city.
It was chilly on the bike, but the excitement and adrenaline kept me warm. Plus we weren’t driving very far since the restaurant was only a couple of miles off the strip. Tokyo 33 had a big white sign with a red sun behind it, like a big Japanese flag displayed in the name of the restaurant. They had valet parking up front but Vic drove past them to the alley on the side, where two other bikes were parked.
He removed his helmet and asked, “First time on a bike?” His voice was deep and rumbled like the motorcycle engine.
“No,” I said while removing mine. My hair crackled with static electricity. “First time on a bike with a motor, though. Feels like cheating.”
Vic laughed at the joke, which I had recycled from Danny’s comment last night. He brushed the crazy strands of my hair back with his hand, then winked.
“Come on. I’m starving.”
There were two parts of the restaurant: an area with tables and chairs, where you could order off a menu. Against the side of the room was a sushi bar with a conveyor belt, where customers grabbed whatever they wanted as it passed by. Vic led me to two open barstools at the sushi bar, then placed our motorcycle helmets underneath the chairs.
He immediately grabbed the first plate that went by on the conveyor belt. “Spicy tuna rolls. My favorite.”
“Perfect timing,” I said.
Vic opened his chopsticks and skillfully plucked a roll off the plate and popped it in his mouth. He closed his eyes and made a happy sound.
“Been thinking about sushi all day. You need help with your chopsticks?”
I fumbled with them in my fingers. “Was I that obvious?”
“Here. Like this.” He positioned the chopsticks in my fingers. “There you go.”
“It’s my first time eating sushi,” I said. “When I get Chinese food I usually use a fork!”
“You’re in for a treat. Taste one of these bad boys.”
I grabbed a tuna roll the way he had shown me. It felt like it would fall off the sticks at any moment so I quickly tossed it in my mouth.
“Mmm, this is good!”
We finished the tuna rolls, then demolished a plate of California rolls—which were filled with crab meat and avocado, I learned. I glanced at my phone while we waited for a third plate of food to roll by.
“I’m not taking you away from work, am I?” he asked. “Didn’t think about it until now, but I guess this is prime time for a sports gambler.”
“Only a little bit,” I said. “I actually like the distraction.”
He poked me in the cheek with his chopsticks. “Doesn’t bother me if you check the scores. How’s the night looking?”
I glanced at the scores on my phone. “Not bad, actually. I’m three-for-three on the afternoon games I picked. The night games are too early to tell.”
“I’ve got just the thing.” Vic waved at the sushi chef on the other side of the conveyor belt. “Ehomaki?”
The chef grinned and nodded. A few moments later he returned with a plate with two long, cylindrical sushi rolls on it. They looked like a pair of Swiss Miss cake rolls. The chef bowed and gestured at the wall to his right, but I didn’t see anything there.
“This is Ehomaki, which means Lucky Direction,” Vic explained.
“Sounds perfect.” I grabbed a knife and reached for one. Before I could, Vic’s hand shot out like a viper and snatched my wrist. He waved a finger in front of my face.
“There are three rules to eating Ehomaki,” he explained. “You can’t cut it into smaller pieces. You have to eat it whole, one bite at a time.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“You also can’t speak while eating it. If you say anything before it’s done, you get bad luck.”
“Naturally. What’s the third rule?”
“While eating it, you have to face the lucky direction of the year. That’s why the chef pointed over there—the lucky direction this year is north-west.”
“So that’s how it got its name.”
“Ready?” Vic asked.
He picked up the Ehomaki roll in both hands, like someone playing a sushi flute. He turned away from me, toward the lucky direction. Then he began eating it like a burrito.
I followed suit and bit into the roll. It was much harder to eat than the smaller sushi pieces, because I had to bite through the seaweed exterior. But the contents were delicious.
I opened my mouth to ask what was in it, but the chef quickly held out a hand to remind me there was no speaking.
It was