hoodie and gym shoes before grabbing the door knob.
“Wait! Who was that? Where’re you going?”
Groggy, he wiped his eyes. “Louis has something for me from my father. I won’t know what it is until I go down there and talk to him.”
Louis. I hated him the most out of all of Mr. Hahn’s henchmen, for lack of a better term. He was the newest addition to the fleet. I’d become accustomed to him and Vick lurking around corners and following AJ and I everywhere we went. Still, I didn’t like this one.
I nodded and let AJ go without questioning him further.
From my window, I watched him meet the Louis down the walkway. AJ stood there with his arms folded, listening to whatever message Mr. Hahn had passed along. About thirty seconds later, Louis handed AJ a large envelope and they exchanged a few more words. After that, Louis returned to the black vehicle and drove off into the night and AJ came back inside. I could hear his heavy footsteps approaching.
“Are you okay?” I asked when he burst back into my room carrying the same large envelope I’d seen Louis give him a short while ago. Without any explanation, AJ walked in, slamming the door violently behind him.
“What’s going on?”