After
Chapter 2
“Gyubei stop eating my pants!” The short, dark haired girl screamed at the animated dairy cow.
“Moooooooooo!” The cow replied before it proceeded to continue munching on the agitated girl’s trousers.
“Hahahahahaha,” Tomo laughed hysterically at the plasma tv screen from her position on the couch. “That was great,” she said clearing a tear from her eye. “This is the best show ever. They should show it all day!” She then took the spoon she had been gripping and resumed shoveling soy milk and whole grain cereal into her mouth from the bowl she held, her eyes completely hypnotized by the cartoon.
Tomo then heard the sound of the front door being unlocked from the outside followed by the creaking sound it made when it was pushed open. “Welcome home baby!” She exclaimed exaggeratedly to greet Kaori.
When Tomo turned her head to actually look at her, however, she could see that Kaori herself was not in such a joyous mood. The short woman in the gray suit coat and matching blouse had black smeared under her eyes from running mascara, the cause of which were tears that still continued to trickle down from her eyes and down her cheeks.
Tomo dropped her bowl of cereal on the coffee table splashing milk on it, ran up to her, and gripped her arms. “What’s wrong Kaori?”
She didn’t respond, other than to avert Tomo’s eye contact and look down.
Tomo took her fingers and gently lifted up her chin to regain contact with her brown eyes. “Hey, it’s ok. Whatever it is, I don’t care, you can tell me. I’m here now, you can trust me,” she told her. “Come on lets sit down.” Tomo guided her to the couch by the arm and sat her down. “I’ll be back in a second.” She ran to the kitchen looked around until she found a clean dish rag. She ran half of it under warm water and returned to the couch. She took the cloth and gently wiped Kaori’s cheeks and under her eyes cleaning the black stains and the tears. She then padded her face dry with the other said and sat down close to Kaori. “Now can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“He… hee,” Kaori mumbled out and stopped.
“He did what?” Tomo asked looking at her concerned.
“He touched me again,” Kaori blurted out quickly and looked back down. Even saying it was more humiliating than she could stand.
“Who?” Tomo asked, already beginning to get angry at the he in question.
“Ichiro.”
“Who is this son of a bitch?”
“He’s my boss.”
“How long has been going on?”
“Months. I tell him to stop, but he never listens to me.”
“Don’t they have ways of reporting that? Get his ass fired. Or better yet, call the cops and get his ass thrown in jail.”
“He’s really popular with upper management and all the men and women at the office. I’m afraid if I complain and get him in trouble, it would be bad for my career there.”
“How do you know that will happen? You shouldn’t put up with that asshole just because he’s your boss.”
“Other than him, I just love my job. I worked really hard to get into that company. It was my dream to work there. I couldn’t believe they even hired me. I don’t want to lose it all now.”
“Well if you won’t do anything about it, I’ll have to take care of him myself,” Tomo said as she pounded her fist into her hand.
“Oh, Tomo, please don’t! I don’t know what Ichiro would do to you. I think he could be dangerous. I couldn’t stand it if you got hurt by him.”
“I can’t stand seeing you get hurt by him either, Kaori. If you don’t do anything about it, than I will.”
“Ok, ok,” she begged. “I’ll do something about it.”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” Kaori said weakly.
“You promise?”
“Yeah. I will.”
“Good. I don’t want to see you like this again. And I want to be the only person who gets to touch you. You don’t mind if I touch you right?”
Kaori managed a smile at her, “No, I like you.”
“Good, because I sure like being close to you.” Tomo said as she scooted closer and wrapped her arms around the shorter woman. Kaori responded by lowering her head and resting it her chest. “It’ll be all right, I promise,” Tomo said as she wiped away some of her own tears that were forming in the corner of her eyes. Tomo just held her, and Kaori remained in her position feeding off of Tomo’s warmth for quite some time.
Eventually, Tomo asked, “Do you feel any better?”
“Yeah, I do. I used to come home from work and cry to myself. I’m so glad you’re here, Tomo. In fact, you’re only thing I could think about at work. I couldn’t wait until I got home to see you again,” Kaori explained cheering up a little.
“Does this mean I can stay?”
“Can I ask you why you didn’t just go home to your parents after they changed the lock to your apartment?”
“Hmmmm…. Well, I haven’t been there for years, so the idea just didn’t occur to me.”
“Why?” Kaori asked shocked. “What happened between you and your parents?”
“They threw me out of the house after I came out. It’s funny though. They didn’t even seem to care that much when I came back home after I dropped out of college after only one semester. It was almost like it was no big deal at all. But apparently their daughter liking girls was just too much for them.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“No, its ok. I’ve been over it for years.”
“So you haven’t talked to them all this time?”
“Nope.”
“Haven’t you thought about talking to them again, maybe you could patch things up?”
“I did for a while, but they never contacted me again after that, so I assumed they just didn’t care anymore. Maybe I will talk to them again one day, but I don’t want to get too worked up about it.”
“I still haven’t told my mom yet. I don’t know if I want to now after hearing how your parents reacted.”
“No, you should. My parents were just jerks. I don’t know how much they ever really cared, but I remember your mom being really nice.”
“She is nice, and she was a great mom. I love her a lot. But what if she still doesn’t understand?”
“You’ll never be sure unless you try.”
“You might be right, but I don’t think I’m ready yet.”
“Well if you keep pushing it off like this, it may never happen. Maybe I shouldn’t have told my parents then when they could still kick me out, but at least now I can be myself.”
“Well, if you’re going to be living here, I guess she may end up finding out either way.”
Tomo lit up brighter than the sun. “Does that mean I can stay?”
“But if you stay here, I want you to try and get a job. I don’t want you just sitting around watching anime all day,” she said glancing at the tv and the coffee table covered with spilt milk and bran flakes.
“Ok, for my new job I’ll be your house-wife.”
“Hmmmm…,” Kaori put her hand on her chin. “Do you cook?”
“Does instant stuff count? My ramen noodles are world famous.”
Kaori just ignored that answer. “Do you clean?”
“Of course I do. I’m like a world class maid, like from those anime except with bigger boobs.”
Kaori looked around at all the random articles of clothing and empty food containers strewn about across the room and quirked an eye brow at her. “You call this clean?”
“Ummm… Yes.”
Kaori just gave her a blank stare.
“Ok, ok, I’ll look for a job, but that means I get to stay right?”
“Yes. I’d really like it if you would.”
“Yay!” Tomo jumped from her spot on the couch and landed on Kaori pinning her down. They looked into each other’s eyes and felt each other’s breath for a moment, before their lips met, slid into each other, and they both enjoyed a long, sensual kiss.
After a long while, they pulled their lips apart and came up for air. “Wow, a hot, new girlfriend and a new place!”
“It’s just your lucky day, I guess,” Kaori said smiling.
“Oh, I want to call Yomi and tell her the good news.”
Tomo went over to the phone which sat on a table to the side of the couch and dialed in a series of digits. She sat listening to the receiver for a moment and then dialed in some more. When a pre-recorded voice asked her to give her name after the beep, she shouted into the phone, “Tomo Takino, Wildcat High School Graduate!”
“You’re not calling her collect are you?” Kaori inquired.
“Yeah, but don’t worry. Yomi doesn’t care. She thinks it’s hilarious.”
After a while, Tomo heard a familiar and annoyed dead-pan voice at the other end of the line, “Hello, Tomo.”
“Guess what?”
“What,” Yomi asked sarcastically mocking excitement.
“I got a new girlfriend!”
“I feel sorry for her.”
“Ah, come on. I know you’re just saying that to hide your immense jealousy.”
“Oh yes, Tomo. I’m sooooo jealous that I’m going to buy a one way ticket to Japan, and abandon my husband and children to elope with you right this minute.”
“I’m waiting.” There was silence for an extended length of time. “I’m still waiting.” There was even more silence. “What’s wrong Yomi? Are you too fat now to make it this far?”
“What about your new girlfriend,” Yomi muttered about ready to snap.
“Well not only is she a new girlfriend, but she’s a live-in girlfriend!”
“And by live-in girlfriend, you mean you’re the live-in girlfriend,” Yomi instantly deduced.
“No! Are you deaf? I said I have a new live-in girlfriend.”
“Fine. Then where are you living right now?”
“At my new live-in girlfriend’s apartment.”
“Then how are you not the live-in girlfriend?” Tomo could almost sense the vein on Yomi’s head pounding over the phone.
“It just so happens that I just moved in to live-in with my new live-in girl friend. Pretty strange coincidence, huh?”
“Yeah, amazing.”
“But forget about that. That’s not the awesome part. It’s someone from our old school.”
“Really,” Yomi asked now genuinely interested.
“Yes! You won’t believe who it is! I want you to try and guess.”
“Ok…,” Yomi thought for a moment. “Is it Chiyo-chan?”
“Ewwww, no! That’s just sick. Try again.”
“Ok, how about Osaka?”
“Ummmm… no. That would just be weird.”
“Miss Yukari?”
“No, but I did have this dream about her once. She had me do this extra credit assignment where she leaned over her desk and told me to lick her as…”
“It’s Kaorin! Right,” Yomi shouted over the phone to cut her off.
“Wow, you’re good. How did you know?”
“Just a good guess. Is she there now?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“Sure.” Tomo reached out with the receiver towards Kaori. “Yomi wants to talk to you.”
“Hi, Yomi,” Kaori said timidly into the phone.
“Hi, Kaorin.”
“I’m really sorry for calling you collect.”
“That’s not your fault, I don’t mind,” Yomi lied. “I’m just glad to talk to you again. It’s been a really long time.”
“It has, since graduation I think.”
“How come I didn’t see you at the class reunion?”
“I was just really busy that week.”
“That’s too bad. Everyone there missed you.”
“I wish I could’ve made it,” Kaori said regretfully.
“So where are you working now?”
“I work at the Daitokuji Financial Group’s corporate headquarters.”
“Wow, I’m impressed. That’s a really prestigious firm. I tried applying there before I moved to the US and they rejected my application.”
“Thank you. I still can’t believe I’m working there myself.”
The two continued their friendly chatting from opposite sides of the globe. Eventually, the conversation turned to the conspicuous subject Tomo.
“Isn’t if funny how Tomo is exactly like she was in high school?” Kaori asked.
“I used to think it was immaturity, but now I’m certain there’s something wrong with her brain.” Kaori laughed loudly at that.
Tomo listened to the conversation from the side-lines as Kaori’s laughter got increasingly louder
“And I’m sure you’re familiar with her infamous snoring by now.”
Kaori giggled loudly. “She sounds like a polar bear!”
“Hey you’re not talking about me, are you,” Tomo asked.
Yomi continued, “And what about the way she chews her food?”
“Just like a cow eating grass. I didn’t want to say anything, but my god is it funny.”
“What is she saying about me?” Tomo pulled on Kaori’s shoulder. “Come on tell me, pleaaaase.” She just ignored her and kept talking.
The two kept making fun of Tomo until eventually Kaori’s conscience got the better of her. “Maybe I should go. I don’t want to leave you with such a horrendous phone bill. Are you sure I can’t pay it?”
“No, it’s all right. It wouldn’t be the first time. You can pay me back by taking good care of Tomo, ok?”
“Ok.”
“Make sure she behaves and doesn’t mooch off of you too much.”
“Sure.”
“And most importantly make sure she doesn’t choke to death on her food or wander head first into moving traffic.”
Kaori laughed again. “Ok. I’ll do that.”
“Bye, Kaorin. Don’t be a stranger.”
“Ok. You too, Yomi. I really enjoyed talking to you. Bye.” Kaori hung up the phone.
“I can’t believe you, talking about me behind my back. What kind of live-in girlfriend are you?”
Kaori pulled down the bottom of her eye-lid stuck her tongue out at her.
“Hmph! I should make you sleep on the couch tonight.” Tomo put her chin up and looked away from her, feigning anger. However, in reality she was just really glad to see Kaori in a much happier mood compared to the miserable state she had found her in earlier.
To Be Continued