Page 88 of Blossoms of the Heart
I pouted. “He should have been calling to ask if you needed anything.”
“He’ll catch on eventually. Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine.” It was best to say that.
“You sure. It was the third call that got me suspicious. I know my nephew can be hard work at times.”
I bit the inside of my lip to try to keep from laughing out loud.
“Yes. That is true.”
“Phoebe… it’s me. Remember we talk like friends. You remember when you came and asked me if a college boy could ever be interested in a high school girl?”
God, how the hell did he remember that? I was sixteen.
“That was for a friend, she needed advice and I couldn’t give it to her.” My cheeks colored fiercely at the memory. That was the summer when I decided that I was going to tell Tai I liked him.
It didn’t happen because I chickened out. My mom was a real pain that summer. Everywhere I looked she was there, like she knew what I was up to. I couldn’t talk to dad about boys and Mitsuke always gave me the worst ideas so I went to Akito.
“Really?” He raised his thick brows. “Are you still going to keep playing that game. We aren’t getting any younger Phoebe.”
I pulled in a breath. This was hard.
“Okay, I confess I was the friend and Tai was the college boy.”
“I know. I also know, or have some idea of what happened when you last saw him. On your eighteenth birthday.”
Now I was completely embarrassed. “Oh God.”
He held up his hands and laughed. “I don’t know specifics but I can do the math.”
“How’d you know? Did he tell you? My mom was…” I didn’t know how much to say because my mom had been completely vile to Tai.
Vile was the best word that I could have thought of. Truly, and utterly vile.
If I’d been fortunate enough to have a daughter I didn’t think I would have behaved that way had I caught her kissing a boy.
Sure I would have freaked out but the things she said to him were so awful.
She told him he was a meaningless, worthless lowlife who had no business with her daughter.Tattooed freak.
And he stood there and took it. He never answered her. Never said anything.
That was it.
Of course she ended her tirade by telling him to stay away from me.
“Your mom freaked out?” he offered.
I widened my eyes wondering what he knew. “She flipped out. She wasn’t just angry, she was enraged.”
“Yeah. It was her who told me what happened. She wanted me to have strong words with Tai and sort him out.”
“Did you? I was as much to blame. In fact it was more my fault.”
He chuckled. “Phoebe, that all happened several moons ago. No one cares whose fault it was now.” His smile widened. “But to answer your question, no. I didn’t speak to him about anything. I wanted to talk but stopped myself when I saw how heartbroken he was. He didn’t need me to add to his despair.”
Something flickered in my heart. I’d always believed that was the end of the story. Never knowing what happened next, I just assumed Tai must have chalked the whole thing up to something that hardly mattered.
