The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin Page 0,5
the room.
Her hostess drew a few more of the sliding doors open and then led them up another wooden staircase to a series of rooms all divided by the same paper and wooden doors. Gabe carried Fiona’s case for her and they finally came to a small square room containing a futon on the floor. Haruka raised the bamboo blinds to reveal a balcony that ran the full length of the back of the house, overlooking a very pretty zen-style garden.
‘Oh, that’s lovely,’ exclaimed Fiona, clasping her hands together in delight and earning a warm smile from the Japanese woman.
‘I’ll show you later. Would you like something to drink?’
‘I can’t stay,’ said Gabe hurriedly. ‘I need to get back.’ He turned to Fiona. ‘For the first couple of days, I thought I could show you around Tokyo. Acclimatise yourself and then you can start thinking about the focus for your exhibition.’
Fiona nodded, pleased he knew that much. It was already causing her a fair amount of anxiety. Although she’d been drawn to the competition by the idea of a trip to Japan, the real prize was the guaranteed exhibition at the Japan Centre in Kensington in London two weeks after she returned home. It was a fantastic opportunity to gain some recognition and perhaps sell some work. She’d been looking forward to working with Yukata Araki, renowned for his beautiful landscapes, and hoping to learn a lot from him as well as seek his advice on a theme for the exhibition.
But now she was stuck with Gabe. She wasn’t sure he would be the right person to help her. He specialised in portraits, for a start.
‘Acclimatisation sounds good,’ she murmured, the punch-drunk reeling sensation of jet lag starting to make her feel dizzy. She swayed on the spot and Gabe caught her arm. Her eyes immediately shot to his and her breath caught in her chest, almost imagining a quick flare of something before he hurriedly dropped her arm again. Stiffening, she forced herself to focus. Gabe had nothing to fear from her. She’d made a complete dick of herself with him before with fanciful imaginings. She wasn’t going to do it again, no matter how flipping attractive she found him.
Chapter 2
‘Why? Why? Why?’ he asked himself in the mirror as he ran the razor blade over his foaming chin. Going into Tokyo was a pain in the arse at the best of times. Having to take some wide-eyed girl, who really was wide-eyed and wobbly legged – she reminded him of Bambi with those long limbs – was doubly irritating.
Professor Kobashi’s pleas hadn’t moved him to volunteer to take over as mentor; no, it had been Haruka’s distraught tears over her husband’s potential humiliation that the plans he’d so carefully laid had collapsed. The Japanese didn’t do failure and it would bring shame on the professor if the trip had to be cancelled and Gabe was all too aware of the debt he owed Haruka. Although now Gabe was regretting it. He glanced at his watch; he’d deliberately timed things to avoid travelling during the hideous rush hour that was unique to Tokyo and its eight million commuters. This deliberate ploy, thankfully, also reduced the number of babysitting hours duty required him to fulfil.
With an exaggerated sigh, he took one last look in the mirror and leaned closer to inspect the smooth skin, making sure he’d not missed a spot, although he couldn’t have said why he cared. Normally he avoided shaving as often as possible; it was a mindless chore that bored the pants off him. A bit like most things these days. He had a couple of commissions lined up for the next month for Japanese magazines – film stars doing the usual promotional rounds being poked and prodded by their publicists for the right responses but not much else – unless he got a last minute call which did happen more often than not.
He grabbed his phone from the side of the washbasin and read for the third time the text from Yumi.
Meiko is away again. No one else understands me here. I’m so lonely. Come take me out to dinner. Y
On the Shinkansen, the bullet train, the trip to Osaka was only an hour and if he didn’t have this babysitting job, he’d have gone like a shot but sadly he had obligations, even though they were weighty and unwelcome. Haruka would definitely disapprove of any dereliction of duty.