Ori's stare lasted a moment too long. "I had, uh . . ."

"Got stuck in surgery, I assume," Dulce finished for him.

"Y-yes. Exactly."

"Saving lives is time-consuming," the coordinator teased him. The women were too caught in their familiar conversation to notice our looks of shock.

He sat at the end of the table and snuck me another look. It didn't take much for me to read the shock he tried to hide from his expression. I had the same question for him.

"I was introducing everyone to Yasmina," Dulce grabbed his attention and made my adrenaline rush at the same time. "She's our team's favorite member, here on a traveling contract. But . . . Since we have an opening for a charge nurse, I thought I'd toss her name in the hat."

Charge nurse? A permanent position and a promotion, but with the added twist of a friend from my past life. My mind raced with what that could mean, whether it was something I would need to tell my handler.

With my resume in their hands, and a quick overview and summary, the staffing coordinator spoke up. "Honestly, we can ask you more questions, but it's clear you're a perfect fit. You have six requests for your hire from the staff. We're more likely to face an uprising if we don't bring you on."

"Agreed."

"Yes, agreed," Ori said, still a hint of shock widening his eyes.

"Well, unofficially, I'll say welcome aboard!" Dulce looked happy. "We'll be in contact with your company and iron out the details of your contract. You'll let us know after considering our offer?"

"Yes," I agreed. "Absolutely. Thank you so much."

We left the room together. The women fell back into their conversation while walking with me up the hall. I glanced over my shoulder and caught Ori gesturing for me to follow him around the corner. I left the group as inconspicuously as possible. When I was out of view, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into an empty patient room, closing the door behind us.

He leaned his back against it, that bright Ori smile splitting his face. "What are you doing here?"

"Um . . . I work here now."

"You didn't think to mention you were in the UK?" He was happy to see me, and I was scared shitless. For the most part.

"I thought you were from London."

"Yes, and you met me in Japan. I could be anywhere. You should have called me!" His joy glowed from him like a warm aura. "I can't believe you're here."

"Same. You have a funny way of showing up unexpectedly in my life."

His smile gained the edge of laughter. "I could say the same about you."

He pulled me into a tight hug. I went stiff for a moment, then melted into his embrace. It had been a long time since I was comfortable in someone's arms. A long time since I had been in someone's arms at all.

"I'm so happy to see you. I've missed you," he said into my shoulder.

"I've missed you, too."

He pulled away suddenly. "What's wrong?" Only then did I realize I was crying.

I wasn't sure why I cried at first. It was a mix of relief from having a friend back again, mixed with the pain of remembering Tokyo and what led me to meet Ori in the first place. Flashes of the times I cried myself to sleep when Ryuzo broke things off, how so much would have been avoided had I just accepted that we shouldn't have been together.

"I'm sorry, it's just been a rough few months," I explained poorly. "I'm really happy to see you again."

He pouted and wiped my tears away with his thumb. "Oh, Mina. You —" His pager interrupted his sentence. When he looked at it, I could make out the emergency. "Hell."

"You should go."

He looked at me with conflict, not wanting to leave me while crying. "Let's have dinner together to catch up."

I nodded, knowing I wouldn't be able to tell him anything. "I'd love that."

He kissed me where he had previously wiped my tears. "See you soon."

"See —" I couldn't say that phrase anymore. "Bye."

He left the room, leaving me alone in the dark. I stroked a finger over the cherry blossom necklace hiding beneath my shirt, trying to process what had just happened.

. . .

It took two days for us to align our schedules and meet up. My nerves were on edge the whole day. I took comfort in being invisible, or at least temporary. The job offer, on top of finding out I knew someone from before . . . it was too much all at once. I had all but made the decision to refuse the job offer.

As much as I wanted to move on, I wasn't there yet. But that didn't mean I didn't want to see Ori again. I wanted my old friend back, an introduction to real life again. My life without Ryuzo.

He sat at a high-top table in the window of the cafe. I had forgotten how pretty he was. The way his dark waves looked ready to tumble into his face but always stayed in a perfect coif, the dapper way he dressed in business casual at all times, and the way he accessorized everything perfectly with gold that set off the warmth of his skin and eyes. He was golden, from his sunny glow to the comfort of his non-traditional vibe. It was good to have him back.

"Hi," I greeted him.

He looked up from his phone and his smile spread. "Mina!" He stood from his stool to hug me again. I stiffened less this time, then sat across from him. "How was your day?"

"Busy. Yours?"

"Busy," he agreed with a laugh.

The waiter came by and I ordered a whiskey. Ireland had been good to me.

When I looked back at Ori, I found him with his head leaned onto a fist, studying me with a little grin. "How are you, Mina? Really."

The genuine tone of his question hit too hard. Tears instantly came to my eyes. "Not great."

He frowned. "I don't want to pry."

I laughed. "Yes, you do."

"Okay, fine," he said with a sheepish grin. "When you left, I had the feeling something else was going on. I didn't want to say anything because you seemed really happy with your boyfriend right before, but it all just seemed . . . fast."

"It was." Everything in Tokyo was fast.

"When did you get married?" he asked. I looked at him blankly. "Your last name changed."

"Oh, um . . ." I hadn't needed to practice this lie before. "We're not together anymore."

At the time I chose my name, I was swirling in the regret of not being able to run away with him, for making him think I wasn't ready to say yes to him. But none of that mattered because nothing would have changed what happened.

"That's good," Ori said. My eyes widened with surprise. His did too. "God. I mean, that's not good, but . . . Wow, I didn't mean to say that." He chuckled at himself.

"Oh, you didn't?"

"What I mean is . . ." he trailed off, his cheeks gaining a rosy tint. "I don't know."

"What?"

"Well . . . I don't think you ever noticed, but I had a thing for you in Tokyo," he admitted. Now I was the one blushing. "I wouldn't change what we had at all. But, I still wanted to . . . you know."

My eyes went even wider. "Ori, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

A self-deprecating sigh. "I didn't want to ruin your relationship. Well . . . I did, but . . . Not that way." Another self-deprecating laugh. "When you didn't call me after you left, it sort of felt like you didn't see me as the friend I thought I was to you and . . . I sort of wished I had tried to be something else." He stared into my eyes with that cute smile.

"You're lying."

"I wish I was."

Knowing he was polyamorous made his admission hard to believe. "But you don't even do relationships like that."

"Right. And you do. Which I respect."

"So, you wanted to be fuck buddies or something?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to be close friends. My definition is just a little different than yours."

My cheeks felt warmer. "I'm shocked, honestly."

"I'm a slut. You know this," he said with a humorous smile. "But now that you're not crying, do you want to tell me what happened?"

He was right. My mood was completely different. He was a panacea. A flirty panacea, but a panacea all the same.

"I still can't talk about it," I said, my mood cooling again. "It wasn't what either of us wanted, but . . . it's better that we're not together." That was the truth.

"I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "It's okay, really. All I ever wanted was for him to be happy and healthy, and now he is. I hope."

His mouth twisted with a frown. "You're still in love with him, aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my urge to cry again. "Yeah."

"Shall we change the subject?"

"Please. Tell me how you've been."

"I've been all right. A lot happened after you left."

"A lot?" I asked timidly, still afraid to tie too much to my former life.

"Well, Kat and Ayumi are still together. They talked about going back to London when Kat's contract is up in the spring."

"Oh, wow! I'm so happy for them."

His lips twisted. "I am, too."

"You don't seem like you are."

"No! I am. Really. It's just . . . When you left, they got serious, the hospital got dramatic. You were the glue, and without you, things were different. That's life."

His downcast eyes failed to hide the sadness in them, and I felt awful. I didn't need more regrets. The more Ori talked, the more my comfort and fear mixed. I missed so much of my old life, but I missed nothing more than the reason I had to leave it.

"When did you get here?" I asked.

He paused to think. "Two weeks ago now, but it feels like months. I left for the position here."

"And is it better than Japan?"

He wobbled his head. "I wouldn't say that. But now we're together again," he said. "Second chances and all that."

I laughed. "And now you might be my boss soon. Kind of sounds like you traded a 'right place, wrong time' for a 'right time, wrong place.'"

He fought the smile that pulled on his cheeks. "If you want the position, Mina, you should take it. I'll pretend we've never met before. I promise they'll be none the wiser." He leaned closer to me to whisper. "Anything we do outside of the hospital will be our little secret."

"Are you flirting again?" I asked him with a laugh.

He joined me. "Well, it clearly didn't work."

We laughed together for the rest of the night.

. . .

With all the anxiety I had before meeting with Ori, it was gone after just a few minutes with him, but the four cocktails helped as well.

Returning home, my two friends waited for me by the door, greeting me with squeaks and meows. "I'm sorry I'm late." I kneeled down and gave them both kisses and ear scratches. After giving them an apology snack, I went to my bedroom to change for bed.

Nights were hard. Quiet time with my thoughts could go either way. I grabbed a pair of shorts from one of the two drawers I used. Everything else stayed in my suitcases. Every new place I went, the thought of unpacking it never crossed my mind. I was still in survival mode, both out of fear that someone would find me, and a longing to find Ryuzo. Maybe it was time to accept that the items in that suitcase were the closest I would ever get to him again.

For the first time since I left the States, I unlocked the case and unzipped it. I pushed aside the formal clothes I would probably never wear again, and found the flat box. Inside were all the painful memories I had packed away, the ones I hadn't tortured myself with in months. After a moment of hesitation, I pulled it out and slid off the lid.

Everything traceable or incriminating from my past life had either been incinerated or locked away in a safe deposit box in Virginia. I kept only three things. My necklace, a picture, and . . .

I ignored the other item and lifted the frame from the box. In it was the picture of us kissing beneath the cherry blossoms. I could never forget that day, what I saw, what I said, but every week that passed, I feared I would forget what it felt like to kiss him. Maybe one day, I would forget the deep vibrato of his voice or the details of his handsome, vulpine features. His naturally perfect eyebrows marred by that little scar, his pretty, cat-like teeth, the way you could only tell his eyes were brown when the bright morning sunlight spilled over his face. With that thought, I lifted the keepsake that hurt the most.

The ring.

I opened the little box and stared at it again. The delicate gold detailing was as breathtaking as the first time I saw it. I hadn't packed it, or at least I hadn't meant to. Ryuzo must have placed it there or had it hidden in my clothes while they were still in the drawer. Both thoughts made my chest ache.

Jiji came over, sniffing the ring box and rubbing her head against it, breaking my heart. "Does it smell like your Daddy?" She confirmed with a meow.

Ryuzo told me to be happy. I couldn't be happy if I didn't give myself a chance. But was this the place to do it?

My phone buzzed on the floor beside me, making both Jiji and I jump. It was just a text message from Ori.

Do you plan to be hungry tomorrow evening?

That made me laugh. I rubbed a finger beneath my eyes to push back the tears that threatened to fall.

Probably. Why?

Can I help you remedy that by taking you to dinner?

Sure.

He had a funny way of disarming me. Ironically, I packed my memories back into their box and placed it back in the suitcase, re-situating the sweater dress that covered it and the loaded gun beside it. A visual reminder that I would stay safe, emotionally and physically, if I trusted myself.

The hospital didn't need my answer tomorrow. I could take time to decide whether or not to stay. 

Unless someone made the decision for me first.

___

A/N: Thank you for reading! Don't forget to add this story to your library and follow me for update alerts!