The Daydreamer Detective Opens a Tea Shop

by S. J. Pajonas

  Yasahiro had tried to tell her I was his girlfriend, but she’d cut him off several times. Wow. She was manipulative even in these small ways.

  “I can tell from the look on your face, I’m correct,” Mom mumbled down at her vegetables.

  “What am I going to do?” I pleaded, hoping she had a plan. Mom was always better prepared than me.

  She dropped her vegetables into the pot, stirred, and faced me, taking off her apron.

  “You’re not going to do anything. Not right now.” She wiped off her hands and came to me, smoothing out her chin-length hair and smiling, reassuringly. “Right now, we’re going to concentrate on opening the tea shop and getting back on our feet. And you two will get away for the week to Kumamoto and won’t even have to deal with her. Trust me. Yasahiro won’t go back to Amanda. They’re done.”

  My shoulders slumped. “How can you know for sure, Mom? He told me they broke up because she cheated on him. Seems to me that this kind of thing happens between people all the time. Lots of people get back together after cheating.”

  Mom paused, pursing her lips, her eyes glancing side to side. She pulled away from me but grabbed her wide-brim hat.

  “Did he seem interested in her again?” she asked, settling the hat on her head.

  “No, he doesn’t.” Saying that out loud lifted a weight off my chest. “He would have to be an excellent actor to fake the disinterest he’s had. But what if he forgives her for what happened?”

  “He won’t.” She shook her head and waved at me. “He loves you, and he knows our family’s honor is at stake, as well as his own. Now, go get your shoes and meet me out back.”

  I drew in a sharp breath and closed my eyes. This would all be fine. Amanda wouldn’t be here forever, and I would continue to be supportive and strong for Yasahiro, like he was for me when I needed it this winter. Plus, Mom was on my side. I had to just grin and deal with it.

  I got into my shoes at the front of the house, stopped to scratch Mimoji-chan, Mom’s ginger cat, behind the ears and throw a toy mouse at him.

  Behind the house, Mom opened her temporary shed, a small enclosure we put up four weeks ago to house the gardening supplies until the barn was rebuilt.

  “I need your keen mind, Mei-chan,” she said, gesturing to the inside.

  I peeked in the door and saw nothing but the usual stuff, shovels, rakes, bags of seeds, fertilizers. All the things Mom relied on to get the season started. All the same as it had been that morning.

  I almost turned to her to shrug my shoulders when I looked the second time and saw the spaces.

  “Where’s the long-handled rake and the gas can?”

  “And the two dozen sweet potato slips.” On the floor near the door, we had been keeping sweet potato slips, seedlings we’d grow into full fields of sweet potatoes come autumn. I had grown many of them myself, and yes, several were missing.

  “I guess you didn’t take them, right?”

  Mom shook her head. “Do you think the workers took them?”

  I tried to imagine these trustworthy and hard-working men making off with Mom’s gardening supplies in the middle of the day when she wasn’t looking.

  “I don’t think so. Do you keep it locked?”

  “I hadn’t thought to until today. Who would steal my gardening supplies?”

  I stepped from the shade of the shed and peered out at the fields, one side newly turned and ready for planting, the other already green with early lettuces.

  On the far side of the acreage, a forest led off to the next town over. I turned and looked in the fields in the opposite direction too but saw nothing out of the ordinary anywhere. Out behind Akiko’s house on the other side of the road, dust billowed into the air as the late shift of workers dug out the foundation for the Midori Sankaku greenhouse. Soon a large two-story structure would rise from the land there. This part of town would never be the same.

  “Huh. Are you sure you didn’t misplace them?”

  “I’m sure,” she said, closing the door. “I’ll have to buy a lock for it on Monday.”

  A low purr filtered in from the road, and we walked around the house as the sound of crunching gravel came up the driveway. Yasahiro pulled into the circle drive and came to a stop in front of the house.

  Mom dipped her head, a wry smile lifting her lips. “I’ll be back inside.”

  Yasahiro opened his car door and leaned across the seats to grab a bag before exiting. My whole body squirmed in my skin. It had been so long since we fought, I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to do this. Sure, we often disagreed on things, but the last time I’d walked out on him was ages ago. Probably not since the first weeks we were dating.

  “Hey,” he said, approaching me. His eyes were dull behind his glasses, and his hair looked like he had spent the last three hours running his fingers through it. “I come with food, of course. Eel and rice, and chocolate cake.”

  My favorites, especially the cake.

  “I am so, so,…” He began, shaking his head, but I didn’t let it go any further.

  “It’s not your fault,” I said, reaching for the bag of food. He held on, though, and pulled me to him.

  “It is my fault. You know, when we broke up, that is when I broke up with Amanda, I told her it was over, and she asked me if there was anything she could do to make it up to me. And I stupidly said, I don’t know.” Instead of looking at me, he stared off toward the barn. If he couldn’t face me, then he really regretted his actions. “If I had just said then that we were over for good, she wouldn’t be here now. I should’ve known ‘I don’t know’ is not an answer for her.”

  How could I fault him for things that happened years ago? When I met him at the beginning of last October, he’d been single for over a year. He hadn’t seen her in a long time.

  “I don’t blame you.” I dropped my hands to my sides, letting go of the bag of food. “You two had been engaged. You were supposed to get married and be together forever. It’s hard to let go of forever. And I’ll understand if we’re over now.” My voice shook, but I was proud of myself for keeping the tears away. I laughed, maybe a little too ruefully. “I remember telling Mom in the beginning, when we first started dating, how I was ‘rebound material,’ and I didn’t stand a chance.”

  “Stop,” he demanded, the full force of the command hitting me upside the head. “I came out here today because I was certain you’d break up with me.”

  He set the bag down and sank to his knees. A blush hit my face, blinding fast, and I looked around to make sure no one was watching us. But besides the rabbits in the garden and Mom inside, we were alone. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

  “And if anyone deserved it, it would be me. I was the weak one who didn’t stand up to Amanda. I was the one who let this happen, and you have every right to break up with me.” He looked up at me, and the pain and anguish he felt was clear in the lines around his eyes. “I’m not breaking up with you. I would have to be the dumbest man alive to go back to a manipulative woman like her. She cheated on me. She stomped on my dreams of a family… She basically laughed at me and I let her. I won’t do that again.”

  I swallowed, my throat dry and scratchy. I continually underestimated Yasahiro. I didn’t know how long it took to know someone truly. A year, five years, ten? Some people knew their loved ones from the moment they met. Others were a mystery all the way to the grave. Yasahiro and I were somewhere in between.

  “Get up,” I croaked, tugging on his hand. “We shouldn’t be like this.” I wanted to hug him or hold him because he looked miserable. His face was the same pained and twisted grimace it had been during those days he sat by my side in the hospital while I recovered from smoke inhalation. But I needed to be clear before we moved forward.

  “How do you want to deal with her? Because we can’t just ignore her anymore, now that she’s here.”

  “Yes we can. Let’s ignore her. Let’s leave tomorrow for Kumamoto. I’ll change my phone number, and we’ll give
her the cold shoulder.”

  I raised my hand. “No. You and I, we can’t be together if she’s interfering. I won’t have it. It was one thing when she was a few continents away, and she didn’t want you back. Now? She’s here, she’s determined to get back together, and you two have unfinished business.”

  His face twisted even more. “I was hoping you’d forget about that.”

  I snapped my hands to my hips. “Yasahiro Suga, I’ve had just about enough of this! I’m glad you finally told me why you broke up but you have other secrets too.”

  His Adam’s Apple bounced in his throat at the sound of his full name.

  “We own an apartment together in Tokyo in Roppongi Hills.” His head dipped, shamed. “I haven’t been there in a year. It’s passive income, and I have an agency that takes care of it.”

  A gust of wind whipped up the driveway and curled around us. I was tired — tired of us always being just about there, just about perfect, just about settled. We were so close to having this whole relationship thing down to a science but something always got in the way. First it was Tama. Then it was Etsuko’s death and Yasahiro’s absence, then it was a doomed New Year’s vacation. We were finally doing well, finally seeing progress with us both working on the tea house, Sawayaka prospering, and my studio all set up.

  “I need to set some rules.” I bit my lip, horrified by the authoritative sound of my voice. I didn’t want to boss around Yasahiro. I had a feeling he had gotten enough of that from Amanda.

  “Whatever you want, Mei-chan.”

  I eyed him suspiciously for a moment, but his face was the picture of obedience.

  “We, you and me, need to cut ties with her. No joint ownership of anything. No communications past the cut off point. No ambivalence. Done. Over. This means meeting with her, telling her no to her face, showing her we’re together, selling the apartment, the whole thing. No halfway. We push back our trip to Tuesday, cancel the weekend in Beppu, and deal with this before we go.”

  He groaned. “I really don’t want to do that. We’ve had these plans for weeks! We can sell the apartment, sure. I would make more money if she sold me her half though.” I glared at him, and he raised his eyebrows at me. “Trust me. I’ve been using the cash to pay for the tea shop’s startup costs.”

  I sighed, once again caught without my own money.

  “But you’re right. If it gets rid of Amanda, it’ll be worth it.”

  “Good. And one more thing…” My voice trailed off as I built up strength to ask for the hardest thing. Tell me your secrets, Yasahiro. “We can’t go on with unspoken words between us.” There. I said it in the nicest way possible, letting him know I would tell him anything too. “If you have anything else you need to tell me, now’s the time to do it.”

  He closed his eyes and pulled me to his chest. “I broke up with Amanda because she was unfaithful in so many ways,” he mumbled into the top of my head, and my blood cooled. Maybe there was more than the cheating. “But that’s all in the past. Now I want us to move on.”

  “Okay, good.” I was willing to take that as an answer and close the book on that part of his life. “Let’s eat and we can go back to your place.”

  His body relaxed. “Yes. Yes, let’s do that. Michio-san has the kitchen for the night. I need to unplug and forget. We’ll figure the rest out this weekend.”

  Chapter Eight

  Yasahiro’s bedroom was cool and dark, the fan in the corner swirling soft breezes over us as we laid in bed and talked. I really enjoyed this part of our relationship. When it was just us, after a long day, and I could rest my hands on him without anyone watching, I was at my most comfortable.

  “Mmmm,” he breathed out, pulling me to him and hugging me. “It’s past one in the morning. We should go to sleep.”

  Sleep was always the last thing I wanted to do. Since we had accomplished all the other bedroom activities for the evening, this meant there was time for chatting before sleep. I still feared the night sometimes. Nighttime meant sleep, which meant dreaming, which meant nightmares of fire and death. I would much rather daydream. Daydreams I could control. I could put myself in cheerful situations or dream I was successful and content. That was much better than my ex-boyfriend coming to kill me.

  But a girl’s gotta rest. And maybe I’d be lucky enough to have happy dreams.

  “You’re right. We have plenty to do tomorrow and Sunday.” We had spent the evening together, eating, talking, and watching TV — easy and with no talk of Amanda. We both knew what had to be done so there was no need to rehash the day. We had to concentrate on getting through to Monday.

  “Have I told you lately how proud I am of you?” Yasahiro yawned and sank deeper into the bed. He tended to become more emotional when he was tired, which was why I never minded staying up late with him.

  “You have, thanks.” I smiled and yawned too, ready to fall asleep and dream of better days to come at Oshabe-cha. Maybe if I concentrated on something good before I fell asleep, I’d avoid the nightmares. Tomorrow, Yasahiro, Murata-san, my favorite elderly client, and I would spend the day at the shop finishing up the last bit of my to-do list.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and blew it out.

  Bzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt. Bzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt.

  I sat up in bed with a sharp intake of air, the room pitch dark. My phone was buzzing on the nightstand, and Yasahiro’s phone was buzzing on his. I smacked my hand around, trying to find the light while Yasahiro sat up and groaned.

  It was after three in the morning, and I felt like I had just closed my eyes. Shielding my face from the glare of the bedside lamp, I fumbled with my phone until it unlocked. The name on the screen registered in my slow brain just before I said hello.

  “I’m outside. Haven’t you heard me ringing your doorbell?” Goro’s voice was so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

  “What did you say?” Yasahiro, his voice slow with sleep, asked into his phone.

  “Hold on a second,” I responded to Goro, and even though he continued to talk, I pulled the phone away from my head and rested it on my lap while I tried to wake up.

  Yasahiro made affirmative noises to whomever called him, lots of “uh-huh” and “I see” until, “… but that makes no sense. I’ve barely spoken to her in two years.”

  “Mei-chan!” Goro screamed from my phone. “Open the door and let me in!”

  “Okay fine!” I yelled back at him, annoyed at these people interrupting our sleep. Hadn’t it already been a crazy enough day?

  I grabbed my cardigan sweater from the chair in the bedroom, wrapped it around me, and went to the door to buzz Goro in. Blinking lights outside indicated his patrol car was downstairs. What was happening?

  “You and Yasa-kun need to get dressed and come with me out to the hospital,” Goro demanded with no preamble as he came inside. Usually, he was good for some small talk, but this appeared to be an emergency.

  “What’s going on? Is Kumi okay? Your mother?” My voice shook as my body throttled to an awake state and started the adrenaline pumps.

  “It’s not Kumi —”

  “It’s Amanda,” Yasahiro said, emerging from the bedroom while buttoning up his jeans.

  “What? Why?” I stammered over my words, rubbing my eyes. My body was a jumble of mixed up signals.

  “Just…” Yasahiro laid his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “Get dressed and come with me. I’m not facing her alone again.”

  “We’ll discuss this in the car,” Goro said, shooing me away from the door.

  Since it was an emergency, I got dressed quickly. I threw on a pair of jeans and my favorite sweater, then I covered my hair with a clean handkerchief. No time to look presentable.

  Goro loaded us into the car and sped away to the hospital, turning off the police lights since the roads were clear.

  “I got the call about a half an hour ago. Amanda was attacked on the street just three blocks from your apartment.” Goro look
ed at Yasahiro, and he and I looked at each other. What was Amanda doing in Chikata? She was staying in Tokyo at their apartment in Roppongi Hills, and she had gone to some party that evening — a party Amanda wanted Yasahiro to be there for, but he blew her off because they weren’t dating anymore.

  “How badly was she hurt?” he asked. He sounded concerned, but I didn’t take it to mean anything.

  “She was hit over the head, probably a concussion. She has multiple cuts and bruises on one side of her body, but I believe that was from falling to the ground.” Goro paused a moment as he turned the patrol car lights on through a red light and proceeded down the main county road towards the hospital. When I left the hospital in the fall after being rescued from the fire, I had hoped I would never go back. It loomed up in the distance, perched on the side of the mountain overlooking our town and the next one over. It was on the same road that led to our local shrine.

  “I helped load her into the ambulance myself, and I sent Kayo-san with her to the hospital so I could come get you.”

  Kayo, Goro’s partner, was the right person to send with Amanda. She would keep Amanda in line until Goro showed up. I had worked with her on the previous murder investigation and liked her. Now we saw each other in town and always took the time to talk. A good person.

  “Why would you come get me?” Yasahiro asked the same question I wanted to ask.

  “You were listed as her emergency contact.” Goro tried not to smile, he tried not to laugh, but I saw the chagrined look on his face, and I knew he was dying inside. There were a million reasons Goro became a policeman but his top three were because he loved drama, he loved solving mysteries, and he lived for the moment when he could say “I told you so.”

  In any other circumstance, I would’ve been laughing, too, but I had just resigned myself to dealing with Amanda on Monday. I was going to give myself the whole weekend to prepare for her, and this wasn’t how I wanted to spend my Friday night… errr, Saturday morning.

  “I’m sure she has some assistant or press secretary or a manager who would be a better emergency contact than him.” I hated pointing out the obvious. Yasahiro and Amanda had broken up over two years ago. It made little sense for her to use him as her emergency contact.