Love at Fifth Sight
Part 4-2
A few weeks after they had lunch together, Ami found herself sitting between Mina and Serena again, this time at Rei’s bridal shower. It was three weeks before the wedding. Rei was surrounded by several of her more zealous girl friends from work and college, although Ami was close at hand and Kira was chatting with Eileen Coruni at the adjacent table.
Ami was completely exhausted, having come from a thirty-hour shift with only ten hours to spare before her next shift at the hospital. She had spent five of those sleeping, and three of those helping Mina and Serena set up the bridal shower. The work she had put in today, assembling the gifts, dainty favors for the guests, and candles and floral arrangements on the table, went a little way towards assuaging her guilt at not having more of a hand in the wedding preparations.
Rei always brushed it off, saying how much she appreciated what Ami was doing and she knew Ami was incredibly busy with her residency. Anyway, Ami reminded herself, Mina not only had more free time on her hands, but she was also much better at orchestrating social events than she was. The shower was beautiful and had come together without a hitch, and sensible Rei was even tearing slightly.
“What I don’t understand is what you guys keep fighting about,” Mina said in an undertone. She smiled gaily and complimented the current gift-giver on her choice of a delicate porcelain tea set.
“Mina, not at the shower, please!” Ami hissed, pasting a smile on her face as Rei glanced over at them.
For once, Serena said, “She can’t possibly hear us from here.”
Ami sighed. “Don’t we have anything to do? Look, Mina, she’s opening your present.”
“Come on, tell us what you got her,” Serena urged, never one to be patient.
“You’ll see in a minute,” Ami reasoned as Rei’s perfect fingernails undid the tape at the corners.
Serena complained, “But she’s being so slow about it.”
“Let the bride enjoy her day,” Mina said, waving her hand lazily. “I got her lingerie that’s sure to drive Jaden insane.”
True to her word, Rei pulled something black and lacy out of the box and blushed as all the women surrounding her giggled and cheered. “Gee, thanks, Mina,” she said dryly.
“No problem! I’m sure you’ll put it to good use, but just this once, don’t share the details with me.” As Rei turned to the next present, Mina smiled in satisfaction and continued prodding Ami.
“Come on, Ames. I really don’t get it. It’s so rare that it’s the guy who wants to get married while the girl is dragging her heels. If you don’t like him, you wouldn’t have agreed to his proposal.”
Serena smiled. “It was a pretty romantic proposal.”
Mina demanded the details, even though she had heard the story before about how Taiki had proposed on the day of Ami’s graduation from medical school.
“It is sweet,” Mina said, “and you guys do seem to make a nice couple. All studious and serious and everything, and he’s very attentive.”
Ami smiled at her description. Mina had been surprised when her matchmaking skills hadn’t been required to find Ami a boyfriend, and while she had never been exactly keen on Taiki, she was always a good friend to Ami. If Ami wanted the guy, Mina would do everything possible on her part to make it work.
“How did the two of you meet again?”
Ami laughed and protested, “It’s Rei’s day to shine, we should be talking about how she met Jaden!”
Serena complied willingly with her suggestion and began relating the familiar story Rei and Ami had told her of how they had met at the beach for the first time over a decade ago and found each other again when Jaden was a sophomore in college and Rei a freshman.
Ami smiled as the others listened, enthralled, and Rei added her input when appropriate – or when she felt Serena was over embellishing the romantic aspects of the tale. Even as she appeared to be listening and enjoying the account, her mind drifted back to her college days, when she met her own fiancé.
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In her first year of college, shaky from the collapse of her friendship with Zach, she had been dazzled by what college had to offer. She loved the sprawling stone buildings and exploring Boston with her roommate, Serena, and the equally bubbly friends Serena seemed to amass without difficulty. However, she soon she buckled down and pursued her studies in earnest, spending hours on end in the library or the lab where she worked in preparation for medical school.
She had taken the writing seminar as part of her graduation requirements and not paid much attention to the brown-haired boy with the sharp, clear eyes and eloquent arguments.
One late night in the library, however, she was dozing off over her biology textbook when he tapped her shoulder. She jolted awake and looked into his eyes, which were an intriguing shade of lavender.
“I’m sorry to have disturbed you,” he said smoothly, “but you dropped this before.”
He held out one of the loose sheets of paper that had fallen from her notebook onto the carpet, a detailed diagram of the endocrine system.
“Oh, I didn’t even realize I had lost it. Thank you so much for returning it to me,” Ami replied sincerely, adjusting her thin-framed spectacles.
Taiki looked at her a moment, taking in her slender figure, the rosy flush in her cheeks, and the books and notebooks piled around her, before he smiled back. “My pleasure. I’m Taiki. Taiki Kou.”
“I’m Ami Mizuno-Anderson. It’s a mouthful, I know,” she said ruefully, having discovered this quickly when she had needed to make dozens of introductions in a day during orientation. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. Do you mind if I take this seat?” He indicated the empty seat across from her. “I’m afraid that all the other tables on this floor are full.”
“Please go ahead,” she said, clearing her books away.
“I don’t want to put you to any trouble, and I don’t need much space.” Trying to stop her from rearranging her books, which seemed likely to fall and crush them imminently, Taiki said, “But we’ve met before, you know.”
Ami glanced up curiously . “Have we?”
He smiled gently. “Oh yes. Last semester, we took a writing seminar with Professor Johnson. Tuesdays and Thursdays, nine o’clock to ten-thirty.”
“Oh, of course! I’m so sorry I didn’t remember.”
“It’s not a problem. I hardly remembered myself… with so many people here, it’s hard to keep track of everyone. Easy to get lost in the crowd.”
“Yes.” Her expression was sad for a moment. She was very close to her roommate, but she still felt lonely, still found it difficult to make other close friends. It was comforting to hear that someone else was having the same problems.
As he unpacked his own books, which were far fewer in number than hers, she asked, “What are you studying?”
Taiki showed the cover of his literature anthology. “I’m majoring in English Language and Literature. But I’m thinking about Classical Studies or Comparative Literature as well. And you?”
She liked the way he spoke, with quiet assurance and confidence without being too arrogant. “Biology. I suppose I’m also considering Biochemistry, but I haven’t decided yet. I’d like to go to medical school.”
“English and Biology. What a pairing.”
Ami had laughed lightly, wondering if he was flirting with her in his own subtle way. They spoke little for the rest of the night, although he brought her a cup of coffee when he went down to the café for a break.
She soon had a more definitive answer to her question when she began to see him more often. His presence was not so intrusive as stalking, and he wasn’t at the library everyday, or even every other day. When he was on the same floor as she was, he didn’t always sit at the same table or even remotely near her. But eventually, he learned that she preferred tea to coffee and liked to snack on sandwiches rather than sweets.
He did his best to acquaint himself with her habits and never forgot her preferences, and she found his quiet intelligence attractive. She tried not to mind too much that he showed no interest whatsoever in medicine, although he was very good about listening to her ramble on about whatever disease had caught her interest.
For her part, Ami hadn’t read many of the classics apart from what she had been required to read in high school, but she followed to the best of her ability whatever topic Taiki was currently obsessed with as he wrote each new essay, ground his teeth over his thesis. He took her to see concerts and plays, and always brought her white roses when the occasion called for them.
And Kira liked him.
“He’s very serious, although he’s quite sweet around you. He seems very different from Richard.”
Ami smiled weakly at that. “Yes, he does,” was all she said.
When she thought about it later, she agreed that Taiki was different from her father on many fronts. He wasn’t wild and adventurous, didn’t have itchy feet and a flash-fire temper. He was stable and serious, and often cold to strangers.
But Taiki, like Richard, was devoted to an art, although he was enamored of literature rather than painting. In his own way, he was as focused on his career and goals as Ami was.
He wasn’t ecstatic about her long hours and the demands of her profession. She had made it clear to him during their undergraduate years about how busy she would be, and he had accepted that and stuck with her through medical school.
When he introduced her to his parents and acquaintances, he always made it clear how proud he was of her and her accomplishments. Certainly, a medical doctor garnered a certain amount of status and respect, and many people admired her for her choice to specialize in pediatric oncology.
They had fought rarely in college and while she had been in medical school. But it had been easier for him to accept her work hours and lack of time for him when he had also been struggling to get his career on track. Now that Taiki was established and enjoying greater job security, he wanted Ami to accompany him on some of his trips so they could go to places they had never been before together. He also wanted her to come to social gatherings with him so he could show her off to his colleagues and so he wasn’t always showing up alone, and wished that her schedule allowed for them to enjoy more performances in the city.
He also wanted a family. Once, their most heated debates had been over convincing Ami to move in with him. Now they were fighting over moving up their wedding date, which had been set for some nebulous time after Ami finished her residency. She still had at least two, possibly three, more years to go, and he was getting impatient.
It was this desire of Taiki’s that scared Ami the most. She loved children, and ample proof of that existed in the fact that she was going into pediatrics. But she wasn’t ready to have children of her own.
She didn’t want a child while she was in residency or in the first few years of practice after that, when her life would be hectic beyond belief. She wanted time to get accustomed to the idea, and she was worried she wouldn’t have time to properly care for a child. Taiki had a slightly more flexible schedule than hers, but he often had last minute deadlines or needed to travel. What would they do with a baby when she was working eighty-hour weeks and he was out of town?
Every time she brought these points up, Taiki acknowledged the logic of her argument. He didn’t have a good solution to their problems, but neither did she. Ami was afraid that one answer might involve a change in her career, which was unacceptable to her, but for someone who accepted compromise as a fact of life, she felt frustrated at her own inability to compromise with him.
It didn’t seem fair to keep telling him she needed more time if he was ready to make changes in his life now. She knew that Mina or Rei would tell her it was ridiculous to think like that, but in her heart of hearts, Ami was afraid of being abandoned.
Her father had left her when she had been nine, and Zach, who she had grown to depend on so strongly in only a year, had walked out of her life at the end of that year. Kira had proven over the years that she was perfectly capable of sustaining an independent lifestyle, and Rei was on the verge of marrying Jaden. They both had their own lives, of which she was only a part.
Taiki was the only boyfriend she had ever had, and Ami was afraid that he, too, would leave her. The doubts gnawed at her, and each time they fought, she feared that he would leave her, even though he never even hinted at such a possibility.
________________________________________
A week before the wedding, Zach flew into town, his briefcase stuffed full of papers to grade. He served as his advisor’s teaching assistant for two courses, and the only way he had been released from finals season for Rei and Jaden’s May wedding had been to promise he would have the papers evaluated in time for grades to be reported.
Kenneth picked him up at the airport, black shades covering the eyes that shifted between shades of gray and green. “So the professor is in town,” he remarked as part of their running joke, watching Zach heave his carry-on into the trunk.
Dusting his hands off, Zach came around to the passenger side with an easy grin. “Thanks for picking me up.”
“No problem. I just finished a case, and Jaden’s still at work. He wanted to come with me, but he has time off for his honeymoon coming up soon and needs to stay in his boss’s good graces.”
As they drove off, Keth remarked, “I see that you travel like a girl.”
Zach glared at him like an annoyed cat. “Hey. I needed to bring stuff with me. Suit, shoes, hair products, other clothes for a week and a half… You try packing light with those requirements.”
“Ah, but you see, what you count as essentials would be found more easily in Mina’s luggage than in mine.”
He laughed as Zach winced.
“Well, maybe it’s because you borrow them from her,” he tried in a valiant attempt to salvage his dignity.
They pulled up at Kenneth and Mina’s house forty minutes later. Jaden and Rei still lived in an apartment rather than a house, so their family members who would be arriving from out of town would mostly be staying in hotels. Kenneth and Mina had offered their house as a residence for Zach, who was grateful for their hospitality. His stipend as a grad student was fairly miserly, although he was properly grateful for it when he thought of the woes of medical, veterinary, and law school students.
Keth hauled in Zach’s suitcase against his wishes, leaving Zach to carry just his garment bag and briefcase into the house. “Nice place,” he commented. “I like the flowers.”
He grinned roguishly at Keth, who only looked at him. “The sunflowers,” he clarified.
“Ah. Right. Mina planted them,” Keth said without a hint of the embarrassment Zach had hoped to provoke. “Well, home sweet home.”
Zach glanced around the guest room. “Looks great. Thanks a lot, Keth; I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. Why don’t we grab something to eat? You must be hungry.”
He nodded eagerly, for airplane food never agreed with him.
As they went through to the kitchen, Zach noticed the sunny yet sophisticated touches Mina added and the sleek furniture and electronics that Keth favored, blending to make a very appealing home.
Keth called, “Mina, we’re home.”
Female voices were suddenly heard in the dining room, which was adjacent to the kitchen, and the blond-haired goddess Keth had married appeared a moment later. She kissed Keth quickly on mouth, and then kissed Zach on the cheek. “Hey, there. It’s good to see you again!”
He smiled at her, for he always enjoyed Mina’s enthusiasm and zest for life. “Good to see you too. Married life agrees with you.”
She smiled widely at the compliment, then looked towards her husband, who was rummaging busily in the refrigerator. “Oh, are you guys hungry? I can help you whip up something.”
Zach’s face filled with abject terror at the thought – he had experienced Mina’s cooking once before and hoped never to have a repeat experience. Keth remained calm, though, ignoring the younger man’s expression as he replied, “I thought I’d just make a quick sandwich for Zach. We don’t want to take you away from your planning.”
“You’re such a sweetie! Well, you just call if you need anything.”
Mina danced away as Zach let out a quick breath. “Good save.”
Keth looked at him, amusement curving the corners of his mouth up. “Her cooking has gotten better in the past year. Really.”
“I don’t know how it could have gotten worse,” Zach muttered under his breath.
________________________________________
Back in the dining room, Serena asked, “Who did Keth bring home?”
Airily, Mina answered, “Oh, Keth picked up Zach from the airport today. He’ll be staying with us.” She then disappeared into the kitchen to speak with them.
Ami, who was in the bathroom at the time, missed Keth’s return and the girls’ exchange. Once she finished drying her hands and patting a few stray strands of hair into place, she walked back towards the dining room.
To do so, she had to pass through the kitchen. She was caught completely unaware by Keth’s presence in the kitchen. “Oh, Keth, I didn’t realize you were home already,” she said. Her mouth became as dry as cotton when he turned to greet her, and she made eye contact with the copper-haired man sitting at the table.
Love at Fifth Sight
Infinite Ice
