Tailored for Trouble (Happy Pants #1) - Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Page 0,49
of raw fish and some very elaborately carved vegetables, made to look like roses.
Okomoto-san bowed. “Your fugu, Mr. Wade.”
Bennett bowed his head appreciatively. “Thank you. It looks delicious.”
Taylor waited for the man to leave. “You’re seriously going to eat that?”
Bennett pulled a few bills—exact change, no tip—from his wallet and placed them on the tray. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Taylor shook her head and watched him pluck a pale white piece of meat from the small rectangular plate.
“You only live once.” He popped it in his mouth and chewed. “Mmmm…”
Taylor winced in revulsion and maybe a bit of fear. Yummy. I ate a grenade, which may or may not detonate inside me, but hey…what doesn’t kill ya…
After he finished, they both got up from the table, and Taylor followed Bennett’s lead, making a little bow in the direction of the waiter behind the counter.
He bowed back. “See you next time, Mr. Wade.”
Thankfully Bennett didn’t start sprinting again once they were back outside, but he still walked a little fast, like something had set him off.
“So you’re really leaving tomorrow?” he asked briskly.
“I think it’s best.”
“I’m disappointed.” He looked ahead down the street and not at her.
You’ll be a thousand times more disappointed if you find out what I’d planned to do to you. And no way was she about to tell him. Not after she saw how he’d chewed that woman out earlier. For what? She still didn’t know. And ultimately it didn’t matter. It’s time to grow the hell up and move on.
“We both know you don’t really need me.” She glanced over at Bennett, but he wasn’t there. She stopped and gasped, realizing he was flat on his back on the sidewalk. “Oh, shit!” She ran to him. “Bennett!!” Ohmygod. Ohmygod. He was out cold.
She scurried back to the restaurant to find Oko…darn it. What was his name? She could never remember unusual last names. As he appeared from behind the counter, she skipped the name and just yelled for someone to call an ambulance, then rushed back to Bennett.
She hovered her ear over his chest and listened. “He’s still breathing,” she said to the waiter, who’d run out to see what had happened. She was about to feel relieved when she noticed a dark red stain spreading on the light gray sidewalk. Blood! Her knees went all woozy, and she nearly fainted. The sight of blood had always done that to her. Even a paper cut on her finger made her heart race in a bad way.
Pull it together, Tay, she whispered to herself as she removed her sweater, bunching it up and pressing it gently to the back of his head.
He gave a little groan.
“Bennett? Can you hear me?”
He groaned again.
“Just hang on, okay? The ambulance is on its way.”
“He can’t be dead,” Bennett mumbled. “Wayan? Wayan?”
Wayan? It was the same word he’d said when he’d been asleep on the plane. So Wayan was…a person? Who’d died? And clearly Bennett wasn’t lucid, which could only mean one thing…“You just had to eat the goddamned fugu, didn’t you, tough guy? And now you’re going to die! For what? Huh? You pigheaded, macho—”
“He no die of fugu,” said Oko-I-so-can’t-remember-his-name-because-I’m-freaking-the-hell-out, as he hovered next to her.
“How can you be so sure?” Taylor asked.
The man’s mouth bent to one side. “I did not give Wade-san puffer fish. I never give him real fugu.”
Taylor shook her head. “Well, thank God you didn’t. He’d probably be dead by now.”
“Oh, this is why. Mr. Wade is very fine man,” he said. “Help my business when things not so great. I would never live with myself if anything happened to him just for silly fish.”
Taylor blinked and smiled at the man. He obviously cared about Bennett. “You’re a very good friend.”
He bowed his head as Taylor continued applying pressure, wondering what the hell was the matter with Bennett if it wasn’t fish-poisoning. She felt truly worried. What if he died or something? Then they’d never get to fight again and she really happened to enjoy their fighting.
Five minutes later, the ambulance pulled up. Taylor moved out of the way, and the paramedics in their white hardhats and jumpsuits went to work. They tried to ask her a few questions, but Taylor shook her head. “I don’t speak Japanese.” She looked up at Oko…I’ll just call him Oko. “Can you tell them we were walking, and he fell over? I don’t know what happened.”
He repeated what she said to the paramedics who nodded and carefully loaded Bennett