AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They all chuckle. I smile at Kai. “Are you going to spend some time with Sakura?” He’s been dating her for a couple of months now.
“Yeah,” he says. “Actually I have something to tell you. We’re getting married!”
It’s such a shock that we all stare at him. He grins and gives a shy shrug.
“You don’t hang around,” I comment before I can think better of it.
He gives me a look. “We’ve been dating for a year.”
“What? Jesus, really?”
“We met last Christmas.”
I’m stunned. Was it really a year ago?
I get up out of my chair and walk around the table to him. “I didn’t mean to be rude—I’ve lost track of time, that’s all. Congratulations—it’s amazing news. I’m so pleased for you.”
He laughs, gets up, and we exchange a long hug before he breaks away to hug the other two.
“When’s the big day?” Cherry asks.
“July. Sakura wants a winter wedding, so we’re going to Queenstown. You’ll all be getting invites, of course.”
“Will it be a traditional-style Japanese wedding?” Eoin wants to know.
“We’re both Christians so we want it in a church, but we liked the idea of having some traditional customs. She’s going to wear a wedding kimono for the ceremony.”
“It sounds amazing,” Cherry says dreamily. “I can’t wait.”
We all smile at each other. “Well, that’s as good a place as any to stop,” I say, closing my laptop. “So, back here on Monday. Final results by end of the day Tuesday. Draft analysis… let’s say Thursday lunchtime? That’s the twenty-ninth. Let’s aim to get it to Elizabeth by close of business Friday, and that gives us one day’s leeway. But I’d like to get it done and dusted this year.”
They all nod, tidy up their things, and we make our way out of the board room.
When I get to my office, I discover that Kai has followed me in. I put down my laptop and turn to face him. “You should have told me,” I scold.
He shrugs. “I’ve been meaning to for a while, but… well, I know you’re against marriage.”
I frown. “Not for other people.”
“You see it as a ball and chain around your ankle. You don’t think a girl exists who will treat you like a homing pigeon, letting you fly free with the knowledge that you’ll come home when you’re ready.”
I don’t say anything, because he’s right.
“Sakura knows how important my work is to me,” he continues. “She has her own life here—her family and her job. She doesn’t expect us to be joined at the hip.”
His voice is a tad defensive. I’m not surprised. In the past, the four of us have joked that we’ll still be working here twelve hours a day when we’re a hundred, going around the office on our Zimmer frames. We’ve all struggled with partners who’ve been upset that we’d rather be at work than at home with them. Cherry has been dating her present boyfriend for a few months, but I’ve already heard her having one argument with him when I walked past her office. Eoin is gay, and I suspect he has the same problem because he broke up with his last partner six months ago, and I don’t think he’s dated much since.
I wonder if things will change for Kai when he’s tied the knot. Maybe Sakura will show her true colors when she’s wearing the ring. It’ll all begin then—the calls after hours asking where he is, the arguments, the accusations that he can’t love her as much as he loves his job.
Kai gives me a twisted smile. “She loves me, Mack, and because of that, she’s happy that I’m doing what I love. She doesn’t want to change me.”
I’m cynical, but I’m not going to say that to him. “I’m really pleased for you.”
“You should try it,” he says.
I give a short laugh. “No thanks.”
“We all have to grow up sometime,” he says.
