by Aja James
Transplant science, in some ways, was a lot more advanced than genetic engineering. The earliest skin grafts occurred in India around 600 B.C., and there were tales that ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese healers had performed other major organ transplants before that. You could always test and learn on things you could see and touch, things that were tangible.
But to do this at a molecular level when you couldn’t watch all the interactions and reactions amongst complex microscopic materials, it was a lot more trial and error and figuring out how to even induce the reactions you wanted, as well as capture the process and results step by step. While humans dabbled in genetic modification as far back as 12,000 B.C. with the domestication of animals, the first direct transfer of DNA from one organism to another was only accomplished in 1972.
Ava was certainly a novice in transplant science. She also got queasy at the sight of blood, which was why she decided not to go into residency as a surgeon or any other practicing physician after getting her MD. She pursued dual PhDs instead. There were small mammals in her research, true, but she usually didn’t have to obtain the samples from them herself. Med and grad students did that for her.
“I hope the patients have not experienced ill effects from the incompatibility?” Ava inquired, concerned.
She did not know the details of what the other sub team did to experiment with transplant science using Evergreen, but she knew there were human volunteers involved, those with terminal illnesses who had run out of options for treatment and were willing to take untried risks.
“They are just fine,” Sōsuke assured her. “At the first sign of any issues, we just reverse or abandon the procedure. The patients are simply back where they started before the surgery. Unfortunately.”
Yes, back to where they started meant that they still had a short lease on life that was quickly running out of time.
“Ava,” Sōsuke said and waited for her to meet his eyes. “I’d like to take you out to dinner tonight. You’ve been working without rest and probably haven’t had any time to see Tokyo. Do you have plans?”
Ava pressed her phone to bring up the time. Wow, was it after seven already? She’d forgotten to eat lunch again.
Her stomach chose that moment to rumble most sonorously to remind her of its existence and her neglect.
Sōsuke smiled while she winced with embarrassment.
“That would be really nice,” she said gratefully, “I don’t have plans.”
Sōsuke didn’t try to seek out the other members of the team to invite them along, and Ava didn’t think to ask. As they walked a short distance to a nearby restaurant famous for its udon noodles, Ava got the sense that she might have agreed to go on a date.
Sōsuke was everything gentlemanly, courteous and polite, but he touched her quite often—pulling her out of the way of a puddle, guiding her around a low-hanging branch, ushering her through the restaurant door with a hand at the small of her back. Maybe it was because he’d lived for many years in the U.S., having been educated there since high school, because Ava didn’t get the sense that Japanese men were particularly touchy-feely. They seemed to need a lot of personal space.
He never touched her so casually. Only her face. While devouring her with his mouth.
Ava mentally shook her head, trying to dislodge thoughts of Ryu Takamura. She was with a very attractive, very nice man who seemed to like her as well, who fit into her world perfectly, to whom she’d grown close over the past week, who she could see herself with…
Except she couldn’t.
All thoughts came back to a particular male who had the ability to make her climax with just his kisses. On her mouth.
“What are you thinking about, Ava?” her companion for the evening inquired, drawing her attention back to him.
“You look flushed and flustered.”
Pointing that out only made her flush even more.
“Nothing important,” she said, grabbed her water and downed it in one continuous gulp.
“Is it hot in here?”
Sōsuke smiled. “But you are not thinking about me.” His statement sounded wry, with just a hint of disappointment.
Ava sighed. “I’m sorry, my mind wandered where it shouldn’t. Let’s order. I’m starving.”
He ordered for both of them in the end, because the menu was entirely in Japanese without any pictures for Ava to choose from. He assured her she would like what he chose for her, and that they could always switch if she might like his dish better.
As they ate, their conversation was light and pleasant, interspersed with chuckles and laughter. Ava realized toward the end of the meal, that she was really enjoying herself. Sōsuke seemed so normal, so her “type,” even if he wasn’t her fantasy.
But then, that’s why there was reality and it was separate from fantasy, right? Reality was for waking hours and fantasy was for dreams. She determinedly made herself prolong their dinner because what she really wanted to do was rush home to sleep so that she could throw herself wholeheartedly into her dreams.
She dreamt of him every night.
Sōsuke was gesturing animatedly as he spoke on a topic he was obviously passionate about, and Ava nodded and smiled at appropriate moments even though she’d lost track of the conversation several minutes ago.
Just as she was about to give up the fight on drawing out the date, she noticed the trickle of blood that slowly rolled from one of Sōsuke’s nostrils, then the other.
“You’re bleeding,” she said as she reached over the table to press her clean napkin to his nose. “It doesn’t seem to be stopping.”
He looked down at the stained napkin and touched under his nose, coming away with dark blood on his fingers.
“How untimely,” he said, unconcerned, as if he had nosebleeds randomly and often. “I’m afraid I won’t look nearly as dashing with cotton wads or tissue paper sticking out of my nostrils.”
“We better get some ice to put on it. That might help stop—”
“No,” he said firmly, “I just have to wait it out. Nothing will slow it down or stop it once it starts. Would you mind if we sit here a little longer? It’s hard to see where I’m going if I walk with my nostrils pointing to the sky.”
“Of course,” Ava replied, though she frowned at the napkin that was getting quite soaked in blood. She’d never seen a nosebleed last so long or was so severe.
She was feeling a little lightheaded from the sight.
Sōsuke leisurely changed her napkin for his own when hers became too saturated. The waitress came by to provide some tissues, and those got used up too.
Finally, after several minutes of continuous and relatively heavy bleeding, it stopped. Sōsuke excused himself to clean up in the men’s room, unconcerned and unhurried.
Ava pushed her dinner plate away, not wanting to see or smell any remnants of food while she struggled with her queasiness. She focused on her friend instead.
That nosebleed was not normal. The color of the blood was not normal. Ava tried to think of reasons why he would have this symptom.
“Sorry about that,” Sōsuke said as he came back from the restroom and sat down again. He paid the bill Ava hadn’t even noticed was there and admonished her protests to split the check.
“Shall we head out?” he suggested with a bright smile, as if the last ten minutes had not happened, though his face seemed paler than before.
“I will walk you back to your hotel.”
“That’s not necessary,” Ava protested, thinking he was being overly protective. “It’s right around the corner, and the streets are well lit.”
Sōsuke tilted his head a bit and regarded her amusedly.
“I was hoping to accompany you because it would please me to do so.”
“Oh.”
She gave him a tentative smile and got up with his help, her hand in his. He promptly wrapped her fingers in the crook of his arm as they strolled together out of the restaurant.
Despite the storm a few
days ago, some cherry trees still retained their flowers, and late bloomers were now showing off their own pink blossoms.
Sōsuke noticed her admiring the rows of trees that lined the street they walked on and said, “They are more beautiful for their brevity, aren’t they? The cherry blossoms. You want time to slow down or stop so that you can have them longer.”
Ava nodded. “But you always have next year to look forward to. There is always spring after winter.”
“Is there?”
Ava looked up at her friend and caught a look of sadness and longing on his face before he smiled that careless smile again.
“Have you seen a doctor about your nosebleeds, Sōsuke?” Ava inquired, not wanting to pry but too concerned to hold back the question. “Do you often have them? Does it always take so long to staunch the flow when you bleed?”
“I am a doctor, if you haven’t noticed,” he said, not really answering her question. “And this is really nothing. I’m just sorry you had to witness the mess. It wasn’t a great way to impress a lady on a first date, was it?”
Ava wanted to pursue the topic further but decided not to. It was clear her friend would prefer not to.
When they arrived back at her hotel, she said goodbye to him in the spacious lobby, and he did not press to escort her further.
After they parted ways, Ava walked to the elevators that led to her wing of the building.
But was stopped by a familiar voice.
“You should be careful of him.”
Ava turned around to face the speaker: Nanao Ise, one of the other project team members. The ice beauty.
“Excuse me?”
Ava heard perfectly well what she said but didn’t understand why Nanao was here in her hotel giving her this warning.
“Sōsuke is not what he seems,” the other woman continued. “Don’t trust him.”
“I don’t—”
“This is your only warning, Dr. Monroe. This is all I can do for you.”
Without waiting for Ava to react, having said apparently all she had come to say, Nanao Ise walked away in long-legged strides, out of the hotel and into the black night.
*** *** *** ***
Ava was snuggled cozily in bed, hugging her borrowed robe like a security blanket when her phone went off on the bedside table.
She groaned inwardly and hoped the call wouldn’t be long. She was really looking forward to entering her vivid dream world, perhaps the only place she would ever see Ryu Takamura again.
“Hello?” she said groggily, not even looking at the caller ID.
“Ava, are you okay? You forgot our call, I was worried,” her mother said on the other line.
“Sorry mom, I went out for dinner with a friend and lost track of time.”
A pause. Then, “The one with the sexy voice?”
If only! “No ma, a colleague of mine.”
“Ava Alessandra Monroe, are you playing the field?” A strong whiff of disapproval came through the speaker.
“Mom, playing the field requires me to actually be dating, and more than one person. Since I’m dating neither, it’s safe to say I’m still a good girl.”
“No need to get pissy.”
Arrrggghhhh! Her mother could drive her up the wall sometimes. Ava remained silent and hoped for the subject to change.
But her mom was right, she didn’t need to snap like that and with that tone of voice.
She was tired and cranky and confused. Most of all, she was unreasonably upset that he hadn’t sought her out again in the past few days. Almost a hundred hours! And then she was upset with herself for being upset, because why should she have the expectation of seeing him in the first place? He had made it clear with his parting words last time that any expectation on her part would be wishful thinking.
“Why aren’t you dating though?” her mom persisted. So much for having the subject dropped. “I thought you liked him? This Ryu… Taka… something.”
Ava silently counted to ten.
“Wait, I have it written down. Ryu Takamura. That’s right. I Googled him the other day.”
“And?” Ava couldn’t hold back on her curiosity despite not wanting to pursue this topic of conversation. Her mom was the Queen of Googling.
“Nothing. Lots of dead guys by that name. And not terribly attractive either, though of course looks aren’t everything.”
Well, that was definitely not how Ava would describe Ryu—neither dead nor unattractive.
“I’m not making him up,” she told her mom preemptively.
When Ava was twenty-six and suffering from a long relationship drought, she had created an imaginary boyfriend that she just couldn’t bring home for Christmas, to avoid her mother’s persistent… encouragement… in that direction.
But Ava had never been good at lying, and her mother was an expert interrogator, and her details got mixed up, her stories got crossed, so it soon became apparent that her beau was entirely fictional.
A long pause on the other line. “No, I think you’re not. You sounded so… in love when you spoke of him last time.”
Ava sighed. Had she? Her mother could always see into the core of her, often knowing how she felt before she knew it herself.
“I don’t even know him, mom,” she said. “I’ve only been with him three times.”
“Been with—?!”
“Not like that!” Ava interjected before her mother could go on a rampage about sex before marriage. She was a thirty-year-old virgin as far as Ana Lucia Monroe was concerned.
“I mean, I’ve only met him three times, and we didn’t really get to talk at all about him.”
“Did you hog the airtime, Ava?” her mother asked, deploring, “did you go on about your research?”
She said “research” like it was a four-letter word.
“You know how men either get intimidated by that or turned off. Honey, you’ve gotta wait until you’ve hooked them to ease into the nitty gritty of your work.”
Yeah, Ava had tried that once before.
“Hooked” a nice, successful man by pretending to be less than what she was and more interested in him than she was. She carried on the charade for a couple of months, even dressing differently, putting on more makeup, pretending not to have her degrees in front of his friends who all had stay-at-home or socialite girlfriends and wives… It dissolved shortly thereafter. She didn’t like the stress of pretending, and she didn’t like who she was becoming.
“Ryu likes hearing about my work,” she said, and realized that it was true. It was one of the reasons she liked him so much, animal attraction aside.
“I don’t mean the way that sounded,” her mother added, “you know I am so proud of the work you do, baby girl. It’s just that I wish it wasn’t the only love in your life. Not that you’re not complete without a man, but that I know your happiness will multiply exponentially if you found someone to love and who loved you back with all his heart. And if you didn’t spend all your time with test tubes and petri dishes.”
Ava sighed long and deep. “I know, mom.”
“And of course, I want grand-babies.”
Ava smiled. “Of course.”
Her parents had always liked children. They had Ava when they were already close to forty; she was a miracle baby. They had showered all the love and attention in their great big hearts on her, but didn’t spoil her by any means, bringing her up with deeply ingrained values and strong sense of responsibility and right and wrong. To Ava at least, a child couldn’t ask for better parents.
But they wished they could have given her brothers and sisters, said by many as the best present any parent could give their child.
“Lots and lots,” her mother emphasized, still talking about babies.
Ava thought of the process of making grand-babies—lots and lots—with Ryu, and decided she wouldn’t mind at all.
“As soon as I see him again, I’ll bring that up,” Ava teased.
“Well, don’t scare the poor man!�
�� her mother exclaimed. “Not every guy is like your daddy who’s a natural born father and loves being crawled on by children, the more the merrier.”
Ava sobered. “How is he?”
Her mother sighed. “No worse, thank heavens. But you know he doesn’t like to complain, so I don’t always know what’s wrong with him. I have to make educated guesses and watch him like a hawk.”
“We’re working on some breakthroughs in my research project, mom,” Ava confided. “I’m always thinking of papa in my work. I know we’ll find the cure one day. Or at least develop effective treatments.”
“That means the world to him, Ava,” she said. “But you mean a whole lot more. So you take care of yourself, you hear? Don’t eat any more instant noodles and the like.”
How did she know? All moms the world over must be omniscient.
“Yes, mother.”
“And bring your man with you when you come home.”
“Mom, I don’t even know—”
“You never do unless you ask.”
Ava closed her eyes and smiled.
Her mom always encouraged her to ask for things. Tell the truth. Ask permission. Unless you have to do something you know is right and can’t wait for permission. Then ask for forgiveness. But always be true to yourself and be honest with your feelings. No point beating around the bush when life is short.
“I have a good feeling about this, Ava,” her mother added. “I have a sixth sense about these things.”
“Yes, mom,” Ava said meekly. “I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetie. Don’t forget to call tomorrow night.”
“I won’t.”
After she ended the call, Ava curled into her comforter and buried her nose in Ryu Takamura’s robe. She could barely pick up his scent, but some traces still lingered. Especially around the collar area. She inhaled deeply and sighed.
It was true.
As impossible as it seemed, and despite absolutely no hope of any future together if his parting words were any indication, after three encounters and two kisses—mind-blowing though they were—she was in trouble.